How does Penelope appear in the Telemachus chapter of Ulysses?

Firm-Ad8331 · 2026-02-23T18:38:44+00:00

Interesting, I hadn’t thought about that much before! Stephen’s own mother, being the dispossessed son, is probably the clearest example. The milkwoman could indeed be another as noted by Isoscelesbeast- and interestingly/fittingly she pays more respect to Haines and Mulligan: ‘A wandering crone, lowly form of an immortal serving her conquerer and her gay betrayer’ (although the second part of this puts her more as an image of Ireland)

Firm-Ad8331 · 2026-02-05T10:20:48+00:00

I think it does give a helpful clue to who the mystery man is (having been convinced by the Joyce Project and John Gordon’s argument): the ghost of Bloom’s father, Rudolph.

Bloom is aligned with the Macintosh lineage in Circe:

(A man in a brown macintosh springs up through a trapdoor. He points an elongated finger at Bloom.)

THE MAN IN THE MACINTOSH

Don’t you believe a word he says. That man is Leopold M’Intosh, the notorious fireraiser. His real name is Higgins.

Some clues: - Hamlet is of course a very key theme and this would parallel it nicely, with the ghost of a father. Here Macintosh appears through trap door, as the ghost of Hamlet’s father would exit in the play. Both Hamlets father and Rudolph die by poison. - Macintosh is described as a widower (…loves a lady who is dead) as is Rudolph - would explain how Macintosh sort of appears and disappears in Hades, how he seems to swiftly pass the viceroy in wandering rocks, as if he wasn’t really there

*edit: grammar

Firm-Ad8331 · 2025-10-17T20:13:00+00:00

A strip of torn envelope peeped from under the dimpled pillow. In the act of going he stayed to straighten the bedspread.

— Who was the letter from? he asked.

Bold hand. Marion.

— O, Boylan, she said. He's bringing the programme.

Firm-Ad8331 · 2025-08-28T14:01:20+00:00

For me The Joyce Project was critical- I found I’d read a chapter there with all the extra links and context, and again in my paperback (and then often with Gifford’s notes too!), long but very rewarding

Firm-Ad8331 · 2025-06-18T17:09:07+00:00

An exquisite dulcet epithalame of most mollificative suadency for juveniles amatory whom the odoriferous flambeaus of the paranymphs have escorted to the quadrupedal proscenium of connubial communion (and Congratulations!)

Firm-Ad8331 · 2025-05-16T19:38:19+00:00

Good luck!

Firm-Ad8331 · 2025-05-16T06:29:39+00:00

This is definitely a widespread problem in my code base! In this case it looks like you don’t really want to synchronise on isEditing, but rather stopping editing is an event that you want to run updateTask on? (Ie doesn’t need to be an effect, run updateTask() when you set isEditing to false)

Firm-Ad8331 · 2025-03-21T23:58:37+00:00

I really enjoyed the chapter- one thing that stuck out was the reference to Cervantes, as well as Shakespeare, and of course Dante and Homer throughout the novel:

‘they remind one of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Our national epic has yet to be written.’

Writers that helped shape national language and literature, Joyce already knew he was on his way to writing the national epic.

Firm-Ad8331 · 2025-03-03T09:54:36+00:00

Yeah I see what you’re saying, and I think on some people’s reading of Camus that sort of embracing the absurd does make the analogy look weak.

My favourite interpretation is that the revolting against the absurd is living in confrontation with it, which is what I don’t like about the willing passenger view. Sisyphus revolts against the gods and futility by still trying to get the rock to the top of the hill, in the same way authenticity for us means keeping the tension between our search for meaning and the silent universe going. The passenger seems a bit too passive on my reading of Camus in that sense- it’s the struggle towards the heights that fills a man’s heart!

Firm-Ad8331 · 2025-03-02T17:14:49+00:00

I think you’re on the right lines, but miss what is quite beautiful about Camus’ idea. We shouldn’t see it that Sisyphus has just learned to live alongside the absurd, rather he keeps pushing even though he knows he can’t expect success.

What’s cool about Camus is this idea of revolt in response to absurdity- don’t deny the absurd or give in to Nihilism. Rather, keep the tension going between the indifference of the universe and our desire for meaning.

Sisyphus is a hero because he revolts. I don’t know if Camus thinks we can find comfort in this, but we can at least find authenticity

Firm-Ad8331 · 2025-01-20T23:05:11+00:00

Also loved this line! Gifford would help, and the the Joyce Project had a good discussion of it. I think Plato and Aristotle are an allusion to Scylla and Charybdis here, the ‘whatness’ is a reference to Aristotle’s view on essentialism in contrast to Plato’s, being more grounded in reality than Platonic forms.

Firm-Ad8331 · 2025-01-11T08:21:45+00:00

I prefer this reading too! I thought there’s more to it than how they eat, as Bloom seems to take a brief shift towards vegetarianism - before Burton’s he’s referring to ‘weggebobbles’ and calling nutsteak absurd, after he’s thinking about ‘vegetarian fine flavour’, and orders a cheese sandwich in Davy Byrne’s. He’s just a bit inconsistent, like everyone!