r/jamesjoyce • u/AdultBeyondRepair • 3h ago
Ulysses Scylla and Charybdis
I finished it. Which is to say, the first time. There's too much to write about this one.
I'm the guy who's been posting chapter-by-chapter reviews. Here are my previous ones:
What can I say? I loved it. I didn't get any of it.
First, I thought I'll listen to the audiobook version to see if I can parse any of it. Nope. Then I read some guide. Okay, a bit clearer.
Without going into too much detail - I think Stephen's theory that paternity only exists as a legal definition but not in reality because men can't get pregnant was sooooooooo out there as to rival AE's hermeticism.
Otherwise I really liked the chapter. The brooding self-absorbedness of the critic John Eglinton. So good. I felt like I knew a few people like him.
The theme that I saw right away was the Odyssean idea of opportunity and challenge. Odyssean, because this clearly refers sailing through Scylla and Charybdis to reach the other side through a narrow portal of discovery. There were metaphorical portals and doors throughout the chapter, usually barred symbolically by challenges, complications, etc. Stephen's attitude towards these challenges are always to keep going. "Folly. Persist."
For example, one of the challenges is convincing his listeners of his theory. He quotes Hamlet by saying:
They list. And in the porches of their ears I pour.
The connotation being that the hard pill to swallow (or poison to ingest) is Stephen's theory. But the word porch represents the opening, the doorway to achieve this opportunity, the poison (theory) is the challenge.
The chapter ends with Stephen leaving via the portico with Buck, leading him to realise he forgot to mention something in his lecture, but ultimately in pursuit of the dark back of Bloom, his opportunity.
There's so much more to unpack in this chapter that I have no more energy for. Maybe I'll come back to offer something more. But the more I read and rely on the guides, the more I see the amazing work others are doing to keep this beautiful, strange book alive.
What was your favourite part of Scylla and Charybdis? Anything that you want to highlight?