Episode nine is also called “Scylla and Charybdis” and I can tell you I felt like I was trying to navigate between the two. My Scylla took the deadly form of the book of annotations I have to help me through Ulysses. In chapter 9 Stephen goes to the library and has a long discussion and debate with the two librarians and his friend Mulligan (appearing mid-chapter) about Plato and Aristotle and Shakespeare and the literary references flew hard and fast. So, do I hew to Scylla’s cliffs, the annotation book, and risk killing the pleasure of the chapter with constant referring to the notes so I could follow all of the references and thus, most of the discussion? Or do I ignore Scylla and risk being sucked into Charybdis’ whirlpool of dizzying confusion because I didn’t know what was going on? Like Odysseus, I chose to stay close to Scylla’s cliffs. It didn’t totally ruin the chapter but a few of my crew were eaten.
References in the chapter are made to pretty much every single play Shakespeare wrote as well as his sonnets and other poems. However, the majority of the Shakespeare references were to Hamlet since part of the discussion was about fathers and sons and Hamlet being Shakespeare’s real son Hamnet. All the Shakespeare references were pretty overwhelming and it didn’t take me long to realize that what I thought was a pretty good grounding in the works of the Bard from past study was pretty much only a speck of dust. Note to self: when the day comes that I read Ulysses again, make a careful reading of Hamlet first and do a plot refresher of the other plays.
But Shakespeare references weren’t the only literary allusions flying about. As I said, there was also Aristotle and Plato and Socrates via Plato since Socrates never wrote anything down. There was also Goethe, Walt Whitman, Greek myths, Oscar Wilde, William Blake, Milton, Swinburne, Shelley, Boccaccio, Yeats, Dante, Freud, Marlowe, Ben Johnson, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Robert Burns, Emerson, Browning, and loads of others that I didn’t bother writing down because I was getting tired.
All of this swirling around in discussion about, among other things, Shakespeare’s love life and suspicions about why he left Anne Hathaway his second best bed and not the first best. She was his wife after all. There are also loads of puns and playing with the names of the two librarians. And Stephen, who earlier in the book seemed all quiet and shy and had moments of self-doubt about his writing ability, suddenly becomes another person, extemporizing theories about Shakespeare and engaging in some witty repartee.
I would have liked to read the chapter again, passing once more between Scylla and Charybdis and, as Odysseus did the second time through, take my chances with Charybdis. But it took me a couple hours to get through 30 pages and I was exhausted afterwards so I will just have to let it go and move on.
I agree, it’s one of the more exhausting chapters. On the exhaustingness level of Oxen of the Sun, except not as novel & therefore not as much fun. Wandering Rocks should give you a bit of a rest – more diffuse, I think.
I have to admit that I sometimes relate to that transformation you mention in Stephen’s personality – tripping over a few words until someone brings up books, at which point I bore everyone silly.
I think I would totally have been grabbing that annotated guide as I’m sure I would have been floundering with so many literary references (and my ignorance of them would have been showing,,,,). But I’ve heard that the first read of this book is just to get the jist of the story anyway/ How long did it take Joyce to write this?
I got the Ulysses Annotated: Revised and Expanded Edition by Don Gifford and it said right at the very beginning that one should (re)read Hamlet before tackling Ulysses (in addition to reading or rereading about a zillion other things) so that by the time I was done with the preface to the annotated guide I was exhausted! Every time I go back to Ulysses there are just more and more astounding things to find! Now of course I have to go back to this chapter and see if I find the things you reference in this post!
Oh boy, this reminds me of the sorry three years that Nerval’s poems were on the first year reading list. They are also packed full of classical references and mugging up to teach them was exhausting work. Then, in class we’d spend all our time sorting the references out and barely touching the poetry.
Can anyone think of a woman writer or poet who uses so many classical references? I have never come across one, which makes me wonder whether it’s only male writers who have this urge to make life hard for the reader.
Emily, heh, I can relate to Stephen’s transformation too. Sometimes I think I even scare people who casually ask me about a book and then they get this long and energetic ramble from me and by the time I notice the look on their face it is too late. Glad to know the next chapter is less tiring. I suspect then I will be with Bloom. He doesn’t seem to be as much work and he is much funnier.
Danielle, according to Wikipedia the book was written over the course of 7 years between 1914-1921. I haven’t verified it elsewhere but if it isn’t entirely accurate, it is probably pretty close. And yea, I have heard the same as you. The first time through is more of a first date where you start to get to know each other, or perhaps more like a scouting party assessing the lay of the land.
rhapsodyinbooks, I have Giffords Notes on Joyce but I don’t think it is the revised and expanded edition. I borrowed what my library had. But I think will end up buying the annotations sometime, probably when next I decide to read the book. I think a person could spend a lifetime doing background reading for the book and still find plenty of other things to read to shed more light on the text because, as you say, with every reading there is even more to find.
Litlove, Nerval you say? There’s a poet that won’t be going on my reading list
I think it is entirely possible to spend so much time chasing down references that one forgets the original text. There is a point where knowing everything becomes impossible and undesirable. But it is good to know enough. Figuring out what enough is though is the hard part. I cannot think of a woman who uses so many classical references. I wonder if it is a compulsion of male writers to show off their literary knowledge?
Alrighty. I guess that’ll be the last book I read, after I read all the ones it refers to…
Sylvia, this chapter really felt like that, like maybe I should stop and not read any further until I had read all those other books and plays. But my stubborn side came out and said, no way! that’s what this stupid book of annotations is for