the 2nd flight of Aeolus

Back again, bouyed by breezy comments from Aeolus’s margins, we fly.  If you missed the previous flight, catch it here.  This may be a bumpy ride, so please stow your luggage securely and put your trays in the upright positions.

 

“Practice dwindling.  A mighthavebeen.  Losing heart.”– such a sad fellow.

“Weathercocks.  Hot and cold in the same breath.”– are they Mary Poppins then?

“Is he taking anything for it?”– a good question.

“shite and onions”– such a disgusting phrase!  What did onions ever do to you?

onions are lovely. leave them alone.

“Get a grip of them by the stomach.”– I agree.  good advice.  hopefully not using the shite and onions, though.  eww.

“The editor’s blue eyes roved towards Mr Bloom’s face, shadowed by a smile.”– Why, what does Secret Squirrel here know?

Is this really a picture of the Editor and Leopold Bloom?

“My Ohio.”– ooooooo ooo hio– where North Cork won every time [sung to tune of “Oklahoma”]

“He took a reel of dental floss…”– ok, nice to see him flossing, but such poor manners!

“Who wants a dead cert for the God cup? he asked”– how are the odds on the choirboys handicap?  Bertie Wooster wants to place a bet with Pongo.

“There’s a hurricane blowing.”– listen, bub.  You don’t know nothin’  ’bout no hurricanes.

“We are the boys of Wexford…”– I’d rather have David from “Newsies” singing here: “Open the gates and seize the day…”

give me David anyday over random Ulysses urchins

“He’ll get that advertisement”– why is Leo so motivated here?  does he work on commission?

“Lenehan promptly struck a match for them and lit their cigarettes in turn.”– according to Hanff, the English would light cigs only off of other peoples.  they would never ask for a match.

“Thanky vous”– well, aren’t we just too Gallic for words!

“Silence for my brandnew riddle”– booooogus!

“We mustn’t be led away by words, by sounds of words.”– Pah-lease!  That is all that J.J. does!

“The Roman, like the Englishman who follows in his footsteps, brought to every new shore on which he set his food… only his cloacal obsession”– Do you have a flag?

“First my riddle, Lenehan said.  Are you ready?”– Poor guy can’t get a word in edgewise.

“Youth led by Experience visits Notoriety”– sounds like a naughty poem by Blake.

“Lenehan said to all:”– Why is a raven like a writing desk?

“He comes, pale vampire”– is he sparkly?

“The bloodiest old tartar God ever made.”– Ah, She Who Must Be Obeyed.

“O’Rourke, prince of Breffni”– yes, yes, we’ve had all of this already.  get on with it!

“We were always loyal to lost causes.”– ah, like Evan Tanner.

“But the Greek!”– For all our faults, we loooove our Greeks.  [sung to a tune from Pirates of Penzance]

“Pyrrhus”– without Thisbe?

“LENEHAN’S LIMERICK”– I like Carl Kasell’s better.

“Myles Crawford crammed the sheets into a sidepocket.”– Those Blasted Sheets and Tissues!

“The Rose of Castille”– groan.  awful.  though, better than Stevie’s from earlier.

“YOU CAN DO IT!”– why does this remind me of those Python letters to the editor?

 

And I shall leave you, dears, with one of my favorite bits of flying humor.  Enjoy.

the nonsense is blowing in the wind

 Why, hello.  Did you do your homework?  Have you listened to or read Aeolus? 

Good, good.

So, let’s review: Aeolus is the section of Ulysses that is roughly set as a newspaper, complete with bold titles and (mostly) uninterested reporting of events. 

this chapter is full of wind bags.

The wind bags in this section have blown in these random bits of marginalia.

“The hoarse Dublin United Tramway Company’s timekeeper bawled them off”– Reminds me of Cosby’s subway routine called “Incoherency.”

is the porter a Sontarian in disguise?

“All his brains are in the nape of his neck, Simon Dedalus says.  Welts of flesh behind him.”– Is that a probic vent I see? 

 “But will he save the circulation?”– He needs Jack, David and the Newsies (Let’s be honest– every one needs Newsies!)

“HOW A GREAT DAILY ORGAN IS TURNED OUT”– ok, that’s dirty.  Even for you, J.J!

“Monkeydoodle the whole thing.”– another excellent phrase that I wish to incorporate into my everyday vocabulary.

“his spellingbee conundrum…”– a cute puzzle.  He should send it to Click & Clack for the Car Talk puzzler.

“Time to get out.”– he knows a lambasting is coming.

“ONLY ONCE MORE THAT SOAP”– I’d forgotten about the soap.

“Wouldn’t it give you heartburn on your arse?”– Um… no?

“The pensive bosom and the overarsing leafage…”– I have to agree with them here; this is ridiculous doggeral.

“The right honorable Hedges Eyre Chatterton”– is he involved in the Eyre Affair?

“SHORT BUT TO THE POINT”– but what was the point?

“The doorknob hit Mr Bloom in the small of the back as the door was pushed in.”– Ouch!

not recommended by your chiropractor

I’ll leave you today with that painful memory.  Tomorrow– more hot air.

wandering rocks logo

Can you handle the action at WANDERING ROCKS?

Hades is not a cheerful place

 

Can you believe it?  Two posts in one day– this hasn’t happened in awhile.   For my second trick today, I’m giving you the rest of my marginalia for the Hades section of James Joyce’s Ulysses.  My margins are full to bursting! 

Part one comments reside here.  (If you’re new to this game, it’s great fun.  Click on the Ulysses category on my sidebar to find the rest of them.)

Picking up on page 92 of the Vintage edition…

 

The River Styx just isn't as fun as it used to be.

“The devil break the hasp of your back!”– Why is this funny?

“Well, nearly all of us.”– Ouch!

“As decent a little man as ever wore a hat, Mr Dedalus said.”– I like this phrase.  Finally Mr. D is not being a twat.

“Our.  Little.  Beggar.  Baby.”– how awful and sad!

“But the worst of all, Mr Power said, is the man who takes his own life.”– Now listen here.  You leave poor Leo’s dad alone.

“Martin Cunningham drew out his watch briskly, coughed and put it back.”– Take the hint, dude.

 

You did WHAT? to the roast beef, Everton? You shall die for this.

“Roast beef for old England.”– Reminds me of that episode of Chef!

“To heaven by water.”– Not one of your best advertising ideas there, Leo.

“Better for ninetynine guilty to escape than for one innocent person to be wrongfully condemned.”– Powers would have this reversed.

“Too many in the world.”– Well that’s depressing.

“I was in mortal agony with you talking of suicide before Bloom.”– You tell him, Mr. C!

“Condole with her…” — I don’t approve on hitting on recent widows, Leo.  At least you thought better of it.

“[Mr Bloom] dropped carefully his unfolded newspaper from his pocket and knelt his right knee upon it.”– cute.

“With a belly on him like a poisoned pup.”– eww!

“Makes them feel more important to be prayed over in Latin.”– well, yes.

“One whiff of that and you’re a goner.”– gruesome.  Sounds like something from Castle of Otranto or Poe.

“Mr Power took his arm.”– Ok- I feel sorry for old Mr. D now.

“The reverend gentleman read the service too quickly, don’t you think?  Mr Kernan said with reproof.”– yes, I do.

“Come forth, Lazarus!  And then he came fifth and lost the job.”– Harde har har

“What? Eh? Corny Kelleher said.”– Is our Corny a bit slow?

“A traveller for blottingpaper.”– Does he know the territory? [Wilson’s The Music Man]

“They tell the story…”– Why are all of their jokes about drunk men?

“Come on out and live in the graveyard.”– Probably not the most successful of chat-up lines.

“In the midst of death we are in life.”– reminds me of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

“Well preserved fat corpse gentleman…” — Listen, Leo.  Not everything is a business opportunity. 

“Nothing to feel on feed on themselves.”– eww!

“Every Friday buries a Thursday if you come to look at it.”– cheesy pun.

“It’s the moment you feel…”– What the moment of death may be like, as a Python sketch.

“Does he ever think of the hole waiting for himself?…”– It is a creepy feeling. 

“the gravediggers rested their spades”– “Tamp it down tight, Charlie.” [Disney’s A Christmas Carol]

“That one day he will come again.”– like King Arthur?  or was that Jesus?

“Eulogy in a country churchyard it ought to be that poem”– a good poem, that.

“Have a gramophone in every grave or keep it in the house.”– What a strange, yet tempting, idea.

“Cremation better…”– God, he is morbid here– yet practical.

“Back to the world again.”– Yes, please.

“that case I read of to get at fresh buried females”– ewww!

“Plenty to see and hear and feel yet.  Feel live warm beings near you.”– Now that’s the Leo that we know and love.

“John Henry Menton stared at him for an instant without moving.”– Ouch!  Cut him dead in true Regency style.

“Thank you.  How grand we are this morning.”– Are we sarcastic, too?

 

My, this was a cheerful and optimistic chapter!

Wow!  I’d forgotten how long that section was– and we’ve got a longer one coming up.  I may well break these up into 3 or 4 sections for Aeolus section.

Are you all still enjoying these?  If so, drop me a comment and let me know, or share some of your book graffiti with me.

Wobbly bits– Ulysses section 6 part 1

This is how I felt about this chapter.

What happened to my Ulysses comments, you may ask. 

Well, I didn’t want to steal Katie Else’s thunder over at Wandering Rocks.  She  is doing such a lovely job of summarizing and discussing the “Hades” section 6 (yes, ok, I know it’s been awhile since I blogged about it, but yes, I am definately still reading!)  Do not abandon hope, all ye who enter here.

But now as she’s well on her way, I think it is about time to share with you some more of my random marginalia for this section.  If you want to see the previous bits of these, click on the Ulysses Category in my sidebar. 

 Off we go! 

“Huggermugger in corners”– like the flower watcher in As Time Goes By?

“Goulding, Collis and Ward he calls the firm”– see Car Talk’s  Dewey, Cheatem and Howe.  Ha!

“He’s in with a lowdown crowd, Mr Dedalus snarled…” — Yikes!  Mr. Dedalus is the Aunt Agatha chewing broken bottles & devouring his young.

“See him grow up.”– This longing is terribly sad.  I like Leo again.

“O jumping Jupiter!”– “Leaping Lizards!”

“It’s as uncertain as a child’s bottom.”– Now that just doesn’t make any sense.

“Blazes Boylan, Mr Power said”– Hello, Blazes, about time!

“Shift stuck between the cheeks behind.”– Eww!  He does like her squidgy, wobbly bits, though.  Cue Bridget Jones, here.

 

This looks like a good place to end for tonight.   Who’d have imagined Leaping Lizards and wobbly bits gallivanting about in the Underworld– apparently Joyce.

Are you enjoying these wobbly bits of randomness?  Leave me a comment and let me know!

going to town with the randomness

Good morning, all–

Now, you weren’t expecting that, were you!  Neither was I expecting the riches these pages would hold for massive silliness!  Here’s the second part (for part 1, click here) of my scribbling scrawl across the pages of section 5 of Ulysses. 

“Wish I hadn’t met that M’Coy fellow”– dammit, Jim, I’m a doctor, not a plot device!

“Mohammed cut a piece out of his mantel not to wake her”– huh???

“Go further next time…”  —What is going on here? 

“Wonder how they explain it to the heathen Chinese”– a good question, indeed.

“These pots we have to wear.  We ought to have hats modelled on our heads.”– I feel the same way about jeans.

“Cold comfort”– Farm?

“Father Bernard Vaughan’s sermon first.  Christ or Pilate?  Christ, but don’t keep us all night over it.  Music they wanted.”– so, hasn’t changed much, then.

“They had a gay old time while it lasted”– yes, yes they did.

“Penance.  Punish me please.”– oh dear, he IS kinky.

“Squareheaded chaps”– wearing square pants?

“Better be shoving along, Brother Buzz”– To Infinity and Beyond!

“Quest for the philosopher’s stone”– hello, Harry, I hadn’t expected to find you here.

“poppy syrup bad for cough”– Poppies, Poppies will put her to sleep (The Wizard of Oz)

“It certainly did make her skin so delicate white like wax”– ha!  just read a blog on this! Check it!

“Also I think I…”– does this bit mean what I think it does?  Knowing JJ, yes.  Ewww.

“Raffle for a tender turkey”– wait… that was the plot of a Hercule Poriot episode, and I’m fairly certain, a Sherlock Holmes one, too.

Ok– you guys MUST have your own scribbles– let’s hear some!

a lotus snack

Hi, folks– Since Voreblog will begin twreading section 5 of Ulysses today over at Wandering Rocks, I figured I’d post my book graffitti for the first part of this section.  If you want to see my remarks on section four, click here.

So, let the lotus eating begin.

“Too hot to quarrel”– It’s too darn hot! (Cole Porter’s Kiss Me Kate)

“Flowers of idleness”– seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness (John Keats’s To Autumn)

“Or is it the volume is equal of the weight?”– Yup, that’s me and math, alright.

“Too showy.  That must be why women go after them.  Uniforms”– yes, indeed.

“Hate company when you” — are trying to be sneaky.

“How’s the body?”– So it goes (Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5)

“Women all for caste till you touch the spot”– hmmm. liking Leo a bit less here.

“Dark lady and fair man”– Othello in reverse?

“Poor papa!” — Papa, can you hear me? (Legrand and the Bergman’s Yentl)

That’s enough for today.  Part 2 up soon. 

Leave a comment with some of your book graffitti from this section.

Come out and play with Leo!

Hi, all–

Sorry for the lack of new posts here this week.  I’m busily twreading and summarizing section 4 of Ulysses over at Wandering Rocks. 

Come on over and play with Leopold Bloom!  🙂

http://wanderingrox.wordpress.com/

Leo makes tea

jangling springs

Here’s part 2 of Ulysses episode 4 of my silly book scribblings.  If you haven’t read the first part, you can find it here.  This section didn’t have as many wacky sections, but a few were doozeys!

“What a time you were, she said”– she is sooo lazy!

“She set the brasses jingling as she raised herself briskly, an elbow on the pillow”– You must meet my wife [Sondheim’s A Little Night Music]

“Saucebox.”– great term!  I will use this!

“Quietly he read, restraining himself…”– ok, this whole section is all just more than I needed to know.  eww!

“Heigho!  Heigho!”– It’s off to work we go [Disney’s Snow White]

Right– section 5 soon.

Bloom emerges

I’ll be leading this section {Calypso– section 4} with Wandering Rocks.  (I’ll let you know when I start.  We are still on the very difficult section 3 at the moment.) There, I will attempt to sound learned and wise (Ha!).  Here, however, will be my silly marginalia.  For those of you who have been following this series (oh, you poor, unfortunate souls), here we go again…

“Clean to see: the gloss of her sleek hide, the white button under the butt of her tail, the green flashing eyes”– Hello, Stella Luna– my cat the gracious, kind, and benevolent animal upon whom I am allowed to wait hand and foot.

“Mrkgnao! the cat cried”– Stella makes that same exact sound!

“Nothing she can eat?’– the cupboard is bare

“she prefers yesterday’s loaves turnovers crisp crowns hot”– She Who Must Be Obeyed [John Mortimer’s Rumpole series]

“His eyes rested on her vigorous hips.”– Everybody ought to have a maid [Stephen Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum]

“He held the page from him: interesting: read it nearer”– playing trombone

“Make hay while the sun shines”– a roll in the hay?

“They like them sizeable”– nice to know that someone does

      Stella Luna– who stars in this section