“Words empty as the wind are best left unsaid.” ― Homer
Chapter Seven opens with Leopold Bloom at the headquarters of a local newspaper called The Weekly Freeman. What’s remarkable about this part is the sarcastic way that Joyce uses to describe the newspaper’s work, so much so that you could’ve sworn that he was talking about The Onion.
Needless to say, Ulysses was ahead of its times in so many ways.
In this chapter, the paths of Bloom and Dedalus cross once again. Stephen is trying to publish an educational article about foot and mouth disease written by his headmaster Mr. Deasy whom we’ve met in the third chapter of the book, Nestor.
Bloom on the other hand, is found hustling around trying to get the editor in chief (Mr. Keyes) to renew his newspaper subscription so that would be able place ads again, only to get interrupted by someone who has a special kind of message for Mr Keys.
The message reads like this: KMA. And yes, as you might have guessed, it stands for Kiss My Ass, or in this case: Arse.
You see, even in acronyms Joyce was ahead of its time.
The main difference between this chapter and the ones we’ve seen before is that the text in Aeolus is divided by bold print headlines imitating those you would normally find in newspapers.
Knowing Joyce, one cannot help but wonder about the playful clues that must be hidden within those headlines. Clues, such as this easy-to-decipher one:
HARP EOLIAN
(The Aeolian Harp is the musical instrument that was named after Aeolus, God of the wind.)
CHAPTER 7: AEOLUS
In The Odyssey, Odysseus and his men come ashore the land of Aeolus who greeted them warmly and hosted them for an entire month.
But as we all know, Homer’s masterpiece is all about the magnificent odyssey that takes the king and his men back to Ithaca, so it was only a matter of time until Odysseus and his men decided to resume their venturous voyage and take on the unforgiving seas.
On the day of departure, Aeolus gave Odysseus an ox-skin pouch filled with wind. The reason behind that was that was to assist driving the ship on the right course. But here’s the thing, Odysseus didn’t tell his crew about the contents of the bag, thus leaving the door open to all kinds of speculations.
Influenced by greed, some crew members assumed that there must be some sort of treasure inside the pouch that their king is hiding from them.
So they waited until Odysseus fell asleep and they stole his bag.
That was a terrible idea.
Once they had the bag in their possession curiosity inevitably got the best of them, they couldn’t resist but to pull the bag wide open, and with it a whole can of worms followed.
When you’re navigating across the high seas, the last thing you would want is a windstorm at your tail, these guys did it backwards. They literally brought the storm upon themselves. Needless to say, it was catastrophic.
Odysseus assumed his responsibility and realized that he has himself and only himself to blame. Eaten up by despair and devoured by guilt he even started to contemplate suicide. But as the old saying goes:
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
Odysseus gathers his strength, pulls himself up, dusts himself off and heads backs to Aiolos to ask Aeolus for another bag of wind, only this time and much to his surprise, he too ended up receiving a KMA.
Now, the most immediate question becomes: What are the most notable parallels between the story above and the one in our chapter?
Well, just imagine where the wind in a room full of newspaper men comes from.
If you’re thinking of something scatological, well, Joyce has some of that for you in this chapter too.
But in this case, we’re talking about the windbags there.
P.S: Don’t miss out one particular theory from one of our Book Club members about how this book is becoming self-aware.
Without further ado, here’s the entire recording of session 8 meeting of The Steemit Book Club:
https://soundcloud.com/user-471385730/book-8-buenos
NEXT WEEK’S SBC CALL
Steemit Book Club, Session 9
Book: James Joyce, Ulysses (Preferably Gabler Edition)
Reading Assignment: Chapter Eight (“Lestrygonians”)
Date: Monday, November 7th
Time: 6 p.m. PST / 9 p.m. EST / 2 a.m. GMT / 11 a.m. (Tuesday) UTC
Phone: (800) 719-6100 or (218) 339-7800, access code 629-1831#
Web audio link (and location for international call-in
numbers): https://hello.freeconference.com/conf/call/6291831
Chat: #steemit-book-club channel on steemit.chat
Extras and Bonuses
Bonus #1:
Here’s an annotated guide to Ulysses that could be used as a map to the book, keep it close because it could be a huge help with the readings.
Bonus #2:
A short podcast interpreting every single line of Ulysses with painstaking accuracy
http://blog.frankdelaney.com/re-joyce/
Courtesy of
Bonus #3:
For those of us who have heavy schedules, this audio with the words of wisdom from Joseph Campbell is a true gift.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2hy62n_wings-of-art-joseph-campbell-on-james-joyce-2-6_creation
Courtesy of
Bonus #4:
A short book covering the basics, and all you need to know to understand and love Ulysses.
https://www.amazon.com/Read-Love-James-Joyces-Ulysses-ebook/dp/B00N2A6QN0/
Courtesy of
Best,
P.S. Note that the Comments section of this post will also serve as a discussion forum for the current reading.