‘Deshil Holles Eamus’ seems to be mimicked in the writing style of the long paragraph that follows. The language pushes me forward but the logic feels circular. I feel the perhaps, downward, spiral of the perpetuation of the human species. According to Christians, we were made in God’s image, starting out perfect, but then after the fall, where Eve took the apple of sin and thus was cursed with pain during childbirth, we evolve or devolve; we are moving away from God. As everyone knows, Darwin, and modern science, sees it the other way. This episode doesn’t seem to take a standpoint. The two ideas just battle themselves out.
This seems to be somewhat evoked in the ‘somewhat indecipherable’ paragraph on the first page (383).
“matters most profitable…to be studied…in doctrine erudite…high mind’s ornament…other circumstances being equal by no exterior splendor…prosperity of a nation..the original..might not be in the future not wit h similar excellence…procreating function…”
From these little clips, I get evolution, devolution, and the ideal / real dichotomy, which is represented in birth, the virgin birth, and also, the birth of Mrs. Purefoy, which harkens back to the evolution. Mary was impregnated by God, as a virgin. It seems the evolutionary cycle is starting over. People evolved away from God; they need a redeemer, born out of purity and not of the flesh, to bring them closer to God, or the ideal. Mrs. Purefoy has obviously copulated with either her husband or another man in order to conceive and birth this child; a child born of the flesh. Also, this is interesting:
“In a woman’s womb word is made flesh but in the spirit of the maker all flesh that passes becomes the word that shall not pass away. This is post-creation. That all flesh shall come to thee.”
This harkens to John 1: 1-5: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” So, before, essence and object were attached, inseparable. The signified and the signifier were one. Joyce’s use of ridiculous language seems to emphasize the (d)evolution (movement away from God). The word and that which the word tries to encapsulate, have grown very far apart. So, in a way, the ideal and the body or real or corporeal, were once joined. This is in the beginning, in Eden. Then Eve, that evil woman, broke this unity apart. The earth now needs a messiah to redeem us from this world that exists “in the flesh” and bring us closer to the ideal: God. So he sends his son to unite the two. But, in the above passage from Ulysses (not the biblical passage), I get the feeling that the ideal takes precedence over the physical (becomes the word that shall not pass away).
Similarly, when Stephen is mimicking the last supper, he will drink the wine but not partake of the body of Christ (the bread). But, perhaps this shows just Stephen’s link with the ideal.
Also, the storm that is brewing through out the entire chapter, at certain times, seems to be reminiscent of the great flood, where God spared only Noah and the creatures two by two, one male, one female. This washing of the evils of the word obviously goes with the messiah, and seems fitting when placed in the context of these ribald men completely apathetic to Mrs. Purefoy’s pain; well, all except Bloom. His heroic quality (like Noah and Christ who save us from the evils of the word) of empathy is truly put to use in Oxen of the sun.
Bloom, however, is a hypocrite. He spread his seed but onto the sand (which seems linked to the biblical passage Mathew 7: 15-29
“Every one therefore that heareth these my words, and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock, And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock.
And every one that heareth these my words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand, And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof.”)
Bloom has wasted the life force. “”Has he not nearer home a see field that lies fallow for the want of a ploughshare?” (409). References to Rudy’s death are abundant. What makes a perfectly healthy child just die after a few days? Bloom, aware of his lack of a son, gazes at Stephen, the obvious surrogate.
And the episode ends with a mockery of the Almighty God.
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1 comment:
Yes, the evolutionary cycle is starting over. Actually, I think GOING BACK AND STARTING OVER is a big thing here. That's why this chapter returns to the beginning of English literature. Of course, every birth is a rebirth or a reenactment of the eternal event of birth. As a sort of pagan, Bloom thinks of sex and love as the life principle. While in Circe Mina Purefoy's baby becomes a kind of devilspawn, that may be because it is seen in this pagan way through Catholic eyes and Bloom's eyes. Stephen's "in woman's womb" is an inversion of the divine creative power of the logos from John, since the creation occurs through biology. You're right that "this chapter doesn't take a standpoint" between revelation or faith and science. And in general Joyce is a funny mix, a "spiritual realist" in my opinion. But consider that the rational discourse of the 18th century in Oxen seems so much more impressive (and was liked by Joyce more) than the pseudo-scientific discourse about Bloom, which is itself a parody of Bloom. However, this may be just a moment when Joyce is veering toward one side. Excellent blog.
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