Book Two Episode Four: Calypso

(you can also read the webpage version of this blog by clicking this here link!)

So, welcome to Ulysses! Now that you've completed the "Telemachia" you can begin Ulysses proper. Yeah, I know, you thought you started Ulysses one hundred something pages ago in the Martello Tower with Stephen Dedalus and Buck Mulligan. But that wasn't really Ulysses. I mean, it was Ulysses, but it wasn't Ulysses. Just as Homer's Odyssey really begins when we encounter Odysseus for the first time, on the island of the goddess Calypso, so too does Joyce's Ulysses begin in earnest when we meet Leopold Bloom, in the episode "Calypso".

Many people have asked me what Ulysses is about. My first inclination is always to say, "it's complicated". But really, on a purely textual level, it's very simple: Ulysses is the story of two people who, by coincidence or fate, meet. That's it. Two guys meet. Of course, the book is about much, much more than that, otherwise it would not have attained its legendary status among the canon of "difficult books". Much of what the book is really about lay beneath the text, or as we literati like to say, is subtextual. But at its most basic it is simply the story of a "chance" meeting.

Stephen Dedalus, whom we have already gotten to know fairly well over the first three episodes, is one of our two protagonists. Now we encounter, finally, the other main character, Leopold Bloom. I hope you like him, because you're going to be spending a lot of time with him. We'll skip Bloom's bio -- since you will get that simply by reading the book -- and jump to the important subtextual point: Bloom is the Odysseus of Joyce's epic. This book is, in large part, his story.

Who's he when he's at home?

I have made mention in past blogs of the myriad allusions that populate Ulysses, and how they serve as another of the major (perhaps the major) obstacle to understanding the book. Let's expand on this a little, because it's not only allusions, but metaphors, representations in the form of character associations or stand ins, and other indirect modes of storytelling that complicate the narrative. These literary devices all serve the common purpose of communicating far more information than their surface meanings indicate. As a savvy, well read person, you already know this. But Joyce employs these devices with such frequency and depth that the possible meanings and interpretations of Ulysses expand in every direction, making for a very dense read. Ulysses cannot be read or understood in traditional linear narrative terms. To do so would leave you with a story about two guys who walk around thinking about stuff and then meet at the end of the night, and nothing happens.

"Calypso" gives us a good opportunity to talk about character representations and associations. So, let's do a little representational mathematics. Bloom = Odysseus; Stephen = Telemachus; and the fourth episode is called Calypso. Knowing what you know about Homer's Odyssey, I'll leave you to sum it all up. However, CAUTION! representation in Ulysses, as in any quality work of art, should not be taken too literally, or viewed too directly. You cannot simply do a wholesale swap out of Odysseus for Bloom, with all of the characteristics, strengths, terms and conditions intact. If we did that then Bloom would be tall, muscular, fearless, conniving and silver-tongued, possessing a violent warrior mentality. And this is most certainly not Leopold Bloom. In fact, Joyce has created a Bloom very much in the opposite mold of Homer's hero, but nonetheless he is the Odysseus of Ulysses.

All of the associations in Ulysses are to be seen in loose, fluid terms, which only augments the difficulty in interpreting them. We have Stephen (so far) as Telemachus, "the Bard" (uh, that's Shakespeare), and Hamlet. So how are we to interpret Stephen in light of these associations? The best explanation I can give you is that knowing the broader context of the action in both the Odyssey and Ulysses (as well as in the Bible, and Hamlet, and world history, and the history of Western literature, and church history, and Irish history etc.) will help to clarify how and why certain personages are associated with particular characters.

Their are a mountain of associations assigned to the mountain of characters that populate Ulysses, and a given character will have any number of personages from history or literature associated with him or her. Also, characters my share an association or representation, so just because Stephen will be associated with Shakespeare doesn't preclude, say... Bloom for example, from also being associated with the bard. Your task is to figure out how these representations shape the characters and the story. When you have surmounted this obstacle, you will have made Ulysses yours.

Aside on "getting" Ulysses:

I cannot repeat this enough, (and I know you don't want to hear this), but the best way to understand Ulysses is to finish the book, and then read it again with a guide book. The second reading is where characters and their associations really become apparent. This isn't to say that this can't happen to some degree during your first reading, and no doubt it will for many of you. But until you know the full arc of the story you won't be able to make complete sense of the finer points of the narrative.

The second best way to understand the subtext is to read the book with others and discuss it as you go along. If you can manage to talk more about the actual text and less about what a pain in the ass it is to read these dense prose, you will actually get a lot out of the book. You might find this hard to believe, but that one friend who seems like an absolute dolt (probably because he is one 90 percent of the time) will actually offer some amazing insights when given the chance. Epiphanies often spring from the most idiotic suggestions. What I'm saying is don't automatically dismiss your friends (or yourself) because you think they're nit smart enough. Reading Ulysses is not about being smart, it's about being curious.

About the text proper

What can I tell you about "Calypso" that the text itself doesn't tell you? Well, probably a lot. The better question is what can I tell you without giving away any of the important mysteries.

Okay, here's something: the most critical element as regards L. Bloom is introduced in this episode. But Joyce, true to form, drops it so subtly that it will certainly go completely unnoticed by you careful reader. At some point, far up the road, in some later episode this piece of critical information will become apparent to you, and you will be left to ask yourself "when did that little tidbit get introduced!? How could I have possibly missed that!?"

I struggled with whether or not I should just state plainly what the major issues confronting Stephen and Bloom are since they pretty much shape the whole story, but the prime directive does not allow me to do that. The reason I am even mentioning this at all, is because knowing this information goes a very long way in understanding Bloom's and Stephen's states of mind as they make their way through June 16th 1904, and because it helps PUT THE ENTIRE BOOK IN PERSPECTIVE!

Alright, I'm dancing pretty close to the line of the prime directive by giving you this next piece of information, but I think I am still within bounds: There are two MAJOR issues, one for each main character respectively, that shapes their respective days march across Dublin, and drives the books narrative to it's point of climax and through to it's resolution. When you can identify these two issues, you will have begun the process of understanding (at least by my reckoning) what this book is all about.

With that hint I send you off, like Aeolus sent Odysseus off, with a bag of wind, to make your way home.

~ cg

Raw Notes:

•   "Wonder what I look like to her?" - compare with Stephen's "as he and others see me" in ep.1

•   "...and the loose brass quoits of the bedstead jingled."

•   "...he felt in his hip pocket for the latchkey. Not there."

•   "Potato I have."

•   "He crossed to the bright side of the street." -- Wearing Black clothes. Just sayin'...

•   "Somewhere in the east: early morning: set off at dawn. Travel round in front of the sun, steal a day's march."

•   "Turko the terrible." -- that sounds familiar?

•   "Color of Molly's new garters"

•   "in the track of the sun."

•   Bloom imitating Simon Deadalus' voice in his head

•   First mention of Dignam and the funeral

•   "The figures whitened in his mind. Displeased he let them fade." -- uncompleted reckoning (like in ep.1)

•   "Those mornings in the cattle market. Beasts lowing in their pens..." compare with "Crouching by a patient cow at daybreak in the lush field... They lowed about her whom they knew, dewsilky cattle." (ep.1)

•   "Nice to hold, cool waxen fruit, hold in the hand, lift to the nostrils, and smell the perfume."

•   "A cloud began to cover the sun slowly, wholly." -- time marker, parallel... The most direct parallel so far.

•   "Metempsychosis... That means transmigration of the soul."

•   "Reincarnation: that's the word... Some people believe... that we go on living in another body after death, that we lived before."

•   "A bent hag crossed from Cassidy's, clutching a nagging bottle by the neck"

•   Paul de Kock

•   "Seaside girls.  Torn envelope.  Hands stuck in his trousers’ pockets, jarvey off for the day, singing.  Friend of the family.  Swurls, he says.  Pier with lamps, summer evening, band..."

•   "Lips kissed, kissing, kissed.  Full gluey woman’s lips."

•   "Listening, he heard her voice:  "Come, come, pussy.  Come."

    

     Heigho!  Heigho!  <--- sound Bloom hears when the church bells chime

     Heigho!  Heigho! 

     Heigho!  Heigho!

Bloomian wisdom:

"A little anemic. Was given milk too long."

The Telemachia Episode Three: Proteus

(you can also read the webpage version of this blog by clicking this here link!)

Episode three, "Proteus" is named for the shape shifting sea-god of Greek mythology who appears in Homer's Odyssey. Just as the Homeric characters Telemachus and Nestor serve as clues or keys to the episodes that bear their names, so too does Proteus. So, just as you have (hopefully) been able to make connections between episode name episode for "Telemachus" and "Nestor", the same should hold true for "Proteus".

However, this brand of iconography or assigning associative meanings presents yet another obstacle for first time readers. On the one hand, knowing how, for example, Proteus the character relates to "Proteus" the episode sheds a great deal of light both on the episode itself as well as the book as a whole. On the other hand, if you don't know in advance the role of Proteus in Homer's Odyssey, you have to take time away from reading Ulysses in order to research this factoid - something I don't encourage doing for a first read. This is one reason why I recommend reading the Odyssey before reading Ulysses. And as tempting as it is to simply tell you the associations, I'm not going to be that guy.

What I will say re "Proteus" is that it is all about Proteus. Proteus - the god and his unique gifts - is very strongly associated with the the form and meaning of episode three. So, if you happen to be cruising the Internets as you are prone to do, say, like now, and the idea occurs to you, I would recommend a quick Wik (that is Wikipedia) of old Proteus. Just a peek. Two minutes. That's all. But don't interrupt your reading for it!

Form of forms

My lasting memory of my first reading of this episode is reading the first couple of paragraphs and thinking to myself "what the hell is this!?" When I decided to take on Ulysses I gave myself an out clause: if I hated the book after the first three episodes, or if I thought it was a waste of my time, I could abandoned the project, feeling like I gave it a fair shot. The caveat was, I had to finish the first three episodes. So there I was, confronted with the ineluctable modality of the visible with my two feet in his boots, at the ends of his legs, nebeneinander. What is a boy to do? But I was committed, so I pushed onward, along Sandymount strand, experiencing a moment in fictional time through Stephen's eyes and Stephen's thoughts.

By the time the threemaster sailed along and I was embarking on episode four, I was completely lost, and completely hooked. Whether or not to continue on was a no-brainer.

As challenging a read as it was, "Proteus" was (and has remained) one of my favorite episodes in Ulysses. I have little doubt that, if you are a first time reader, this episode will present many of the same challenges for you as it did for me. Foremost among these - as has been the theme up to this point in the blog - is the problem of narrative voice. One of the reasons I really focused on style and narrative voice in the first two episode blogs was in anticipation of the third. It's quite possible that I have magnified the difficulty of this aspect of the book, and maybe you are having far fewer issues with narrative than I have presumed. But in my own experience (as well as the experience of other first time readers I have known) figuring out who is saying what when and why can stop you in your tracks*. Through experience, I have found that if you can smooth out this particular bumpy road in the text, other issues are easier to focus on and the going is a lot easier.

*the lack of commas here is intentional

What's new?

So, considering all of the crack instruction that you have thus far received from me vis-a-vis narrative voice, stream of consciousness, interior monologue and the like, this episode should be a piece of cake right? After all, as I'm sure you've noticed, this entire episode is one big interior monologue. (Well, most of it, minus the smattering of third person narrative here and there). Really, if you want a textbook example of stream of consciousness writing, then look no further than "Proteus".

Hopefully I'm not revealing any great mystery when I say that Stephen is walking along Sandymount strand, and his thoughts are well nigh streaming out of his head. The fluidity and changeability of his thoughts mimic the way we all think as we go about our daily activities, particularly during solitary moments. This is how stream of consciousness works, in literature and real life. Many of Stephen's thoughts are associative, triggered by things that he sees, or branching off of other thoughts. Thus his mind wanders as he wanders, and we are brought along for the ride. So far, so good. Easy right?

Okay, let's put aside for the moment the difficulty of deciphering meanings from the dozens of allusions which tumble out of Stephen's skull in fragmentary form. In fact let's put aside deciphering, period. Instead, we'll focus on... that's right! Narrative voice!

I reckon that things go pretty smoothly (relatively speaking) until we get to this point: "His pace slackened. Here. Am I going to aunt Sara's or not?" From this point, for a couple of pages, the narrative becomes a ball of confusion as Joyce tosses us a new narrative grenade to explode in our faces (Shattering glass and toppling masonry! The ruin of all space, and time one livid final flame!). Let's break this down a little:

His pace slackened. Here. Am I going to aunt Sara's or not? My consubstantial father's voice. Did you see anything of your artist brother Stephen lately? No? etcetera...

Okay (assuming that each punctuation mark ends a sentence), first sentence: third person narration. Second, third, and fourth sentences: Stephen's IM. Fifth and sixth sentences: Stephen's IM of his father speaking about him (i.e. In his head Stephen is imitating or imagining or hearing his father's voice).

The confusion begins with the voice of Simon Dedalus in Stephen's head. Confusing in part because Joyce does not bother to separate it out from the other narrative elements around it. The remainder of the above quoted paragraph is Stephen running this imagined dialogue of his father through his head. This is then followed by Stephen imagining the scene of his visit to his aunt Sara's house. Mercifully, Joyce gives us dialogue dashes (--) to set this narrative apart, clearly marking it as a dialogue. Unfortunately, he doesn't clue us in on the fact that this is only an imagined scenario, or that the dialogue takes place in Stephen's head. If one is not careful, (and I was not careful through my first two readings) it is entirely possible to assume that Stephen is actually at his aunt Sara's house, uncomfortably refusing a whusky! from nuncle Richie. And that makes an already difficult episode, three times as hard*.

*Actual degree of difficulty may vary from reader to reader.

Umm... what else...

Well, along the same lines we also have a remembered conversation with Patrice Egan (the son of Kevin Egan), and later another remembered conversation with Kevin Egan (father of Patrice Egan). It is interesting to note that Joyce employs a different narrative style for Stephen's memory of Kevin Egan, choosing not to use the dialogue dashes. I think this is a very effective style choice considering what Joyce is aiming to convey, but this section may come across as a bit confusing to the reader. I don't think JAJ was hugely concerned...

Hopefully these plucky but woefully unprofessional attempts to shed light on Joyce's umm... narrative challenges are helpful. Joyce's aim was not to make a kinder and gentler* reading experience for the would be reader of Ulysses. In fact, I'm fairly confident that extreme difficulty was part of his strategy. But it's also part if the fun of reading Ulysses. This ain't a classic's classic for nuthin'.

*in the vernacular of our time

Prose Pick: "In long lassoes from the Cock lake the water flowed full, covering greengoldeny lagoons of sand, rising, flowing."  - have you ever read a more eloquent (or humorous) description of a guy taking a piss? No. You haven't.

Raw notes:

•   "World without end."

•   "The man with my voice and my eyes...

•   ... and a ghost woman with ashes on her breath.

•   "... The divine substance wherein Father and Son are consubstantial..."

•   "His pace slackened. Here. Am I going to aunt Sara's or not?" - the passage that follows is one of the most confusing, I think. What's going on here?

•   "How the head center got away. Authentic version. Got up as a young bride, man, veil, orangeblossoms, drove ou the roadt to Malahide. Did, faith"

•   "I will not sleep there when this night comes"

•   "A bloated carcass of a dog lay lolled on bladderwrack" - dogsbody...

•   "Open hallway. Street of harlots. Remember. Haroun al Rashid... That man led me, spoke. I was not afraid... In. Come. Red carpet spread. You will see who."

•   "Behind. Perhaps there is someone."

•   "... Followed by the sun's flaming sword, trekking to evening lands."

•   "Now where the blue hell am I bringing her beyond the veil?"

•   "Bet she wears those curse of God stays suspenders and yellow stockings, darned with lumpy wool."

•   "But you were delighted when Esther Oswalt's shoe went on you."

•   "... hissing up their petticoats"

•   "God becomes man becomes fish becomes barnacle goose becomes feathbed mountain."

•   "A seachange this, brown eyes saltblue."

•   "To evening lands. Evening will find itself."

The Telemachia Episode Two: "Nestor"

(you can also read the webpage version of this blog by clicking this here link!)

Like episode one, episode two, "Nestor", begins in the middle of the action; in medas res as one says in Latin. The word "action" should not be taken too literally here, because like "Telemachus" there's not a lot of action to be found in "Nestor". For the sake of not having to repeat myself for every blog entry, I suppose I should just say now that this is a recurrent characteristic throughout the book. Have I mentioned before that Ulysses is not an action book?

I had an argument in a hostel in Barcelona with this young Australian guy concerning the lack of action in Ulysses. According to him Ulysses was the worst book he'd ever read. When I asked him why he felt that way, he answered in exasperation, "because nothing happens!" I offered in defense that plenty is "happening" just not in the traditional sense in which we have come to understand "happening" in the novel. Mike (that was the young Aussie's name) wasn't buying it. The book was boring and dumb and overrated because nothing happened, and that was that. So, if you feel the need for speed, then get out of this kip now and go grab a copy of The Da Vinci Code. Ulysses is a book for thinkin' folk.

On with the program...

In "Nestor" we are still getting to know Stephen, and we are still getting acquainted with the various styles and themes of the book. Hopefully you have already noticed some thematic carryover from the first episode to this one, particularly evident should be the darkness/lightness dichotomy*. Joyce also introduces the Platonic/Aristotelian dichotomy which will weave its own thread throughout the book (weave, weaver of the wind).

* If this was not evident to you, you might want to give "Nestor" another looking over. You clearly weren't paying attention to The Dude's story, Donny.

While this episode is not particularly long, it continues, nay expands, the confusing usage of interior monologue (IM), vignettes and introduces the famous stream of consciousness technique (SOC). Many of the dialogues in this episode are interrupted by Stephen's thoughts. In terms of narrative flow this can make for choppy reading as you try to reconnect to the beginning and end points of dialogue. It can be annoying at first, but what you get in return is a richer narrative texture and a more intimate portrait of Stephen than you might experience through traditional third person narrative. The extended dialogue in the second half of the episode between Stephen and Mr. Deasy is peppered throughout with Stephen's inner thoughts, so much so that you can lose the thread of the conversation if you don't concentrate. But as this is the predominant style of the novel it is good that you get a strong dose early on.

Note on invented definitions:

Having already written in some detail in the Telemachus blog about IMs and vignettes, I should offer here a clarification: all the ideas in this blog concerning interior monologues, vignettes, stream of consciousness etc. are my personal assessments and should not be taken as definitive. In doing a little research into the terms interior monologue and stream of consciousness, I found that there are differing perspectives on what exactly these terms are meant to signify, none of which accorded exactly with my own ideas. Until I find something that I feel does a better job of nailing down with greater precision the significance of these terms I will stick with my own ideas since they are specific to Ulysses and Joyce's usage of these techniques. What I lack in broadly accurate terminology, I try to make up for with self-sufficient and consistent definitions that help you understand the text. Of course, you may feel free to follow whatever definitions make the most sense to you. Just as long as you understand how these various styles are functioning in the text.

Now, about that stream of consciousness...:

As I promised in the Telemachus blog I will now talk more specifically about SOCs (since they are now of relevance) and try to distinguish between them and IMs and vignettes. By my way of thinking, stream of consciousness is a type of interior monologue in that it occurs in the thoughts of a character and is essentially a oneway conversation (monologue) but I see SOC as more random and less directed than IM.

IM: "Cranley's arm, his arm" is a thought directed at a specific person in a specific situation making a specific association, I.e. Mulligan is associated with Cranly. The thought is triggered by Mulligan linking arms with Stephen the way Cranley once did. Stephen, in this case, literally thinks to himself "Cranley's arm, his arm".

SOC: "Fabled by the daughters of memory. And yet it was in some way if not as memory fabled it..." Here we have Stephen musing. A random, less directed thought is triggered by the situation.

Take the following passage as another example:

"That phrase the world had remembered. A dull ease of the mind. From a hill above a corpsestrewn plain a general speaking to his officers, leaned upon his spear. Any general to any officers. They lend ear"

I would say that the first sentence is more IM, and the rest is SOC. It's a somewhat fine distinction, which begs the following question: does it really matter? The simple answer is no. In the grand scheme of life nothing matters, we are all just tiny pimples on the ass of the cosmos. But I make a distinction. And because I make a distinction, I need to clarify for you, the blog-reader, what I mean when I use these separate terms.

Also, while I don't think it's vital that one makes a distinction, I do think the differentiation helps a great deal in understanding or interpreting meaning and attitude. For example it is, I would argue, important to know that when Stephen thinks "Chrysostomos" he is not merely musing, but directing a specific thought toward a specific person, for a specific reason. Without this understanding we miss out on some vital information concerning Stephen's relationship with Buck Mulligan (or at least his attitude about that relationship).

As far as vignettes go, I classify them (broadly) as a type of SOC (thus they also fall under the IM umbrella), but really, they're more like memories, or fantasies, or daydreams. I suppose you could say they are more visualizations or imaginings than monologues (remember our Scrubs example from the episode one blog).

In "Nestor" we find ourselves very much in Stephen's head, and I gotta tell ya' it's only going to get worse. So as you read or ruminate on the first two episodes I hope you are beginning to find it easier to separate out the different style/voice elements in the text. We have third person omniscient narrative, person to person dialogue (easily distinguished by dashes --), first person IMs, SOCs, and vignettes.

Warning: there are more voices and forms to come.

I hope these explanations are making things better and not more confusing. If they are let me know and I'll try to be more clear.

Randomage:

I was thinking, an interesting assignment for a book group or class on Ulysses: have each person highlight in different colors the different voices speaking at a given time in the text. In other words you would assign a color to each style of speech or voice and highlight in said color. Example: (Deasy direct quote in green; Stephen direct quote in light blue; Stephen IM in red; Stephen SOC in orange)

--I will tell you, he said solemnly, what is his proudest boast. I PAID MY WAY.     

Good man, good man.   

--I PAID MY WAY. I NEVER BORROWED A SHILLING IN MY LIFE. Can you feel

that? I OWE NOTHING. Can you?    

Mulligan, nine pounds, three pairs of socks, one pair brogues, ties.

Curran, ten guineas. McCann, one guinea. Fred Ryan, two shillings.

Temple, two lunches. Russell, one guinea, Cousins, ten shillings, Bob

Reynolds, half a guinea, Koehler, three guineas, Mrs MacKernan, five

weeks' board. The lump I have is useless.    

 --For the moment, no, Stephen answered.

It's just a thought...

Some thematic elements:

To the list of themes, motifs and whatnot that I started in the episode one blog I will only add a couple of things. I already mentioned above the Aristotelian/Platonic dichotomy, so to these I will add: Western v. Eastern philosophical/religious orientation, depiction of the feminine and/or women in the text (this can also be seen as a masculine/feminine dichotomy which is connected to the theme of androgyny), and the immutable/changeable self.

Finally...

Lest we get wrapped up in technicalities, I would be remiss if I did not point out one of the most important aspects of Ulysses: the absolute beauty of the prose. As you work your way through Joyce's obscurities and difficulties, his... intrigues, his... backstairs influence... do not neglect to soak in the brilliance of his writing.

Raw notes:

Love the element of style where Stephen reads snatches of text from Deasy's letter. A bit surprised that Joyce clues the reader in on the fact that Stephen is reading the letter. "Stephen reads on"

Also, love how Joyce embeds thematic elements of the book in the letter.

• "All human history moves towards one great goal, the manifestation of god" ~ Deasy
• Western philosophy (consider the source) [compare "Hellenization of Ireland" ~ Mulligan] 

• "A woman brought sin into the world. For a woman who was no better than she ought to be..." ~ Deasy
• Deasy seems to lay history's errors and sins on the shoulders of women - note the attitude, treatment, and role of women and "the femine" throughout the book.

• Continuation or changability of the self - are we the same people over time or do we become different people

• "As it was in the beginning, is now... and ever shall be... world without end"

The Telemachia: Episode One: "Telemachus"

(you can also read the webpage version of this blog by clicking this here link!)

Where do begin in this?

~ Stephen Dedalus

Seriously, how do I get this thing started? How do I begin a blog of James Joyce's Ulysses? There's so much to cover, particularly early on when we don't know anything about what's going on. In the spirit of helping the newbies (or novitiates if we want to be more literary) I will try to locate important themes, motifs, style elements and "landmarks" that I think will make the going a bit easier for you, the uninitiated.

Essentially I will attempt do for you what I would have appreciated someone having done for me on my first (or even my second) reading of Ulysses. But I don't want to make it so easy as to take away from the reading experience, because, you must understand that Ulysses is not merely a novel, but it is an experience. And who am I to take that away from you? So if by the end of the first episode you feel I could have given you more, then good! If you still feel lost after the basic info provided but you also want to continue on following the trail, then I will have done some good in this world and my life will not have been lived in vain. 

Basic fact to keep in mind:

Joyce's Ulysses was built on the frame work of Homer's Odyssey or Ulysses as it is sometimes called, hence the name of Joyce's novel. In this spirit it is an epic tale -- just like Homer's. Thus the book is divided into episodes, not chapters. Joyce named his episodes (18 in all) after episodes or characters or elements of Homers text (24 episodes in all)* for example, episode 3 is called "Proteus" after a character of The Odyssey.

*(Joyce's original text and many subsequent editions do not list the episode titles, but they can be found in a few editions, and in the two schemata Joyce gave to Stuart Gilbert and Herbert Gorman).

False start

The Telemachia represents the opening four episodes of Homer's Odyssey, and Joyce calls his first three episodes... The Telemachia - just like Homer. These opening episodes are introductory, specifically they are meant to introduce the young hero of the epic, in this case Stephen Dedalus, but it also introduces a majority of the main themes and motifs of the novel.

The first chapter, oops! the first episode is called "Telemachus". I won't go into any detail about the Stephen Dedalus/Telemachus association other than to say there is an association (the whys and wherefores are for you to figure out yourself). By the way, if you haven't read Homer's Odyssey then I strongly encourage you to do so. It helps a lot when reading Joyce's Ulysses. Actually, before I proceed here are three books to read (in order of importance) that help Ulysses make much more sense: Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man, by James Joyce; The Odyssey, by Homer; Dubliners, by James Joyce. If you only read one of these, then read Portrait. It's the story of Stephen Dedalus as a boy growing up, and Ulysses picks up his story shortly after the point at which it drops off in in Portrait. Okay, for real now...

Real start

"Telemachus" begins with Buck Mulligan, Stephen's flatmate in the Martello Tower, descending the stairway, stately and plump. I won't walk you through the entire episode since you can do that yourself - it's what I like to call reading. Instead let me point to one of the first and most important style elements in this work: the interior monologue (IM). Interior monologue and stream of consciousness (SOC), which Joyce also uses abundantly in Ulysses, are not the same thing though people often conflated the two*. I'll discuss the difference in another edition when it is more relevant. Right now we'll just look at the first instance of interior monologue appearing on the first page of the text; "Chrysostomos". Okay, first off this is brilliant! But more importantly for you is how it should be read and understood.

*fair warning: interior monologue and stream of consciousness will dominate the early discussions in this blog

Basically, this single word, "Chrysostomos", is a thought which occurs in Stephen's mind and should be recognized as how he thinks about his friend Buck Mulligan. There are, of course, important historical meanings connected to this word, thus it is associative. Here's a simple example of what I mean: Suppose you're in a class and you have an instructor whom you feel is evil incarnate. He's in the midsts of berating the class for some reason or other, and in your mind you think to yourself "Hitler". You have just created an interior monologue associating your instructor with Adolph Hitler. Anyone who understands who Hitler is, and what he stands for historically, would understand your attitude toward your instructor based on this word association. This is one way in which Joyce employs IM.

So, once you understand the meaning of "Chrysostomos" a great deal of light is shed on Stephen's relationship with and attitude toward Mulligan. Who or what a "Chrysostomos"  is, of course, is another thing that you must eventually figure out for yourself. However...

WARNING: Because there are literally hundreds of allusions to uncover (and not all are IM), it may not be worth the time or effort to ferret out these meanings during a first reading. You will want to pick and choose which things you need to know right away and which things can wait. Otherwise you will never make it through the book. This is the primary reason that Ulysses is such a difficult read.

The other problem with "Chrysostomos" is one of style or narrative. Because it appears in the midst of a third person narration and is not set apart in any special way, it's function, meaning, and reading are very confusing. This style element (or narrative difficulty) of interior monologue will occur throughout the book, so it is worth figuring out early, as it will make a lot of your reading less confusing.

So how do you know when you're reading an interior monologue? Well... you just do. Unfortunately there are no specific markers such as the dashes (--) which Joyce uses to set apart character's spoken words. IM can appear anywhere at anytime, in the middle of narrations, in the midsts of spoken dialogue, anywhere, anytime, and because they will weave seamlessly in and out of third-person narrations so often, you just have to develop an eye and an ear for them. So the only thing I can tell you is that with practice you will eventually get used to them and recognize most of them when they appear (though some are really well hidden).

Let's take another example from the text which I like: "Cranly's arm, his arm"  

This one functions a lot like "Chrysostomos"  in that it is meant to reveal Stephen's attitude toward Mulligan, but it's point of narrative connection is further away from the sentiment thought. It is connected to the third person narration "Buck Mulligan suddenly linked his arm in Stephen's..." which appears about two paragraphs back. Being disconnected from its source, this IM phrase poses a reading challenge, and if you don't know who Cranly is, then it poses a challenge of interpretation as well. The narrative challenge you will work out soon enough, but discerning meaning requires either prior knowledge or research, so you'll have to accept being in the dark about a lot of stuff through the entire novel.

Actually, just before this IM phrase is another, longer IM of Stephen's: "Parried again. He fears the lancet of my art as I fear his. The cold steelpen." This IM functions slightly differently than the ones previously mentioned, as it does not tell us what Stephen thinks of Mulligan so much as reveals his perspective on their relationship. Narratively speaking it comes in between Buck Mulligan's dialogue. 

IMs establish attitudes, states of mind, ideas, and ways of thinking. They let us know how characters feel and what they think about specific situations and persons. Get to know them, get to love them. They are brilliant! And they're everywhere.

A few choice snippets of IM from episode one (These should help you establish a feel for them):

•   "Chrysostomos"

•   "Cranly's arm, his arm"

•   "She bows her head to a vice that speaks to her loudly. Her bonesetter, her medicine man. Me she slights..."

•   "Horn of a bull, hoof of a horse, smile of a Saxon" (one of my faves :))

•   "Usurper"

There are plenty more in the episode but these should help you to learn to identify them.

Finally, we have those perplexing vignettes to address. You know the ones, they're like mini-stories, snippets appearing seemingly out of nowhere, insinuating themselves into the middle of the narrative. Like the "Clive Kempthorpe" scenario or the two that deal with Stephen's mothers death. These vignettes are a bit like SOC but not exactly SOC. They're more like peeks into the memories or the daydreams of characters. If you've ever watched the TV show Scrubs then you'll recognize these. (If not then just play along). They're like those reveries that J.D. (Dr. John Dorian) falls into every five minutes where he conjures up in his mind some ridiculous scenario sparked by the present situation -- and we are allowed a peek into these innermost fantasies. Most of the vignettes in Ulysses function like this, but not all of them. We'll cover those that don't when the time comes. What's important at the moment is that you know that they exist and recognize when they occur, because like IM or SOC they come out of the blue, with little warning. In other words they create yet more narrative headaches. But they're really fun!

Other Things:

Joyce gives us a lot of dichotomies to contemplate, like that of darkness vs. lightness. Established from the first page and working more or less throughout the episode we see Buck Mulligan painted in light, white, bright hues, "tripping and sunny like the Buck himself"  Alternately Stephen is portrayed in darkness and dirtiness. Black, worn mourning clothes, hair on end, unbathed for weeks, morose. Mulligan has white glistening teeth with gold points, light tonsured hair, and silver points flash on his smoke gray eyes. Hint: Follow the darkness and lightness references throughout the book. Contemplate them like a mystic monk.

Along with the dark/light dichotomy, Joyce establishes in this introductory episode just about every important theme and motif which will shape the book. Given the vast amounts of themes, motifs, references, associations/correspondences, etc. this is no small feat. Especially when we consider how short the episode actually is. After you finish the book (and have had some time to absorb the contents) go back to the first chapter and see, no, marvel at the depth of this episode.

Speaking recently with a woman who had to read Ulysses as part of her graduate studies (or maybe it was PhD)... anyway, she said to me that her course professor had told her to follow the pillar of cloud as a way of staying oriented or engaged in the story. I mention this because I followed a similar strategy on my first reading. Reasoning that if I could not understand the meanings behind the text, I could at least look for repetitive elements. This strategy kept me engaged and made the text make slightly more sense, and thus I am recommending it to you. So, with that in mind I'll give you what I think are some good guiding elements to keep an eye out for.

•   The veil

•   The lifted skirt

•   The pillar of cloud

•   Father-son references (in all forms)

•   Ghosts

•   Androgyny (in all forms)*

*(I think that androgyny is one of those few themes that doesn't come up in episode one but I felt it needed to be mentioned now. Consider it a gift, from me to you. You've earned it!)

Again, their are plenty more things you could use to pull you along, but these are some good ones. If you know of, or discover others along the way feel free to use those (and don't be stingy with the info! Remember, sharing is caring.) And don't feel compelled to use everything I offer, I'm just spitballin' here.

See ya in the classroom! ~ cg

Raw Notes (these are the notes I took to help me "organize" this  first episode blog):

•   "Chrysostomos"; "Cranly's arm, his arm"; "She bows her head to a vice that speaks to her loudly. Her bonesetter, her medicine man. Me she slights..."; "Horn of a bull, hoof of a horse, smile of a Saxon" (one of my faves :)); "Usurper"

•   The brightness of Buck Mulligan:

•   white teeth with gold points

•   light untonsured hair, grained and hued like pale oak

•   Contrast with darkness of Stephen

•   Dressed on black (shiny fraying black coat, black trousers)

•   Gay Buck/Sullen Stephen

•   The well fed Mulligan, bread buttered on both sides, primrose waistcoat and puce gloves/Stephen in his secondhand digs

•   The darkness of Stephen

•   Dogsbody's hair stands on end, baths once a month/ Buck is well tonsured, cleaned and shaven

•   The unclean bard makes a habit of bathing once a month - Mulligan

•   Stephen saw his own image in cheap dusty mourning between their gay attires

•   Establishing almost all major themes in first episode:

•   Darkness and lightness (or brightness, or whiteness)

•   Death of Stephens mother and his unresolved guilt (agenbite of inwit) he is haunted

•   The Irish language question (Homerule)

•   British subjugation

•   Irish identity

•   Church and monarchy

•   Usurpation

•   Betrayal

•   Unresolved guilt (atonement)

•   Reckoning

•   Antisemitism

•   Hamlet/Shakespear Father/Son

•   Turko the Terrible

•   The veil(?): ...pulses were beating in his eyes, veiling their sight...

•   (Not sure if the Aristotelian/Platonic dichotomy made it in the first episode)

•   The key

•   Clive Kempthorpe vignette (stream of consciousness vs. Interior monologue)

•   A cloud began to cover the sun, slowly, wholly (time marker - find cloud in episode 4)

•   I am another now and yet the same. A servant too. Server of a servant.

•   Old and secret she had entered from a morning world, maybe a messenger (keep this in mind as you read/reread the Telemachus episode of the Odyssey)

•   Pay up and look pleasant - Haines

•   ...he himself is the ghost of his own father.

•   Drowned man

•   Photo girl (Milly Bloom)

•   What Stephen hears when the church bells ring in the distance:

Liliata rutilantium

turma circumdet

iubilantium te virginum

(time marker)