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The flashback continues. Stephen is thinking about his mother, thinking about her room and objects he identifies with her, thinking about her memories, things she told him about her childhood.
Remember the context–Mulligan wants to use Stephen’s money, his wit, his ideas for his own benefit. This is mostly just selfishness, but also grandiosity, in that Mulligan wants to use Stephen for his project to “Hellenise” the island, to bring a new classical age to this struggling Ireland that’s at a critical point in its history. Several times through the day Stephen will hear about a new plan for Ireland, people will turn to him to talk about the future, or it’s artistic future. Where does this lead him?
Backwards–to thoughts about his mother–to the creation of a scene. In these powerful and vivid fragments, you’re seeing Stephen Dedalus begin to stretch his wings (so to speak) and show the promise of his creativity.
You, sir, are my goddamn hero for doing this. Thank you. Thank you. THANK YOU!!!
Well. thank you, Josh! Man, that’s great to hear. I sometimes think the best thing about webcomics is getting this kind of “as-we’re-going-along’ feedback. It means a lot to me at the end of a long day in the studio, Josh, thanks again.
I came back from my Paris trip wit lots of new pages, but we’re still fighting some of the downtime. Sorry. there’s a stage or two between ink drawings and posting that we just weren’t able to work out at a distance, but we’ve got longer installments coming your way soon.
Oh, and I’ve started playing with next chapter. Some people might be bothered by this, but we’ll be doing “Calypso” (chapter, or episode, 4) next. I’ve decided that a chronological presentation of the days events works best for people trying to better understand the novel through our site. So Mr Bloom will be our focus in January, and we’ll return to Stephen’s adventures in “Nestor” just after.
Comix can do this kind of thing, after all. We can give you chapter 4 next that you get more clues to the mysteries behind the novel and still, faithfully, refer to it as chapter 4. Everyone else in your college English lit course would be confused.
Comix use time, and break the rules of time, better than any other narrative medium. So I figured we’d use tat to make the novel’s events a little easier for new readers. We’re going to follow a chronological approach to the day so Mr Bloom and his burned kidney come next.
-Rob
– Traduction française / French translation –
Le “flashback” continue. Stephen pense à sa mère, à la chambre de celle-ci et aux objets qu’il identifie à elle, aux souvenirs qui étaient les siens, aux choses qu’elle lui avait racontées sur son enfance.
Souvenez-vous du contexte : Mulligan veut employer l’argent, la finesse d’esprit et les idées de Stephen à son profit. Ceci surtout par égoïsme, mais non sans grandeur, dans la mesure où Mulligan veut utiliser Stephen pour son projet d'”helléniser” l’île, pour faire advenir un nouvel âge classique dans cette Irlande qui s’agite, à un moment crucial de son histoire. Plusieurs fois dans la journée, Stephen entendra parler d’un nouveau projet pour l’Irlande, des gens se tourneront vers lui pour discuter de l’avenir et du devenir artistique du pays. Où cela mènera-t-il Stephen ?
Retour en arrière, au sujet des pensées de Stephen pour sa mère, sur la manière de créer une scène. Dans ces fragments nets et frappants, vous voyez un Stephen Dedalus qui commence à déployer ses ailes (pour ainsi dire) et à nous faire la promesse de sa créativité.