Thursday, 7 April 2016

The reading stopped at, “The spry rattle had run on in the same vein of mimicry but for some !arum in the antechamber” (14.737)

The group seemed particularly amused by the bull story, Catherine tells us, maybe also because it never fails to trigger laughter and stories from Fritz Senn. The description of the bull with a full belly and soon to “rear up on his hind quarters to show their ladyships a mystery and roar and bellow out of him” (14.907) also always makes him think that Joyce must have seen the bull at the Bürkliplatz (near the lake in Zurich). This was enough to tickle Catherine Meyer's creative nerve. She sends the following:

On Sunday I wanted to pay the bull at Bürkliplatz a visit and fix the rearing creature on paper. Unfortunately, the place was full with the fun-fair and the only side from which I could focus on the bull and its master was from the right. I would have preferred drawing the bull from the front, showing its rearing up „on his hind quarters“ at its best. But there was no place to put myself with half an hour's peace. The monument is made out of shelly sandstone and was donated to the town by Arnold Geiser, Stadtbaumeister 1876-1907. Now there is a bit of Zürich bull  history on Thursday-Ulysses-blog.

© Catherine Meyer, Zürich 2016