The Sirens Sweetly Singing ....

It's now about 4 p.m., and while Bloom sits in the bar at the Ormond Hotel, Blazes Boylan is well on his way to his tryst with Molly. Everyone knows the story of the Sirens, the sweet-singing temptresses whose irresistible song lures sailors to their doom by causing them to crash their ships on the nearby rocks. Odysseus, of course, has his cake and eats it too, by filling his sailors' ears with wax and tying himself to the mast; that is, Odysseus hears the Sirens' song, but withstands the temptation toward destruction the song invites. Simply put, this chapter is about music. There are 157 references to 47 different pieces of music. After spending five months exploring musical composition, Joyce - a great singer and music lover in his own right - said he could no longer enjoy music, as he now knows all the "little tricks" of musical composition. The section begins with an "overture" of sorts, each fragment reappearing later in the chapter. Look for musical references throughout: for example, at one point Simon sings a song about Lionel while Leopold listens, and the three (singer-subject-listener) fuse into a three-note chord, "Siopold!" (276). "The Croppy Boy" plays a significant role in the chapter - here are the lyrics: http://www.james-joyce-music.com/song16_lyrics.html. In one sense, this chapter involves the Ulyssean Bloom heroically resisting the call of the Sirens, which here becomes the temptation to wallow in overly sentimental (and paralyzing) nostalgia, as evidenced by the drunken men who have surrendered to alcohol, singing, and weeping: "Thrill now. Pity they feel. To wipe away a tear for martyrs. For all things dying, want to, dying to, die" (286). Ultimately, Joyce himself (as he does so often in this novel) bursts the bubble of self-importance by having Bloom conclude the chapter with his own anal trumpet!

I Wanna Rock!

"The Wandering Rocks" represents the beginning of the second half of the novel (chapter 10 out of 18), and the first of what will become a series of radical experiments in form. In Homer, this episode is not even really an episode, but rather a few lines in which Circe warns Odysseus to stay away from these rocks, which appear, disappear, and reappear in the sea. Thus, like many of the wanderings in this chapter, it is a "near miss." This chapter contains 19 sections, or short vignettes, many of which occur simultaneously; rather than being organized chronologically according to time, the chapter presents itself spatially, as a sort of birds-eye view of Dublin. In fact, one can argue that in this chapter, Dublin itself is the central protagonists (though our friends Stephen and Bloom make appearances as well). The chapter begins with religion (Father Conmee) and concludes with politics (the visiting Viceroy). In the 5th section, Blazes Boylan buys "fat pears" and "ripe shamefaced peaches" for Molly, while in the 10th section Bloom is simultaneously buying her a soft porn novel, Sweets of Sin. In sections 11 and 13, we meet the destitute Dilly Dedalus, who receives no financial assistance from her father or her brother.