My Ulysses Read - 2
Ah Nestor. The old windbag. Full of unheeded advice and stories of past glories. General tool, who is respectfully listened to and ignored, the general who needs to be rescued from the battlefield. (At least, that's Nestor in the Iliad. In the Odyssey, Nestor is a different person entirely. Courteous, devout and a good host, who takes in Mentor and Telemachus, and points them to the direction of Menelaus.
The parallel of Mr Deasy is more in keeping with the Nestor of the Iliad than of the Odyssey. Deasy is a Tory, an old man who rattles on about Ireland's history and writes letters to the papers about Foot and Mouth disease. He pays Stephen, but rubs in the fact that Stephen owes money to lots of people.
The theme for this chapter is "catechism" according to Gilbert, and "Wisdom of the ancients" according to Linati.
Here are the schema entries:
Gilbert
Linati
And the chapter begins with a catechism - a Q & A session, call & response, call it what you will. And its history, about Tarentum, and Pyrrhus, the man who gave us the Pyrrhic victory. I wonder if that's supposed to mean something - in the context of the Irish struggle against Britain, or in a more personal context - that every victory we win is never worth the cost of the battle?
"Thought is the thought of thought".
I kind of get Stephen here, looking at a bunch of rich kids, their futures already made because of their parents, while he grapples with the absence of his mother. I get the routine of unprepared lessons, of a job indifferently done.
The first thing I wanted to know was: "Who was the French Celt?" But unfortunately, that seems to be a red herring. Scottish author, John Wilson, writing as "Christopher North" in Blackwood's Magazine in 1829, is sometimes credited as originating the usage. But Wikipedia has a whole page on the possible origins of this phrase, and the various empire it referred to, dating all the way back to the Bible.
The other thing that struck me was the "Iago" quote. My grandfather was full of quotes from Shakespeare - not from any reading of the plays, but half remembered scraps from a book of quotations.
But this made me wonder, yet again, about context. Is a quote automatically suspect - and untrue - because it came from Iago? That in context, it was malicious? What about the meaning you take away from it? Does a quote become less true if someone repellent said it.
There's this bit, which could easily make it to a thousand greeting card platitudes, inspirational Twitter and political campaigns:
"And I can fight only for something that I love, love only what I respect, and respect only what I at least know"
It sounds perfectly sensible and logical. Does it become automatically suspect because it was said by Adolf Hitler?
Anyway, that's another track altogether.
Returning to Nestor and the schema, Sargent, the ugly, mathematically-challenged student, I suppose, is Pisistratus (though he isn't Nestor's son). Who then is Helen?
But overall, an interesting chapter. There's a ton of references I don't get, but I like this kind of reading. Kind of takes me back to the days - pre-internet days - when I discovered TS Eliot, and was trying to figure out the lines, using the annotations.
The parallel of Mr Deasy is more in keeping with the Nestor of the Iliad than of the Odyssey. Deasy is a Tory, an old man who rattles on about Ireland's history and writes letters to the papers about Foot and Mouth disease. He pays Stephen, but rubs in the fact that Stephen owes money to lots of people.
The theme for this chapter is "catechism" according to Gilbert, and "Wisdom of the ancients" according to Linati.
Here are the schema entries:
Gilbert
| Title | Scene | Hour | Organ | Colour | Symbol | Art | Technic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nestor | The School | 10am | - | Brown | Horse | History | Catechism (personal) |
| Nestor | 9 — 10 a.m. | Brown | History | The wisdom of the ancients |
"Thought is the thought of thought".
OK. What does that mean? It's not like a "Rose is a rose is a rose", it's something that sounds good, but again, very "pale parabola of joy"-ish. But it can lead to thought being the enemy of action, another misquoted line - but one which came much later.
I kind of get Stephen here, looking at a bunch of rich kids, their futures already made because of their parents, while he grapples with the absence of his mother. I get the routine of unprepared lessons, of a job indifferently done.
And I get Mr Deasy - there are so many Deasys in my own family - or atleast there were. Dead now, most of them. Conservatives, staggeringly hypocritical, parsimonious, and proud of it. Full of advice and opinion, and yes, catechisms, in their own way.
— Because you don't save, Mr Deasy said, pointing his finger. You don't know yet what money is. Money is power. When you have lived as long as I have. I know, I know. If youth but knew. But what does Shakespeare say? Put but money in thy purse.— Iago, Stephen murmured.He lifted his gaze from the idle shells to the old man's stare.— He knew what money was, Mr Deasy said. He made money. A poet, yes, but an Englishman too. Do you know what is the pride of the English? Do you know what is the proudest word you will ever hear from an Englishman's mouth?The seas' ruler. His seacold eyes looked on the empty bay: history is to blame: on me and on my words, unhating.— That on his empire, Stephen said, the sun never sets.— Ba! Mr Deasy cried. That's not English. A French Celt said that. He tapped his savingsbox against his thumbnail.— I will tell you, he said solemnly, what is his proudest boast. I paid my way.
The other thing that struck me was the "Iago" quote. My grandfather was full of quotes from Shakespeare - not from any reading of the plays, but half remembered scraps from a book of quotations.
But this made me wonder, yet again, about context. Is a quote automatically suspect - and untrue - because it came from Iago? That in context, it was malicious? What about the meaning you take away from it? Does a quote become less true if someone repellent said it.
There's this bit, which could easily make it to a thousand greeting card platitudes, inspirational Twitter and political campaigns:
"And I can fight only for something that I love, love only what I respect, and respect only what I at least know"
It sounds perfectly sensible and logical. Does it become automatically suspect because it was said by Adolf Hitler?
Anyway, that's another track altogether.
Returning to Nestor and the schema, Sargent, the ugly, mathematically-challenged student, I suppose, is Pisistratus (though he isn't Nestor's son). Who then is Helen?
But overall, an interesting chapter. There's a ton of references I don't get, but I like this kind of reading. Kind of takes me back to the days - pre-internet days - when I discovered TS Eliot, and was trying to figure out the lines, using the annotations.