[LISTENED TO: Week of September 6] Ulysses
This week I almost finished Episode 15. I’ve just finished where Bella turns into Bello and things get really weird. And I have to say that this Episode, for all of its craziness, is masterfully handled by Donal Donnelly. I’ve already raved about his vocal stylings in the earlier chapters, dealing with so many different men. But in this chapter he proves to be very dextrous at male and female voices, with a very delicate voice for some and an incredibly masculine woman’s voice for Bello (very well done indeed). He has also proven himself to be a treat with sound effects (of which there are many here). I won’t say for certain that it makes this insane Episode a lot clearer, but it certainly makes it easier to follow.
Back to Episode 13. The Gertie section is written in a style that is supposed to be romantic, very quick and flowy. And Donal really nails it. After the business of Episode 12, the lightness of 13 is wonderful, and it really brings to life the scene, especially when the rockets go off.
One thing I picked up this time is that Bloom assumes that he knows exactly when Blazes and Molly consummated their affair. Even re-reading it now, it wasn’t quite as clear as the way he read it aloud:
Funny my watch stopped at half past four. Dust. Shark liver oil they use to clean could do it myself. Save. Was that just when he, she?
O, he did. Into her. She did. Done.
Ah!
So, yes I suppose it’s obvious, but sometimes reading along you just don’t pick things up. And it took the way he read it for me to realize just what those short sentences meant.
Episode 14 is still a bear, and I was drifting a bit through the long-winded speechifying (that medical section, oy!). But there were a bunch of funny things that popped out. I still didn’t “get” all of the olde fashioned language that Joyce parodies in the chapter. Most of it went right past me. However, I can say that I noticed changes in tone more obviously in this read. From Middle English to Biblical etc. And I rather enjoyed this line about Poldy:
And the traveller Leopold went into the castle for to rest him for a space being sore of limb after many marches environing in divers lands and sometimes venery.
And this time, I finally noticed the absinthe. It was evident in the first read (it’s not really hidden) but knowing that I was looking for it (and knowing what comes next) I came across more obviously.
I believe it is Stephen who says: “Absinthe for me, savvy?” And then a little later, I’m not sure who is saying it:
You move a motion? Steve boy, you’re going it some. More bluggy drunkables? Will immensely splendiferous stander permit one stooder of most extreme poverty and one largesize grandacious thirst to terminate one expensive inaugurated libation? Give’s a breather. Landlord, landlord, have you good wine, staboo? Hoots, mon, wee drap to pree. Cut and some again. Right Boniface! Absinthe the lot.
And then Bloom addresses it:
BLOOM (To the privates, softly.) He doesn’t know what he’s saying. Taking a little more than is good for him. Absinthe, the greeneyed monster. I know him. He’s a gentleman, a poet. It’s all right.
So I think that’s where we get the hallucinations of what happens in th next Episode, although I’m not certain that Bloom drank any.
Another fantastic aspect that I’ll attribute to Donnelly (and the Joyce estate) is the amazing number of accents as the Episode draws to a close. Some of the things may be apparent while reading them, but hearing these phrases done with the appropriate accents makes all the difference.
Like this section, which still doesn’t make sense to me, is performed with several different accents on these lines alone:
Scoot. Righto, Isaacs, shove em out of the bleeding limelight. Yous join us, dear sir? No hentrusion in life. Lou heap good man. Allee samee this bunch. En avant, mes enfants!
It begins “British” jumps to “Native American” and then “Negro” before switching to French. As I say it doesn’t make it make more sense, but it does make it enjoyable to listen to.
I was also surprised at the lengthy section about dead babies, which I clearly read, but simply must have not comprehended. There’s a whole bit about Bloom asking questions as to why babies don’t survive. It shows that Rudy’s death really weighs heavy on him.
Having Episode 15 read to you is a bit more fun as well. It really brings out the Scrubs-like fantasy sequences of the absinthe fueled visions. And although not exclusively true, it seems more apparent now that Zoe is the marker for returning to reality (and drifting into Bloom’s head). If you watch Scrubs you can almost see Bloom look up at the ceiling when Zoe says:
ZOE Go on. Make a stump speech out of it.
BLOOM (In workman’s corduroy overalls, black gansy with red floating tie and apache cap.) Mankind is incorrigible. Sir Walter Raleigh brought from the new world that potato and that weed, the one a killer of pestilence by absorption….
There’s also so many details that I’m picking up on this listen. I didn’t notice this testicle joke the first time:
ZOE How’s the nuts?
BLOOM Off side. Curiously they are on the right. Heavier I suppose. One in a million my tailor, Mesias, says.
And this continuation is just one joke about Bloom’s impotence in the Episode. Is there a suggestion that that’s why he and Molly haven’t had sex in ten years?
ZOE (In sudden alarm.) You’ve a hard chancre.
BLOOM Not likely.
ZOE I feel it.
(Her hand slides into his left trouser pocket and brings out a hard black shrivelled potato. She regards it and Bloom with dumb moist lips.)
I was also intrigued that in the beginning of the Episode when Bloom has the trotter (and he feeds the dog which gets him arrested for cruelty to animals) the dogs’ breeds change during the scenes: terrier, retriever and mastiff are the three I noticed. And then later when Dignam comes to defend Bloom saying that he was at the funeral, he morphs from a beagle and a daschund:
(The beagle lifts his snout, showing the grey scorbutic face of Paddy Dignam. He has gnawed all. He exhales a putrid carcasefed breath. He grows to human size and shape. His dachshund coat becomes a brown mortuary habit. His green eyeflashes bloodshot. Half of one ear all the nose and both thumbs are ghouleaten.)
Is this yet another example of metempsychosis?
And, I obviously noticed the crazy Bella/Bello transformation and all of the S/M and gender games the first time. But it really stands out a lot more when you hear somebody saying all the words. This was especially true for me when I noticed just how much excrement is mentioned in this section. There’s a whole section about dirty underpants and latrines and bedpans and the like. I think the key is when you hear someone say these things out loud it’s more surprising than seeing them in print. So yes, a nearly 100 year old book still offers shock!
At this point I have 12 discs left. I was hoping to have it finished by next week, but realistically I won’t. Still, it’s been a good and fun listen so far.
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Three things: 1. Congrats on the six figures. 2. Pokey knew the appointment was “at four, she said” during the day, so it’s reasonable, given the duration of your average tryst, to reckon on Blazes blazing forth about half-four.
3. Poldy carries a manky old potato around in his pocket all day, first mentioned as he’s checking his pockets leaving the house. Sometimes a spud is just a spud, as Freud put it, and he knew the Irish are immune to psychoanalysis….
4. Dunno whether I told you this before but there was a marathon radio production of Ulysses recorded for the centenary of Joyce’a birth. I had some of it on tape but it’s worth checking out as it has a huge cast of accomplished Irish acting talent. Must seek.
4. I know I said three things. X