Welcome to another edition of Ulysses for the Rest of Us. We are glad to see you're still with us.
-- We?!
-- I! The royal "we"! You know, the editorial...
Anyway, glad you're still here. It's around this point that some start seriously thinking about jumping ship. If you're getting the itch to bail then, don't worry. It's normal. It's a phase. You'll grow out if it. Just keep on keepin' on. It's what Odysseus would have done.
So here we are at episode five, "Lotus Eaters", where, aside from a couple of brief interruptions, we get to spend some quality alone-time with our hero, Leopold Bloom. We've already gotten a glimpse into Bloom's personality from our introduction in "Calypso", and now we are treated to an extended foray into the life and mind of our 'Odysseus on the Liffey'. And what other method would Joyce employ for this character exposition than the interior monologue and stream of consciousness? By now you should be old hat at weeding the interior thoughts of characters from the more detached third person over narrations, so we don't need to have an extensive tutorial on this point. That horse has been well whipped I think.
However...
I would not be doing my job of I didn't make at least brief mention of IM/SOC as regards Bloom. Really, what I feel the need to do is validate a feeling that many of you may be experiencing with this episode (and possibly the last episode as well); tedium. Bloom's interior monologues and stream of consciousness can be difficult to follow at times, and yes, they can get a bit tedious. Here's what I think the trouble boils down to:
Firstly, Bloom is a broadly (but not deeply) educated, well rounded person. However, he is not particularly brilliant. Where Stephen has the nature of an artist and the mind of a genius, Bloom is, quite frankly, common. He is "the common man". So, when we read Stephen's internal ruminations, though they may come of as a bit self-absorbed or even melodramatic, they are beautifully rendered, thus they hold our interest. We might say that Stephen has his head in the clouds. But Bloom is grounded. He is down to earth, practical, and not given to lofty abstractions (probably because he isn't capable of them). So, Bloom's thoughts lack the art that we find in Stephen, and rendered in such unlovely terms they can begin to bore us. In other words while Stephen gives us Michelangelian masterpieces, Bloom gives us stick figures.
Secondly, Bloom's thoughts often go uncompleted, so it's difficult to know exactly what is going through his head. This can make him difficult to read, both in the literal, textual sense, as well as the figurative personality sense. For example, "Also I think I. Yes I. Do it in the bath. Curious longing I. Water to water. Combine business with pleasure." Okay, so what the bleep is that supposed to mean? Granted, I have taken the text out of context, but even within the larger context of the original paragraph (or even the episode) the meaning of that passage is very obscure. This is not to imply that we can understand Stephen any better. Just think back to the density of "the ineluctable modality of the visible". Even as we get to know Bloom and Stephen in very intimate terms, Joyce manages to shroud them in darkness.
Stephen and Bloom are both obscure characters, but for different reasons. Stephen's obscurity comes from his multitudinous abstractions layered in a heavy coat of literary, biblical, and/or historical allusions, woven into a textual shroud. Meanwhile, Bloom gives us a pile of incomplete sentences and thoughts that simply go unvoiced. In our above example Bloom alludes to something... but he doesn't specify what. So we are left to speculate. Bloom is also given to dropping a ton of popular culture references, in contrast to Stephen's high culture allusions -- with my tooraloom, tooraloom tay.
Confronted with an episode full of plainly articulated, clipped thoughts, it's not surprising that many readers get turned off around this point in the book. But I assure you that it's not as hopelessly boring as you might first find it. Patience dear reader, patience. The obscurities become clear over the course of the book, and you will also get used to Bloom's style of monologue, just like you got used to Stephen's.
Don't sell our man Bloom short. Many professional literature types consider Bloom the most complete character ever created in fiction writing. Hell! The guy has an entire day dedicated to him that's celebrated worldwide! So there must be something interesting about him, right? So, if you're feeling a bit bogged down here in the land of the Lotus Eaters, don't despair. Simply let yourself get to know old Poldy. His secrets will all soon be revealed and he will open up like a flower. And of course, if you have questions about what's going on here, you can post them in the comments section. I might even have an answer.
Another word on tangled narrative
Just a quick nod to a particular passage that I anticipate some of you might be finding difficult to work through. The passage begins with; "M'Coy. Get rid of him quickly." What follows this phrase is a melange of conversation, internal monologue, and third person narrative in a large textual ratatouille that spans a couple of pages or so. It's actually very funny once you understand what's going on. As has been the case until now, you have to parse who is saying what, when. The key is to remember that the entire passage unfolds in the midst of M'Coy telling Bloom about how he (M'Coy) found out about Paddy Dignam's death. Bloom's interest at the moment are clearly focused elsewhere (the haunches if a stately fraulein). Aside from being hysterical in its accuracy of how our attention tends to drift during other people's ramblings (kind of like you right now), it's also very revealing of an aspect of Bloom's character.
Conclusory note
In the interest of full disclosure, I find "Lotus Eaters" among the two or three least interesting episodes in Ulysses, but hey, that's just me. Having said that, there are some very funny parts to be found here. More importantly, Joyce introduces another important puzzle piece (and a very obvious one at that, seriously, if you don't know what I'm talking about then... never mind). We also see many of the earlier themes carrying through here, so as usual, keep an eye out for repeated elements weaving their way through the story. And finally, that thing that I mentioned in the last blog that dogs Bloom throughout the day, you know his "major issue"? Well, there is another subtle reference in this episode as well. See if you can spot it.
Raw notes:
• "Also I think I. Yes I. Do it in the bath. Curious longing I. Water to water. Combine business with pleasure." -- These clipped thoughts allude to something specific but clearly are not made plain to the reader. My favorite thing is when people talk as though they knew all along what was being implied, and that the implication was obvious.
• "Mrs Marion Bloom... Torn strip of envelope."
• "Sweeeet song.". -- There's a deviously embedded IM
• "Mrs Bandmann Palmer... Hamlet she played last night. Male impersonator. Perhaps he was a woman."
• "... Who left the house if his father and left the God of his father."
O, Mary lost the pin of her drawers
She didn't know what to do
To keep it up
To keep it up
• " A million pounds, wait a moment. Twopence a pint, fourpence a quart, eightpence a gallon of porter, no, one and fourpence a gallon of porter. One and four into twenty: fifteen about. Yes, exactly. Fifteen millions of barrels of porter. What am I saying barrels? Gallons. About a million barrels all the same."
• "Turn up with a veil and black bag."
-- Curious narration of the mass. Seems like Bloom is doing a third person account of the mass. Not sure if this is the case.
• "Lifetime in a night"
• "Oh, and I forgot that latchkey too."
• "I say you can keep it, Mr Bloom answered. I was going to throw it away that moment. Bantam Lyons doubted an instant, leering: then thrust the outspread sheets back on Mr Bloom’s arms. I’ll risk it, he said. Here, thanks."
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