Hello Cruel World- Session 5 recording, plus details for session 6

“—I'm going round the corner. Be back in a minute.
And when he had heard his voice say it he added:
—You don't want anything for breakfast?
A sleepy soft grunt answered:
—Mn.”

CHAPTER 4, CALYPSO

Calypso, is by far the easiest read we've had in the Steemit Book Club, and it’s this fourth chapter that we first meet Leopold Bloom along with his wife Molly. The entire chapter is mainly effortless and fairly easy to follow. The writing style contains enough narrative to present an ambience that enables us the readers to follow through the events, standing in strong contrast with the deep philosophical inner thoughts of Stephen Dedalus in the previous chapter.

Chapter four begins at 8:00 a.m. with Leopold Bloom making breakfast for him and his wife while his cat is meowing. Leopold feeds her some milk and stops to watch her with a certain fascination while wondering about differences and similarities between humans and animals

“She understands all she wants to. Vindictive too. Cruel. Her nature… Wonder what I look like to her.”

He goes upstairs to see if Molly wants anything:

Mnnn…

She didn't want anything. She sighs heavily, and softer, as she turned over. Joyce describes the emotion of pity invading the room. All the way from Gibraltar, he says. Meanwhile Bloom walks to butcher shop called Dlugacz to buy some meat for breakfast, pork kidney to be exact.
As he walks back home, he starts feeling depressed as a cloud covers the sun.

As he returns home, Leopold finds some mail at his doorstep. He picks up a letter from his daughter Milly along with letter to his wife from sent to her by someone called Blazes Boylan. Leopold then walks up to the bedroom and hands Boylan's letter to Molly, who immediately slides it under her pillow.

Leopold then brings her breakfast to his in bed, and he asks her about her letter. She tells urges him to not worry about it and explains that Boylan was just inviting her to a concert that evening.

Much of the hidden meaning in "Calypso" seems to be drawn from the hints of an affair between Boylan and Moll. In last Monday's meeting we drew parallelisms between Leopold who was sexually dead as a consequence of not having been able to satisfy his wife Molly for eleven years (since the death of their son Rudy, and Odysseus who was presumably dead leaving his wife Penelope courted by the usurpers that has taken his own place.

For more, here’s a recording of the entire fifth Steemit Book Club meeting:
https://soundcloud.com/user-920645529/steemit-book-club-part-5

And this is Neil jumping in here (@the_alien penned this excellent summary): I am talking way too much in this recording. More discussion next call!

NEXT WEEK’S SBC CALL

Steemit Book Club, Session 6
Book: James Joyce, Ulysses (Preferably Gabler Edition)
Reading Assignment: Chapter five (“The Lotus Eaters”)
Date: Monday, October 24th
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

Bonus #1: A short podcast interpreting every single line of Ulysses with painstaking accuracy
http://blog.frankdelaney.com/re-joyce/
Courtesy of @asaule

Bonus #2: 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 @shawnlauzon

Bonus #3: 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 @tyger

Don't forget to download this one-page map to Ulysses, which we mentioned on the call. You will find it to be of a huge help with the readings:

Let the discussion begin…

Best,

@neilstrauss, @the-alien, and the #steemit-book-club