Like every reader or budding author, Ulysses is a great mountain one needs to climb to reach the metaphorical peak of their reading career.
I want to summarise my reading of Ulysses and the book itself to the best of my knowledge. The reason for doing this is that I tried reading Ulysses once before, in 2021, and at that time, I hadn’t read anything close to this monster of a literary work.
I only looked up words and used my annotated edition to go through it. Today, five years later, I am much better equipped to read and understand it, and I know of resources that will help me along the way. I have also read Homer’s Odyssey and watched the Nolan film. A quick review of the movie: 5/5 stars. Nolan used the medium in the best way possible.
I am not going to wrestle with every allusion and try to understand everything. Instead, I am going to choose certain places to tackle and let go of some of the rest. The reason being that I want to enjoy this piece of writing, which is not only dense but also rewarding.
So, I am using the James Joyce Penguin edition and the 3rd edition of The New Bloomsday Book by Harry Blamires. I might look up a few sections online to understand things better, but that’s about it.
Let's start with Chapter 1: Telemachus
Pages 1–11
The book starts with Buck Mulligan in a temporary residence where Stephen is a tenant, and he is trying to shave during this scene. Stephen Dedalus, the Homeric parallel to Telemachus in Ulysses, complains to Buck Mulligan about Haines (a British man), who has nightmares and shouts in his sleep, disturbing Stephen. Stephen wants Haines gone, and I think there might be some discomfort because the British were ruling Dublin at this point in time, but I am unsure.
Buck is mimicking a Roman Catholic sermon while shaving. For some reason, this isn’t really clear yet. Maybe something we will learn about in the next chapters.
Buck also talks about how Stephen did not bend down to pray as a last wish for his dying mother. He thinks of Stephen as an iconoclast and considers him brutal for that. Meanwhile, Stephen calls Buck out for the time when he visited Buck’s home.
Buck calls Stephen, “The guy whose mother is beastly dead.” The way he puts it makes Stephen uncomfortable, and I think Buck notices his reaction, wondering what is wrong with this guy.
I love that there is so much dynamic at play in just the first ten pages. We understand a bit about Buck and how he has no guardrails when talking. He can be considered rude, but he is also conscious of his actions and judges Stephen for not humouring his mother.
These are my two cents on a great read, and I am looking forward to completing it.