Notes on Chapter 11, "Sirens"

Time:  4 p.m.

Technic:  "Fuga per canonem" (fugue as canon, in the form of a 
          canon)

     FUGUE:  "A polyphonic composition, developed from a given 
     theme or themes, according to strict contrapuntal rules.  
     The subject theme is first given out by one voice part, 
     which then proceeds with a counterpoint, while the subject, 
     now called the answer, is repeated by another at an 
     interval of a fifth or fourth, and so on, until all the 
     parts have answered one by one, continuing their several 
     melodies and and interweaving them in one complex 
     progressive whole, in which the theme is often lost and 
     reappears." 

     CANON:  "A composition in two or more voice parts, 
     employing imitation in its strictest form. The melody of 
     the leading part, at a few beats from its beginning, is 
     taken up by another part and imitated precisely, but often 
     at a diferent interval, throughout its extent" (Webster's 
     Unabridged). 

Homeric Parallel:  Odysseus, warned of the Siren's singing that 
makes men mad with desire so that they jump into the water and 
drown trying to reach them, stops his men's ears with wax and 
has himself, waxless, tied to the mast of his ship so that he 
can hear them safely.  

Here, the Ormond Hotel barmaids (Bronze-haired Lydia Douce, 
Gold-haired Mina Kennedy) and the singers (Simon Dedalus and Ben 
Dollard) share duty as stand-ins for the Sirens.  Out of sight, 
Bloom listens from a room adjoining the bar. 

THE BOYLAN-MOLLY BLOOM TRYST OCCURS AT ABOUT 4:30.

Pp. 210-211 constitute an overture (JJ doesn't really stick to 
his fuga per canonem conceit).  Plot elements are reduced to 
sounds, stated here as pure (hence nonsensical) motives.  The 
motives make sense in context, but they will also be manipulated 
into further musical nonsense. 

MORE FROM THE ARRANGER:  Attitude toward Bloom begins to shift 
toward scorn, and attitude toward the naration itself becomes 
strangely flippant:  

     212, 222-223, 225, 227, 228, 235

Mixing,transforming of previously stable styles:  

     213 (Bloom-ese breaks in)
     218 (now Bloom's interior monologue is Sirenified)

Fugal variations or grace notes:

     212, 230 

Bloom's masochism/passivity:

     224, 226, 230, 234

Bloom's famous fart:

     234, 236, 237, 238-239 

     The last of these passages is mixed up with Robert Emmet's 
     dying words.  The point?  Bloom steers clear of the 
     patriotic (and other) sentimentality pervading the Ormond.  
     Or a parody a la "Ivy Day" -- a lot of gasing but no 
     action?  (By Ireland or by Bloom!)