AEOLUS CHAPTER! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

This chapter I had the most difficulty with. Surprisingly it was not the headlines that threw me off, but the conversation. Not only do the characters’ obscure references cause difficulty, but Joyce’s portrayal of the scenes are confusing. A lot of the time there are different conversations between multiple people happening at once. While confusing as hell, this does parallel the events of the scene. If many people are crammed in a busy office, it would be hard to follow the conversation going on.
One other stylistic element of this chapter that intrigued me was Stephen’s return. Since Bloom was gone at this moment Joyce shifted back to revealing Stephen’s thoughts. I am curious to see if this will be a consistent shift.
In this chapter Joyce explores his own trade, writing. Not only is the scene in a newspaper office, but our young poet Stephen and a professor are in the scene too. One obvious way language is explored in this chapter is as a tool, or commodity. All these people in the office are sellers of words. And this relates to Stephen particularly. In the earlier chapters Stephen often grapples with having to make money, and inevitably making his thoughts and writings his money. When Haines says that he wants to make a book of Stephen’s sayings, Stephen only wonders “will I make money on it?” (16). But there is an inclination that selling words is base. One of Bloom’s thoughts elaborates on this idea; “funny the way those newspaper men veer about when they get wind of a new opening. Weathercocks. Hot and cold in the same breath. Wouldn’t know which to believe” (125). Since newspapers seem to have strong political connotation, a change of employment could coincide with a change of ideals. And to be false to oneself, and your readers, for the sake of money seems corrupt. And Bloom even mentions how the public will easily digest someone’s words when he says, “all very fine to jeer at it now in cold print but it goes down like hot cake that stuff” (126). This relates back to Stephen in how his skill could be used by the paper. Myles Crawford at one point says to Stephen “I want you to write something for me….Something with a bite in it. You can do it. I see it in your face. In the lexicon of youth…” (135). In a way this is Crawford trying to convince Stephen to be convincing. Where his own rhetorical knowledge may be lacking, Crawford uses what he can to persuade Stephen to use his. Crawford is not curious to see Stephen’s creativity, just what “bite,” or rhetorical spin, he can add to something. This is displayed when he says, “no poetic license. We’re in the archdiocese here” (148). This further shows how Crawford chooses political loyalty, in this case to the church, over true authorship. I think a lot of this ties to Stephen’s mention to St. Augustine on page 142. He talks about corruption of things, and much of Confessions has to do with the corrupt use of language for pride and vanity.
Joyce also explores the rules and conventions of language in this chapter. We see many puns and plays on words. Also the older people in this chapter think over exemplary oratories. And the professor even criticizes Doughy Daw for not alluding to, or doing what Shakespeare does with the moon in Hamlet. I feel like this is Joyce grappling with literary history, because in this chapter we see the refrain of waking from the nightmare of history. But this time the phrase has changed to “nightmare from you will never wake (137).


Connections:

Pg. 123 Blooms soap still bothers him in his pocket. Also found in Pg. 87 and Pg. 100

In the last scene Bloom thought of people having their hearts on their sleeves. In this chapter people are mentioned having brains on their sleeves Pg. 125.

I see more of the damn letters. In Proteus Stephen thought of the books he was going to write with letters as titles. In this chapter Crawford remembers how Gallaher assigned letters to all parts of Dublin. Pg. 137

Questions

What do you make of Stephen’s digression about the strike of a match effecting the rest of his life? (pg. 140 before A POLISHED PERIOD)