Reading Ulysses with my Mom

FOURTEEN:
7. AEOLUS

SEPTEMBER 22

Such detail about the streets and the people he encounters! And then the detailed newspaper office... Guess we get some insights into Bloom... am finding it difficult to believe he is only in his thirties. His musings seem to come from an older man.

Lots of meetings but little real interaction. No wonder Bloom seems discontent.

An aside...Did they actually have dental floss at the turn of the century?

Getting lost in all the chatter... seems so disconnected!

So Bloom spent the better part of his day just securing one ad... no wonder I sensed discontent!

Didn't really learn much about Stephen but interesting to see the younger man accepted into the circle of old cronies!

Aeolus... lots of hot air!

SEPTEMBER 22

Did they actually have dental floss at the turn of the century?

According to Wikipedia, a dentist in New Orleans is said to have come up with the idea in 1819. And, because our boy JJ was a man on the cutting edge of not just literature but also oral hygiene: "One of the earliest depictions of the use of dental floss in literary fiction is found in James Joyce's famous novel Ulysses (serialized 1918–1920), but the adoption of floss was low before World War II. ”

It’s rather too on the nose for my taste, however. We get the headline “O, HARP AEOLIAN” and then the professor “twanged” the dental floss between “his resonant unwashed teeth” (7.370-373). An Aeolian harp being a stringed instrument played solely by the wind, named after Aeolus, the Greek god of the wind—etc, etc. As you say, lots of hot air!

A rather familiar kind of hot air, though. People hanging out, ragging on bad writing, and telling stories—the vibe of the newspaper office has some commonalities with my undergrad days in Honours English. Since we got a cheeky limerick from Lenehan in this episode, here’s a communal effort composed on a whiteboard at a party:

There once was a man named [xxxx] Melling
Who had an unfortunate swelling.
Whatever the angle
And no matter the dangle
The sight was always compelling.

I believe [xxx] is a lawyer now.

K.