Abigail McCool’s Reviews > Ulysses > Status Update

Definitely reading from a gender theorist lens and I'm actually really enjoying it. I like how Bloom falls at almost an intersection of how a man and a woman is expected to act. There are so many little instances in the way he speaks about things and the way he looks at the world that makes his character come alive in this gendered way.

You already know John O'Connell is married to a goth baddie. Also i don't think I like books about men main characters. I'm actually so tired of all of them talking in circles about nothing and being comtemplative for the audience. The contemplation is only good and/or makes sense like 10% of the time.

Just figured out when Joyce switches to first person POV its the expression of the character's thought. Can't decide what Bloom's obsession with food is about but it feels significant. Can definitely see Bloom as Ulysses (or more so Odysseus) as he is also obsessed over taking care of his wife and doing right by her though I can't tell which woman Mrs. Bloom is supposed to represent just yet...

I get how Stephen is Telemachus. He is in the act of discovery and Joyce writes in a poetic stream of conscious style to showcase the uncertainty of Stephen in the world around him. I believe I just finished the Telemachy part so now I am cracking into Bloom as Ulysses. Intrigued and excited and confused but that's for the love of the game ALSO TATTERS MENTION!!!

I don't know if I am going to love this book like Joyce scholars seem to. Maybe he's just not for me considering this book seems like a cross between Gordimer's writing style and the vague unexplained references of Dante's Inferno. I haven't read Portrait or Dubliners so I don't have a frame of reference, but what I want to do is find meaning for myself. This book reads like poetry. I am interested to interpret.