Welcome one and all to Monday and my weekly Ulysses reading update! Sorry, a bit much there. I’ll tone it down a little.
I read Episode 4, also known as “Calypso” on Saturday. Why, does anyone know, are these called episodes and not chapters like in normal books?
Episode 4 performs a complete switcheroo in tone and voice and, well, pretty much everything. Just when I was getting used to Stephen’s head I am now in Leopold Bloom’s head. It is a real jolt. I have gone from poetic meanderings to animal organs and shit. I was completely grossed out through most of this chapter.
Those of you have have been visiting for awhile probably know that I am a vegan. Imagine for a moment what reading the first paragraph was like:
Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liver slices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencod’s roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine.
Yum, yum! Even if I ate meat, I am sure I would be pretty ill after reading this. And, I dunno, but “a fine tang of faintly scented urine” doesn’t exactly sound lip-smacking good. I mean, would you order a dish from a restaurant if it was accompanied by such a description?
And it isn’t just the first paragraph. Nearly the entire chapter is filled with meat. And it turns out, Bloom is a bit of a lech. He goes to the butcher to get some kidneys for breakfast and ogles the woman in line in front of him. Then he makes his purchase as fast he can so he can
catch up and walk behind her [...] moving hams. Pleasant to see first thing in the morning.
But the butcher takes too long and poor Bloom has to go home and back to Molly who is still lounging in bed. Later, women with fat legs are described as “beef to the heels.”
After Bloom cooks and eats his kidney, he takes a stroll to the public toilet where we are treated to his thoughts as he reads an old paper and has a bowel movement. Then he tears off a piece of a prize-winning story from the paper and uses it to clean himself. It is a sort of “take that!” moment. A far cry from last week’s “greengoldenly lagoons,” but still poetic in its own way.
Bloom emerges from the toilet to a bright sunny sky and church bells ringing the time. He is attending a funeral later in the day but doesn’t know at what time. I don’t know whose funeral it is, but I suppose I will find out in due time. And have I mentioned time? Because this is all happening in one day so time is important, I think, just haven’t figured out how yet.
Eww.
Oh yeah, the meat scene! I should add that to my disgust project. As a vegetarian myself, I’d have to agree it’s pretty gross. But I also tend to feel pretty relieved when I leave Stephen’s head and Bloom is so much more down-to-earth, in a way that I find oddly inspiring even if I wouldn’t want to be ahead of him in the supermarket checkout line. He doesn’t flinch at the less savory aspects of life, I suppose.
One of the books I’ve been proofing over at Project Gutenberg is a 19C cookbook, and even though I eat meat, I get a little grossed out at the descriptions of cooking with intestines, pigs’ feet, etc. I don’t suggest you work on that book! I’m glad Ulysses is going well, gross-outs aside
I don’t think I’ll ever make it through Ulysses, but I love reading your updates on it!
I think most people would find that meat paragraph disgusting, regardless if carnivore or vegetarian. And as for the kidneys — my grandmother used to cook them and they are about as disgusting as one might imagine.
Carrie, you sum it up perfectly
Emily, I was thinking about you and your disgust project and how this chapter would fit so nicely in it! Bloom is definitely more down to earth than Stephen. I am sure he will grow on me as long as he refrains from eating anymore kidneys
Dorothy, oh, old cookbooks are dangerous! Whenever I should happen on them or an old recipe I wonder how people could have eaten like that and whether their tastebuds were malfunctioning or something. I will definitely avoid proofing the cookbook and stick to books like the one on chivalry I was proofing on the weekend.
Anne, don’t sell yourself short. You might read Ulysses sometime! But in the meantime, I am glad you are enjoying my updates. Hopefully your grandmother never made you eat kidneys too. I think I would have gladly gone to bed without dinner in that case
Hi Stefanie,
I think they are called Episodes because this is Joyce’s version of The Odyssey, which is broken down into episodes. If you haven’t read the Odyssey (or if it’s been awhile, as it has been for me!) I would recommend at least getting a Cliff’s Notes version and glancing over it. You may start to see a lot of parallels. Good luck with this project!
I even had to skim-read this post. I usually try to tackle this sort of thing in French if it’s an option because then I don’t have to translate if I don’t want to!
But no, NOT the kind of writing I would read with relish…..
Amanda, thanks for that! I read the Odyssey a couple of years ago knowing that I would eventually get around to reading Ulysses. The book of annotations I have also gives a brief summary of the portion of the Odyssey that each particular episode is supposed to be reflective of. Thanks for the good wishes. So far I am enjoying the book very much.
Litlove, LOL. Yours is one of the best reasons to be able to read in a seond language that anyone has ever told me before. Maybe it’s time for me to relearn my Spanish and German!
Oh dear. It had to make me laugh, though. I bet you’re happy not to eat meat–especially the sort with the fine tang of faintly scented urine. Wonder what the hidden meaning is here….
I’ve always thought of Stephen as being all in the head, Bloom the body (thus the meat episode for his intro) and Molly? Well, I’ll wait on that one
Oh jeepers, that did it! Now I want to go read it again. There is just so much to dive into. That is why I love it so.