the riddles of ulysses
i think joyce relied on
a fiendish corollary
to conan doyle's 1890 dictum
only those who've studied ulysses
closely enough to eliminate the impossible
will dare to acknowledge
its improbable truths
so take the following
with a grain of saltpeter:
16 june 1904 was the historical date
of the general slocum disaster
termed in ulysses a beanfeast
at which 1021 attendees died in a fire
so when
on 10 march 1923
joyce drafted the first vignette of fw
dating it internally as
"after that same barbecue beanfeast was all over"
we may suspect we're still
at #7 eccles
with ROC = Bloom-the-dreamer
and Boylan and Stephen the "all of them gone"
and ROC's heeltapping perambulation
equated to Bloom's own
in the last half of Ithaca
but if ROC is Bloom
then Tristan and Isolde
can only be Bannon and Milly
putting Bloom's condom to use
the following day
so then
could Patrick's eventual socking
of Berkeley
be a hidden explanation
of Stephen's wounded hand
after the altercation with Mulligan
between Oxen and Circe?
Mulligan might naturally have told Stephen
about Milly and the condom
or about Bloom's gluepot
but could Stephen have been so offended
as to strike Mulligan in Bloom's defense?
and if Berkeley is Mulligan
and Patrick is Stephen
then is holy St Kevin
Stephen as well
rather than the awol-in-ulysses Stannie/Shaun?
.
