The Ulysses Experiment

I don’t have much to say, nor a drawing to post.  The passage from p. 28 to 45 was short and essentially dull, save a paragraph that I totally cannot decipher:

“Across the page the symbols moved in grave morrice, in the mummery of their letters, wearing quaint caps of squares and cubes.”

That much I think I get, but then-

“Give hands, traverse, bow to partner: so: imps of fancy of the Moors.  Gone too from the world, Averroes and Moses Maimonides, dark men in mien and movement, flashing in their mocking mirrors the obscure soul of the world, a darkness shining in brightness which brightness could not comprehend.”

No clue.  Maybe a fancy dance of words for math or script.

Other things anew: a disappointed bridge- while clever, is also useless, lost on his audience… again the mention of the proof- Shakespeare’s ghost is Hamlet’s grandfather- I think Stephen feels bad about being an integral part of others’ drunken amusement, the witty clown.

We found out Stephen is a debter, owing to Mulligan and a dozen others, which is why Buck gets to keep the key.  9 pounds to Buck, which is maybe 3 weeks pay?  2 weeks?  a month? 3.12 & the pain of a lecture.

Oh yeah, and I really can’t think of a reason why jewish people would be FOR hoof and mouth disease, so Stephen’s headmaster must be a fucking dolt.

ADDENDUM:

After some research, a bit more on the paragraph-  the Moors are generally attributed with the invention of Algebra.

So the first two sentences describe the student’s math (not writing or script) exercises- maybe some quadratic equations.  The hats of squares and cubes are like I first thought, superscript 2′s and 3′s.  “Give hands” is likely the operations, +-*/, “Traverse, bow to partner” refers to the order of operations, parenthesis, multiplication, and division going before addition and subtraction.  So in the course of solving, the various operands bow to the ones that must go first.  All the numbers having started as little imps for the Moors to play with.

Averroes and Moses Maimonides are two of the three great thinkers of the Middle Ages, Aquinas (Catholic) is omitted.  All three were castigated by their respective religious authorities and communities, despite later being recognized as among the greatest thinkers in history.  Mien is manner or conduct, for the record.

So I think Joyce might just be mocking authority (and the authority of knowledge?).  Calling their collective efforts a darkness because that’s how their work was regarded by their contemporaries.  Calling those contemporaries the brightness because that is how they perceived themselves- bright, correct.  Meanwhile the brightness is blind to the truth and greatness that sits in its midst.  The flashing mirrors could be mirrors used to communicate with code, their flashing code analogous to mathematics and its code of numbers, which may very well describe the soul of the world.  Isn’t math often regarded as one of the only absolute truths of the world? (Interesting read.) Or maybe the flashes refers to the bits of realization by authorities of the Middle Ages that these men could be correct in their thinking, and upset the status quo.

With respect to the where and how of this paragraph, it sounds to me like Stephen might be comparing himself to great thinkers of the world, and feels like he’s surrounded by a bunch of people who don’t understand what he understands, and who are going to mistake the next giant leap forward in knowledge and understanding as another form of blasphemy, repeating the mistakes of the Middle Ages.  In the very next scene, Stephen is confronted by that very problem, the headmaster who thinks it’s foolish to think of God as a shout on the street, who blames the Jews for hoof and mouth disease, but who considers himself to be an enlightened and noble educator.  Quite the paragraph.

“History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake”

Stephen is teaching History at a posh school. The author narrates here the last moments of the lesson. In doing that he allows us to know not only what is happening in the class between the teacher and his students but also what it is happening in Stephen´s mind. In this sense we can deduce that Stephen does not like the insolence of wealthy people and that his thoughts fly away easily. I did very like when he said, referring to his snob students, that “their breath is sweetened with tea and jam”. He also told them the following riddle, which I did not understand. I ask here that if somebody of the group got it, please explain it to the rest:

The cock crew,

The sky was blue:

The bells in heaven

Were striking eleven.

´This time for this poor soul

To go to heaven.

Answer: the fox burying his grandmother under a hollybush (???)

The second part takes place in the office of Mr. Deasy (the principal??) He has a rare mustache and does not like jews, thinks that money is power and wrongly believes that the saying “the sun never sets on the empire” comes from a French celt (everybody knows it comes from the Spanish empire) He has a letter for the press, I did not quite understood what the letter was about (something to do with the mouth and foot disease…) He needs the help of Stephen and his literary friends because they know some editor in a newspaper.

having read the text weeks ago there’s not so much i remember but here goes. please forgive my errors and oversights. stephen is teaching some literature (greek myth?) to some mostly rich boys. after class most of the boys go to play hockey and one boy stays behind, stephen is supposed to help him with some math homework. when they’re done the kid joins the other boys and stephen has a talk with the gym teacher? principal? both? in a room overlooking the playing field.  the elder thinks stephen would make a great teacher but stephen doesnt think he has it in him. one of the hockey teams scores a goal and stephen posits that maybe god is a shout in the street, like the shouts of joy and anger of the boys outside. 

also, the old guy makes two anti-semetic comments, about how the jews are going to destroy britain, and i think europe as well. haines made a similar comment in the last section. 

also, stephen gets paid. woo hoo!

The Story. Stephen is teaching in a posh private boy’s school; history, classics, poetry class or something. He seems pretty popular amongst his students, but isn’t that much into it himself. He gives the students a riddle, the answer to which disappoints them. It did me too, as I didn’t get it at all. Can anyone explain? The class ends and the boys run out to play hockey. One student – Sargent – stays behind for help with his maths homework. Stephen thinks he is a pretty worthless pointless life form who will only ever be loved by his mother who protected him from the harsh world. He seems to see some of himself in Sargent. Stephen then talks with Mr Deasy, an older moustachioed, anti-Semitic teacher who seems very sure of himself and his conservative view on the world. He takes pride in that he has never owed money and is smugly satisfied that Stephen does. He wants Stephen to circulate a letter amongst his literary friends to get it published in the press. It’s about Foot and Mouth and how it can be cured. The letter is bizarrely written. Stephen agrees and leaves.

Just one other thing – on the continuing argument between Israel and I on whether the phrase ‘the sun never sets on the English/Spanish Empire’ is English or Spanish. Mr Deasy says it comes from a French Celt. Let the argument continue…

Btw just noticed my picture looks like it’s been done on a blue watercolour background like Israel’s. It’s actually a blue Post-It that got nicely discoloured in the photo.