Homer's Odyssey:
Wandering Rocks are two rocky islands which crush anything that try to pass between them. Circe tells Odysseus about them in Book 12 of Odyssey, when she warns him about the hurdles he will have to face on his journey to Ithaca. He is either to pass the wandering rocks or take the path through Scylla and Charybdis.
James Joyce's Ulysses:
Joyce used the name Wandering Rocks to refer to the 10th episode/chapter of his Ulysses. Whereas the preceding episode was replete with heavy discussions, echoes and allusions, this one has movement as its main feature. It feels like a breath of fresh air after the heaviness of the room in the National Library of Ireland. In this episode we meet many a Dubliner walking, going about his/her daily business in Dublin. Among those we meet are Father Conmee S. J., a onelegged sailor, Ned Lambert, J. J. O'Molloy, Corny Kelleher, the Dedalus daughters - Dilly, Katey, Boody and Maggy -, Blazes Boylan, who will be visiting Molly that afternoon, the music teacher, Almidano Artifoni, Boylan's secretary and Stephen. (It is Miss Dunne, Boylan's secretary, who reveals the date on which this incidences of this novel take place as she types, 16 June 1904.) Molly also appears in this episode. Rather it is her white arm that we see. Amidst all this, the viceroy's cavalcade passes. We observe the various people and their actions as if we are observing them from a bird's vantage point, simultaneous occurrences at different locations. All in all, it feels like a peaceful day in Dublin.
It is 3 p.m.
Selected Highlights of Episode 10 in Ulysses for the Uninitiated:
1. Sayings from Ulysses explored/explained:
- . . . the millions of black and brown and yellow souls that have not received the baptism of water when their last hour came like a thief in the night. (10.145)
- . . . ripe shamefaced peaches. (10.305)
- Every jolt the bloody car gave I had her bumping up against me. (10.558)
- There is no-one in Dublin would lend me fourpence. (10.669)
- I'll just take a thimbleful of your best gin, . . . (10.724).
- Where fallen archangels flung the stars of their brows. (10.806)
- My eyes they say she has. (10.865)
- . . . there is much kindness in the jew, . . . (10.980)
- Shakespeare is the happy huntingground of all minds that have lost their balance. (10.1061)
- He is going to write something in ten years. (10.1089)
- Death, that is. Pa is dead. My father is dead. (10.1170)
- . . . he offered to the three ladies the bold admiration of his eyes and the red flower between his lips. (10.1245)
(Episode.Line numbers in brackets above are according to the Critical Edition of Ulysses by H. W. Gabler, 1986)
2. Illustrations:
- Watercolours by Catherine Meyer
- Original photograph of the statue of James Joyce at the corner of Earl Street and O'Connell Street in Dublin by Chandra Holm
3. Links to
- The Recitation of the song, The Bloom is on the Rye, also known as My Pretty Jane, by Edward Fitzball in 1891
- The poem, Sleep and Poetry, by John Keats (1795-1821)
And much more!
Wandering Rocks are two rocky islands which crush anything that try to pass between them. Circe tells Odysseus about them in Book 12 of Odyssey, when she warns him about the hurdles he will have to face on his journey to Ithaca. He is either to pass the wandering rocks or take the path through Scylla and Charybdis.
James Joyce's Ulysses:
Joyce used the name Wandering Rocks to refer to the 10th episode/chapter of his Ulysses. Whereas the preceding episode was replete with heavy discussions, echoes and allusions, this one has movement as its main feature. It feels like a breath of fresh air after the heaviness of the room in the National Library of Ireland. In this episode we meet many a Dubliner walking, going about his/her daily business in Dublin. Among those we meet are Father Conmee S. J., a onelegged sailor, Ned Lambert, J. J. O'Molloy, Corny Kelleher, the Dedalus daughters - Dilly, Katey, Boody and Maggy -, Blazes Boylan, who will be visiting Molly that afternoon, the music teacher, Almidano Artifoni, Boylan's secretary and Stephen. (It is Miss Dunne, Boylan's secretary, who reveals the date on which this incidences of this novel take place as she types, 16 June 1904.) Molly also appears in this episode. Rather it is her white arm that we see. Amidst all this, the viceroy's cavalcade passes. We observe the various people and their actions as if we are observing them from a bird's vantage point, simultaneous occurrences at different locations. All in all, it feels like a peaceful day in Dublin.
It is 3 p.m.
Selected Highlights of Episode 10 in Ulysses for the Uninitiated:
1. Sayings from Ulysses explored/explained:
- . . . the millions of black and brown and yellow souls that have not received the baptism of water when their last hour came like a thief in the night. (10.145)
- . . . ripe shamefaced peaches. (10.305)
- Every jolt the bloody car gave I had her bumping up against me. (10.558)
- There is no-one in Dublin would lend me fourpence. (10.669)
- I'll just take a thimbleful of your best gin, . . . (10.724).
- Where fallen archangels flung the stars of their brows. (10.806)
- My eyes they say she has. (10.865)
- . . . there is much kindness in the jew, . . . (10.980)
- Shakespeare is the happy huntingground of all minds that have lost their balance. (10.1061)
- He is going to write something in ten years. (10.1089)
- Death, that is. Pa is dead. My father is dead. (10.1170)
- . . . he offered to the three ladies the bold admiration of his eyes and the red flower between his lips. (10.1245)
(Episode.Line numbers in brackets above are according to the Critical Edition of Ulysses by H. W. Gabler, 1986)
2. Illustrations:
- Watercolours by Catherine Meyer
- Original photograph of the statue of James Joyce at the corner of Earl Street and O'Connell Street in Dublin by Chandra Holm
- The Recitation of the song, The Bloom is on the Rye, also known as My Pretty Jane, by Edward Fitzball in 1891
- The poem, Sleep and Poetry, by John Keats (1795-1821)
And much more!
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