I say the plot thickens – but possibly more in hope than actuality! As I glance across the desk at my 1922 the bookmark looks unpleasantly close to the front cover – and I had thought I was making good progress! Still a long way to go.
At any rate I now join Leopold Bloom as he makes another journey – this time primarily to the Post Office to collect a letter, which it turns out is addressed to one Henry Flower esq. I can only take from this that our Mr Bloom is having or has plans for some kind of affair – with a lady of the opposite sex no less. I maybe assuming wrongly but is it not intimated that Molly Bloom might have something to hide also? I’m more than happy for this to be the case as I am by now desperate for a story to hang my hat on.
Naturally, this being James Joyce, the chapter continues with the stream of consciousness flowing through Leopold’s head as he goes about his business and meets various acquaintances on the street. Twice now I am wondering the precise nature of the card in the headband of his hat – unless it is a visiting card or some method of identifying himself as Henry Flower. Seems odd to me that he wouldn’t be recognised as Bloom if that were the case. He lives there. Is there some sense that this is not his town? Is he just another invisible immigrant? He knows enough people to bump into and yet can carry himself off easily under another name. Perhaps the postmistress is like a priest to him.
Lots of questions really – the consciousness you can wade through without taking it too seriously, but it does tend to obfuscate the actual plot somewhat – which is of course what is so irritating to new readers. I don’t mind so much as long as I can find the comedy in it. I’m not sure that this is slapstick material but I do enjoy the scene where Bloom concentrates on the figure of an attractive woman across the road. He does this unnoticed over the shoulder of his friend M’Coy who is certainly so engrossed in his own side of the conversation that he fails to notice that Bloom is only listening with half an ear and neither eye.
M’Coy is further colouring in information on the death of Paddy Dignam, the funeral to which Bloom is obliged to go. M’Coy asks if Bloom can ‘put his name down’ but the difficulty for me returns as this seems to spark a memory of some sort which again I cannot quite put my finger on. It might be important for all I know. Something to do with Hamlet perhaps.
Then we get to Martha’s letter – they are pen-pals it seems rather than lovers! They have not met I think – but then how did they begin communication? It is a bitter sweet letter. Sweet in smell. Flowery … and addressed to Mr Flower. Bloom? I see what you did there. A bit slow, but I get there in the end. Bloom seems somehow confident and assured in some manner. I wonder what his hopes are for how this will play out between himself and Martha. And of course, what of Molly? At least she seems firmly established in my mind as a singer now – employable as such. Bloom and Molly do not seem either particularly well-off or poor and I have no idea from the text what Bloom does to earn a crust. Or have I missed something? Did he not have a designer’s eye a while back?
Someone possibly might explain to me why he feels the need to visit a Catholic church on his journey – himself being of the Jewish persuasion I believe. I had thought he fancied meeting his paramour at one point but that seems unlikely so his visit is a mystery. He doesn’t seem to do anything there or have have any expectations, but for the rolling thoughts on Catholicism it seems to have no purpose.
After that then a Chemist’s shop for some soap, but not any soap. A soap with a fragrance. A special soap. A smelly soap. The floral motif continues through the chapter ending with a thought on Bloom’s own limp manhood in the bath he has yet to have – a languid floating flower! A mini-bloom. An homunculus afloat!
I’d leave it at that except to say that if you read too much of this stream of consciousness stuff you start thinking like that too and then worse you start writing like it. And before you know it we’re all in the soup and then the soup thins! Or is that the plot? And is this healthy?
Bloom actually is Catholic. His family were Hungarian Jews, but his father converted to Protestantism to marry Bloom’s mother (hence Bloom is not a Jew according to Jewish tradition), and then Leopold converted to Catholicism to marry Molly. Why he goes to Mass in this chapter I honestly don’t remember.
I could clear up some other stuff also, but they’d be spoilers, and I’m so jealous of you NOT knowing the stuff that comes out later, that I wouldn’t dare ruin it for you.
Stevie’s looking out for you! I’m glad for Stevie’s restraint–you’ll appreciate it later. Bloom goes into the church partly just to get out of the heat, partly because it’s a shortcut to his destination at the Turkish baths, but also to give his author, Mr. Joyce, a chance to connect the experience of the mass to the other lotus-like experiences around him. I always thought Bloom’s reactions to the mass were great — like wondering if the communion wafers were in water.
As far as Bloom being apparently unembarassed about his secret arrangement at the post office–a) he’s about a 20-minute walk from his home, on the other side of the Liffey, so this is not his local post office b) one senses that this was not an especially unusual arrangement in a pre-Craigslist world. Bloom likes words, whether or not he always uses them correctly, and language can carry real sexual charge for him. more on this later.
You sound like you’ve made it through the land of the lotus-eaters and are appropriately dazed and foggy! Things sharpen up a little in the next chapter…
Many thanks Stevie and Mike. I’m trying to read the text without too much outside noise, but my idea of Bloom was obviously coloured by what I’d heard and not what I’d read. Yes it is all rather foggy, but still fun! Thanks especially for the non-spoilers. I’ll try to put aside all extraneous thoughts for Hades next week. Is Joyce by these conversions (Jew/Protestant/Catholic) trying to cement Bloom as the Everyman or the Outsider or something more complicated?
I do love this chapter and, just coming off of my struggles with “Proteus”, this and “Calypso” seemed as a great candied treat. It rea
Damn French keyboard and crazy hotel internet. Logged me out one sentennce in after I’d written for a half hour. Lost half hour on vactation is much harder to live with.
Sorry, Michael. I’ll catch it uup tomorrow.
-R
There’s no label or name or identification you can really hang on Bloom. He’s a Jew, but he’s not a Jew. He’s a husband, but his marriage is in crisis. He’s a father, but his daughter is growing up and his son is dead. He was born in Ireland, but he’s not really Irish. He’s a man, but his middle name is Paula and he’s eventually called the “new womanly man” (getting ahead of the reading here.) Your confusion about what he does for a living and his class and wealth status is exactly right–it’s not clear because Bloom isn’t a clear kind of guy. I think that for Joyce, this was an important facet of his kinship with Odysseus, the man of many ways…
One of the things I was going to say last night before my bout of French internet interruptus is how closely akin the timing of events are in this chapter, “Lotus Eaters”, with the second chapter, “Nestor”.
When you go through the scenes of each and the relative timing of them, there’s quite an interesting juxtaposition of metaphors an events occurring in Stephen and Bloom’s day and, as I’ve been saying for awhile now, comix makes a particularly better medium for showing these kind of connections than film or the stage.
For this reason, and a few others, we’ll be diving into chapter four, “Calypso”, in the comic right after finishing with “Telemachus.” By establishing the chronological order of how the novel’s events occur, the comic adaptation can exploit some of these over-lapping metaphors and then “Nestor” and “Lotus Eaters” can be presented as two chapters but delivered conjointly. One of the fun things of web-based media; the freedom to read or deliver it in a non-linear manner.
-Rob
To respond to Mike’s comment: I think that just as important as the idea that Bloom is an Everyman, is the fact that his character stands in sharp contrast to Stephen’s. Whereas Stephen serves two masters, Bloom serves none (except, perhaps, the almighty pound).