Out to Lunch

In "Lestrygonians," Joyce parallels Bloom's culinary experience with the episode of The Odyssey in which Ulysses/Odysseus parks his ship outside a harbor inhabited by giant cannibals, who proceed to attack all the ships save the hero's own and eat all of Ulysses's men except the ones on his ship. In addition to obvious food/meat correspondences in this section, to me the interesting parallel lies in both Bloom and Ulysses being men of prudence, men who choose the moderate, middle path. Ulysses's prudence causes him to refrain from sailing right into the harbor, as do the rest of his ships, while Bloom's moderation causes him to be repulsed by the cannibalistic "dirty eaters" in Burton restaurant, leaving it in favor of the "moral pub" Davy Byrne's, where he eats a semi-vegetarian meal of burgundy wine and a cheese sandwich (note also the pseudo-Eucharist here). There's a lot in this chapter about what it means to be human, including ruminations on the past versus the present ("Happy. Happier then" and "Me. And me now") and on digestion, for lack of a better term: "Immortal lovely. And we stuffing food in one hole and out behind: food, chyle, blood, dung, earth, food: have to feed it like stoking an engine. They have no. I'll look today. Keeper won't see. Bend down let something fall see if she" (176). That is, Bloom will check the statues of gods and goddesses in the National Library courtyard to see if they have anuses! Bloom's memory of making love to Molly on p. 176 includes both food (the seed-cake that passes from her mouth to his) and defecation (the nearby goat that leaves droppings). It's a remarkable scene. Furthermore, we learn that Bloom hasn't had sex "since Rudy."

Other tidbits in this chapter worth noting include the "throw-away" flier concerning Elijah (recall the horse Throw Away, an inadvertent betting tip from Bloom to (I think) Bantam Lyons earlier); more "Who's getting it up?"; "U.P." (any ideas re: this puzzle?); mention of Mina Purefoy in the midst of a three-day delivery (we'll visit her late in the day); Bloom as God, delivering "manna" in the form of bread crumbs to the birds; and Bloom's sighting of Stephen's poor sister (we learn of the 15 impoverished Dedalus children).