Ulysses/2022

The Overall Plan

We started this year's reading without much preparation, unlike Ulysses/2016.

Our plan for this reading is as follows:

• Start with even-numbered chapters first. These are our favorites anyway, and we've followed this path before. Work our way through all of the even chapters, with the aim of filling in all of the empty even pages on {{Ulysses}}. By the time the even chapters are done, we've stewed in the language and imagery and events.
  • Ulysses/Nestor (empty)
  • Ulysses/Calypso
  • Ulysses/Hades
  • Ulysses/Lestrygonians
  • Ulysses/The Wandering Rocks
  • Ulysses/Cyclops
  • Ulysses/Oxen of the Sun
  • Ulysses/Eumaeus (empty)
  • Ulysses/Penelope (empty)

• Then switch to the odd chapters
  • Ulysses/Telemachus
  • Ulysses/Proteus (empty)
  • Ulysses/Lotus Eaters
  • Ulysses/Aeolus
  • Ulysses/Scylla and Charybdis
  • Ulysses/Sirens
  • Ulysses/Nausicaa
  • Ulysses/Circe
  • Ulysses/Ithaca

February 11

As mentioned above, we didn't do much prep, just jumped straight into Chapter 6, Hades. This is one of our favorite chapters. We listened to the Naxos audio book, and for some parts we had a copy of Ulysses open while we listened, copying quotes and passages that stood out to us on the Ulysses/Hades page.

A few key phrases stand out from the carriage ride - "trenchant rendering," "that Mulligan cad," "be good to Athos, Leopold." A few memorable moments in the conversation - the discovery of bread crumbs, Bloom attempting to tell Simon Daedalus a joke and being talked over, the moment when the topic of suicide comes up and only one of the three other occupants knows that Bloom's father committed suicide.

The whole chapter is most memorable for the visual imagery it provokes - the carriage ride, which gives us a tour of Dublin, and the funeral itself, which introduces many characters and gives us a glimpse of customs around death and funerals.