An archetypal aristocrat of academia - authoritative glasses, tailor-made pinstripes, towering presence and a cultivated prose that is an engaging blend of curious locution, wry wit and suggestive wisdom.
His introductory remarks of caution -
"This book has left many dissatisfied and I dare say, even impoverished".
His dismissive views on lesser writers -
"There are many books that are put to better use in the smallest room of the house".
His notes on Goddess Calypso -
"Calypso held Odysseus as her sexual captive. A very willing captive, I suspect”.
You can almost picture his privileged ways. A few discrete invites – scented ecru paper, fountain pen, long hand, thoughtful verses – sent to fellow scholars, socialites and that chosen student. An evening to showcase his skills as a progressive chef de cuisine. An evening with a promise of that temporary utopia of purposeful profundity, competitive wit, the right sexual tension and a continuum of morals…
What is it about the writers (and readers) of the ‘books of life’? Courage. Not quite. Irreverence? Perhaps. Assured irreverence - of thought.
--
“He foresaw his pale body reclined in it at full, naked, in a womb of warmth, oiled by scented melted soap, softly laved. He saw his trunk and limbs riprippled over and sustained, buoyed lightly upward, lemonyellow: his navel, bud of flesh: and saw the dark tangled curls of his bush floating, floating hair of the stream around the limp father of thousands, a languid floating flower”.
It’s the last paragraph of the episode, “lotus-eaters”. He closes the book and addresses his class – a motley crowd of forty, aged twenty and above and beyond.
- What kind of a man is he?
Freeze frame. Voice over. Convenient intrusion for a mandatory context setup.
“This episode captures Bloom (the “hero”) expending much of his modest energy in not thinking about the meaning of the letter he spotted earlier under his wife, Molly’s pillow: the letter from Boylan addressed to “Mrs. Marion Bloom”. Bloom knows and does not know about (can think and cannot think about) the assignation that has been arranged (“at four she said”). He submerges himself in a psychological narcosis, gathering about himself the signs of narcosis elsewhere in the world…”
Unfreeze (the frame).
- Why doesn’t he go home and confront this visitor and his wife? What does the paragraph signify? What’s the overriding motif?
Unsure eyes. Bent necks. Lost heads. Pause.
- Impotence!
Pregnant pause.
- “But he’s so easily aroused”, counters the oldest lady (late thirties) in the class.
Muted laughter from the class readily escalates into a spirited backing of the lady’s spunky response. You’re certain that you heard a low approving whistle from a back-bencher. And she’s right. There’s enough not-so-subtle matter in the book to support her claim.
- Yes and no. We’re talking of mental incapacitation. What kind of a man goes about wandering listlessly with the knowledge that his wife is secretly expecting a visitor that afternoon? Also, as we’ll read in further episodes, he found it difficult to ‘act’ since his daughter’s first menstrual period.
- Seems like a fitting case for Mr. Freud. Did they ever meet?
- No. In fact, when a reporter asked Joyce what he thought of Freud and Jung, he said, “Tell me, who’s the Viennese Tweedeledum and who’s the Swiss Tweedledee…”
The class reacts with shock and awe.
(But then, Freud would label it his 'defense mechanism'.)
- Is it possible that Joyce is writing about events from his personal life?
- “No”, he promptly dismisses the question. “James Joyce and Nora Barnacle had a very passionate love life”.
- And how do we, or for that matter, even Joycean scholars know that?
- Love letters.
- Have you read any?
- Yes. Scholars have found many of Joyce’s letters to Nora. Frankly, very pornographic letters. Scholars also know that James and Nora were living in such poverty in Trieste that they slept head-on-toe in a single narrow bed.
Words. Images. Thoughts. Whispers.
- Make of it what you will.
- But given Mr.Bloom’s “incapacitation” , isn’t it possible that he was passively permitting his wife’s assignations?
- “Not at all”. His vehement denial takes the class by surprise. “I would have to strongly disagree with that. It is inappropriate. It just isn’t enough of a justification for her actions”.
You begin to wonder; is he talking about Joyce and Nora or Mr. and Mrs. Bloom?
- “And by the end of the book, you’ll realize that”, here he brings his hands forward and locks his fingers in front of his chest, “they were very deeply in love with each other”.
You stare at him and his locked hands and suddenly notice the gleaming wedding ring on his left hand. It definitely didn’t figure in your vision of his personal life. Instantly, he looks hunched and tired. An old man who’ll go back to his home and wife after the class, some soup and pasta, and then perhaps watch the presidential debate on TV...
You continue to wonder; so, was he talking about himself and his wife?
--
Joyce (and Bloom) and the Professor. I thought: He has given all his life to his thoughts. And then I thought: he has mediated his thoughts to me. Does he possess him or does he possess him? Another thought: There’s a book in this thought. OK, final thought, there really is.
