Narrative Summary (continuation of Episode 8)
Bloom enters Burton restaurant, is assailed by the smell of “meatjuice” and “slop of greens.” He likens the “men, men, men” he sees to animals feeding, and is disgusted by what he sees, smells and hears: men calling for more bread, a man wearing his stained napkin as a bib, a man spitting back onto his plate, “swilling, wolfing gobfuls of sloppy food, their eyes bulging.” Bloom wonders if that’s what he looks like when he eats, thinks “See ourselves as others see us.” Bloom’s thoughts as he looks around the restaurant covers about a page and half, and at the end of it, when both he and I are practically trying not to gag, he turns around and walks out. Bloom thinks “Eat or be eaten. Kill! Kill!”
Bloom imagines how people will eat in some grey future, a communal kitchen with everyone standing in line, holding bowls and thermoses to be filled, the children fighting for scraps. He ponders the merits of vegetarianism. Thinks “Ah, I’m hungry,” finds a “moral pub,” orders a glass of wine and a cheese (gorgonzola) sandwich. Wishes they had a nice, cool salad to go with it. Tries to remember the words to a limerick about cannibalism.
Bloom makes conversation with Nosey Flynn, an acquaintance, and Bloom mentions Molly’s upcoming tour. Flynn says he’s heard that Boylan is one of the promoters, and Bloom, feeling a “warm shock of air heat of mustard hauched” onto his heart, looks at the clock, sees that it’s not yet time for Boylan’s appointment with Molly, which will happen at 4:00. He tries to respond casually about Boylan, and Flynn talks about a boxing match that Boylan recently promoted.
Davy Byrne, the owner of the pub, joins the conversation, and Flynn asks for a tip on a horse race. Byrne declines, saying he never bets on horses. Flynn mentions that Lenehan gets good information about horses. Bloom appreciates the wine and cheese, thinks the bath has lessened his appetite, that he’ll eat again at about six, thinking of time makes him think of Boylan and Molly.
Bloom shifts his thoughts back to food, the odd things that people eat, and how humankind discovered what is edible (who first ate oysters?), how they give themselves airs in fancy restaurants. Bloom’s thoughts drift to the wine, how it’s made, winepress with sun’s heat coming down, and he thinks about a day that he and Molly were in the country, her head pillowed on his jacket, kissing, caressing. “Ravished over her I lay, full lips full open, full lips full open, kissed her mouth. Yum.” Molly passed the seedcake in her mouth to his in the kiss. “Joy: I ate it: Joy. . . ” Returning to the present, he thinks “Me. And me now.” And two flies, stuck together on the windowpane, buzz.
Bloom admires the wood of the bar, thinks of marble, of statues of women, goddesses, how the gods and goddesses eat, while men are “stuffing food in one hole and out behind.” He thinks that goddesses don’t have a hole behind, but then he’s never checked, decides to look when he’s at the museum later.
Bloom rises to go the the outhouse, and while he’s gone Byrne asks Flynn about Bloom. “Isn’t he in the insurance line?” Flynn responds that Bloom canvasses (sells advertisements) for the Freeman. When Byrne points out that Bloom is wearing mourning clothes and asks if his family has had trouble, Flynn admits he hadn’t noticed. Flynn remembers seeing Bloom carry home face cream for Molly a few days before, so Bloom’s wife is fine. Flynn surmises that Bloom’s canvassing for the Freeman doesn’t bring in enough to cover the expense of face cream, and informs Byrne that Bloom is a Mason, probably gets a financial advantage from that.
Byrne describes Bloom as a “decent quiet man,” and both agree that Bloom does not drink to excess. Flynn says Bloom is “not too bad . . . has been known to put his hand down too to help a fellow. Give the devil his due.” He adds that Bloom still canny, never puts anything in writing.
Other men come in the pub, including Lyons, who Bloom saw earlier in the day, and they rib each other over what they’re drinking. Bloom comes back to the bar, waves his hand and leaves, Flynn saying so long.
Bloom walks, humming Don Giovanni, thinking about money he has coming in, that he could buy Molly a new petticoat, thinks “Today. Today. Not think.” Bloom comes to a corner, notices a blind young man looking unsure, asks if the boy wants to cross. Bloom helps the young man across the street, feels sympathy for him, wonders what it’s like to experience Dublin without sight (similar to Dedalus’ thoughts on the beach), to make love to a woman you can’t see, know things only by touch. Bloom wonders if the blind can feel differences in color.
Bloom notices a judge entering a building, thinks of a moneylender who stood trial “Now he’s what they really call a dirty jew.” Bloom heads to the library, sees a “straw hat in sunlight. Tan shoes. Turnedup trousers.” — It’s Boylan, and Bloom thinks “It is. It is.” Bloom’s heart jumps, he changes path, looks away, moves quickly toward the museum entrance, thinks “Not see.” Bloom guesses Boylan didn’t see him. “Light in his eyes. . . Safe in a minute. . . My heart!” Bloom tries to look busy, checks his pockets, makes sure he has the soap he bought. Thinks “Safe!”
Thoughts and Reflections (on both parts of the Episode)
I loved reading this Episode. The text is almost exclusively Bloom’s thoughts and impressions, and it is a rich, detailed, intimate communication of his state of mind and his way of looking at the world. The distance imposed by the format of the previous Episode is gone. Bloom thinks about his emotions, remembers being happy. His feelings are closer to the surface and more accessible than they had been before.
Bloom’s thoughts show him as a decent, sensitive person. He feeds the birds, helps the blind, worries about women in labor. And he longs to be close to his wife, as he had been in the past. He shies from what he thinks will happen between Molly and Boylan, but it keeps rising to the fore of his thoughts.
His other focuses, death and dying, business and advertising, religion and food have their part in this Episode as well. With respect to food, in stark contrast to Bloom’s fixation with eating meat earlier, the slovenly eating habits of the men in Burton’s restaurant repulse him. It’s quite a difference, and we are indeed seeing another aspect of Bloom in this Episode.
There is still much that is hard to understand, references and allusions that I’m sure I’m not getting. For example. I did not understand that Bloom had placed a personal ad in a newspaper, in order to establish correspondence with unknown women, and that that’s how he began corresponding with Martha. Neither did I understand that Bloom worried about Boylan having VD. I had to turn to commentaries to decode these and many other fragments.
I’m finding the following books, blogs and websites really helpful:
Hart, Clive and David Hayman, ed., James Joyce’s Ulysses: Critical Essays, California: University of California Press, 1974.
Blamires, Harry. The New Bloomsday Book: A Guide through Ulysses. 3rd ed. New York:
Routledge, 1996.
http://uftrou.blogspot.com/p/welcome.html
http://thewiseserpent.blogspot.com/2013/04/james-joyces-ulysses-chapter-one.html
Blogging Ulysses 