Well, I ran into my first obstacle. The pages have not been numbered! Have you ever read an unnumbered paged book?
My plan was to title each of my posts something like "Part 1, Page 1-3" or whatever, to make following along easier.
The Players:
Malachi “Buck” Mulligan, “Two dactyls”, but maybe a Hellenic Ring? Not like Stephen Dedalus though.
Stephen “Kinch” Dedalus, a “fearful” and “jejune jesuit”. the main character in A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. Now, I have read APOAAAYM, with difficulty, and it has been a couple years now. So it is kinda vague in my brain. But from what I remember, He, Stephen Dedalus was a pretty gloomy guy, I think his mom died, and he was on his way to become a priest. I am hoping more will come to me as time passes. Anyway, It seems that he is still pursuing that.
Haines, “a ponderous Saxon” who’s been hanging out in a tower, freaking out about a black panther.
Introibo ad altare Dei
Introibo ad altare Dei, this is the first line of line of dialogue in the book said by Buck Mulligan. “Go to the altar of God”.
Concerning google translations, you have to be pretty careful. I have an amateurish fascination of language studies, and keep a solid study regiment of Esperanto, German, and Russian. And I have come to find that if you want to use Google translate as a resource you have to take all kinds of context into account.
“Go to the Altar if God”, seems solid to me.
Our boys, Buck and Kinch start off waking up in the morning (assuming they are roommates).
Wohnen Zusammen. That’s a phrase that comes to me, I hear it a lot on a German TV show designed to teach German.
There’s quite a bit of Catholic talk. So far, I am still on the first page, one that I like actually is “For this, O dearly beloved, is the genuine Christine” body and soul and Blood and ouns.” The dude, I think, is being a bit blasphemous, trading mass talk “Christ” with old timey 17 year old boy locker room talk:”Christine” or maybe not.
Anyway, these guys are buddies. Mulligans likes the mockery of Kinch's name. I’m assuming the contrast between being a christian and having a Greek name. Kind of like Ulysses.
We seem to jump into a whole lot of green. Buck cuts himself shaving and Dedalus loans him a gross handkerchief, “The bard’s noserag” snotgreen
They’re looking out onto the sea.
He mentions a guy named Algy talking about “a great sweet mother”
Here is a thing about english. Is he saying “Hard G” or “Soft G”? “Soft G” would go along with the whole green theme. "Algy" is Algernon Charles Swinburne, He’s poet from around that time, I aint gunna fuck with looking more into that.
Epi oinopa ponton- “towards the great pink sea” something that is said in the Odyssy. Also, I think “ponton” or some variation translates to bridge in some language. Maybe something to think about.
Thalatta Thalatta- something that was said by the ancient greeks when they saw some important guy, also Jules Vern said it in 20k below the sea. Both sea and greek talk.
Ha! I was right! Dedalus mom was dead! But Buck’s aunt thinks that Dedalus killed her, and won't let Buck hang with him. I guess they aren't living zusammen after all. Kinch wouldn't kneel and pray for her on her deathbed, Buck seems a bit iffy. There’s something sinister about him(Stephen that is).
Somebody did kill her though.
“But a lovely mummer! He murmered to himself. Kinch, the loveliest mummer of them all!”
Kinch zones out and thinks about a dream he had with his dead mom holding a bowl of green bile she had ripped from her rotting liver by vomiting too much.
Fucking Buck keeps trying to give Stephen his old clothes.
The previous night, Buck was on a ship with a guy who says Stephen has General Paralysis of the Insane.
New Characters!
Guy on the ship- Hangs with Connolly Norman in Dottyville
Connolly Norman- Hangs in Dottyville
The skivvy- Missing a mirror
Malachi- Has plainlooking servants,
Ursula- I don’t know. Quick look shows that it is a crater on one of Uranus' moons. Of course the little mermaid. Was The Little Mermaid based on an older story?
Ha it was! But this chick was also Poseidon's daughter, Which is greek mythology. Moving on.
Buck keeps giving him shit about his appearance. Saying something about the Rage of Caliban. I think it was a quote from A Picture of Dorian Grey, I looked it up and it took me to some essay I didn't wanna mess with. I’ve never read A Picture of Dorian Grey, but I have listened to it on audiobook.
Do you think there’s some difference between reading and listening to a book? I think, for me anyway, there is. Not to say one is better than the other. I think audio books' true strength is immersion. You have a voice that guides you along a path whether you are ready for it or not. As opposed to reading a book, where you are allowed to stop and think about what you’ve just experienced.
A glossary
Kinch- Mulligan calls it a knife-blade, Merriam Webster says it is a Scottish word a noose
Ha it was! But this chick was also Poseidon's daughter, Which is greek mythology. Moving on.
Buck keeps giving him shit about his appearance. Saying something about the Rage of Caliban. I think it was a quote from A Picture of Dorian Grey, I looked it up and it took me to some essay I didn't wanna mess with. I’ve never read A Picture of Dorian Grey, but I have listened to it on audiobook.
Do you think there’s some difference between reading and listening to a book? I think, for me anyway, there is. Not to say one is better than the other. I think audio books' true strength is immersion. You have a voice that guides you along a path whether you are ready for it or not. As opposed to reading a book, where you are allowed to stop and think about what you’ve just experienced.
A glossary
Kinch- Mulligan calls it a knife-blade, Merriam Webster says it is a Scottish word a noose
(un)tonsure-Tonsured hair means that a bald spot has shaved into it like the monk from Robin Hood
Corpuscles-Something very very small, like cells and such. I think of cookie crumbs
Chrysostomos-This is a bit complicated, well maybe not, It translates to Golden-Mouthed. I think it was just a name they gave to people known for communicating intelligent ideas, or folks that talked a lot.
Dactyls- BUM bum bum, BUM bum bum. MAl-ala-chi MUL-li-gan
Prelate- A church top dog, like a bishop, the pope or l. ron hubbard (I don’t capitalize the names of people I don’t respect
Hellenic- Another word for things that come from old greece
Jejune- Nouns that are simple and boring
Saxon- The “S” in WASP. Back in the day, they were early germans, I’m thinking, like the vikings. But later they started getting busy with Anglos (the “A” in WASP) somewhere in the west (the “W” in WASP). Now i think they are just known as protestants (the “P” in WASP) that have roots in England.
Skivvy-Underwear in America, Turtlenecks in Australia, and House chores in England
