A Very Joycian Thread

flogen

Ok, so I'm nearly an hour late, who cares?

Anyway, thought, what with it being Bloomsday and all, I should pay reference to Leopold Bloom's taste for mustard, and Joyce's brief mention of it... heres an extract from Ulysses:

Mr. Bloom cut his sandwich into slender strips. Mr MacTrigger. Easier than the dreamy creamy stuff. His five hundred wives. Had the time of their lives.
- Mustard, sir?
- Thank you.
He studded under each lifted strip yellow blobs. Their lives. I have it. It grew bigger and bigger and bigger.

Pure genius, isn't it? Well, ok, not really, it doesn't really make sense, does it? Ah well, I just saw the word mustard and thought it was apt...

so, err.... discuss using references to the text...

Flogen

simu

Tis stream of consciousness (i.e. thoughts flitting around Bloom's head) with a bit of dialogue and description thrown in.

What is clear though is that Bloom goes for mustard - that says a lot about his character. What do people think of his putting-mustard-in-sandwich technique?

flogen

Originally posted by simu
Tis stream of consciousness (i.e. thoughts flitting around Bloom's head) with a bit of dialogue and description thrown in.

What is clear though is that Bloom goes for mustard - that says a lot about his character. What do people think of his putting-mustard-in-sandwich technique?

Oh, I know that, don't get me wrong, I meant it doesn't really make sense when you take such a small piece of such a large book and view it on its own..

It is important, though to discuss his method of mustardisation of the sandwich, its an unusual method. Thin slices of sandwich with a blob of mustard on each piece... I would argue from this part alone that he is somewhat regimental in his eating habits, and a very neat person in general.

Flogen

Beruthiel

Originally posted by flogen
he is somewhat regimental in his eating habits, and a very neat person in general.

I'm not sure I totally agree with you there,
I believe it would be even more regimental and neat to completely smear the mustard into every corner of his sandwich, I would have thought studding it like that makes him come across as slightly playful

flogen

Originally posted by Beruthiel
I'm not sure I totally agree with you there,
I believe it would be even more regimental and neat to completely smear the mustard into every corner of his sandwich, I would have thought studding it like that makes him come across as slightly playful

hmm..... interesting point
/me places hand on chin

Perhaps, in the layout of his sandwich, and the style that he cuts it up in would suggest a rather regimental upbringing (which would reflect the very militant feeling that was everywhere in 1904 Dublin due to tensions on a national and international scale), however his rather playful blobbing of mustard rather than a neat spreading would suggest that he wants to break free of his past, to be more light hearted and spontanious.

Flogen

po0k

I've never read Joyce.

And I'm not particularly pressed to do so.

Now, Sophocles, there's an artist.

simu

But did Sophocles write about mustard? That is surely the mark of a great writer.