Notes on Chapter 12, "Cyclops"

Homeric parallel:  Odysseus was trapped with his men in the cave
of Polyphemus, the one-eyed Cyclops.  He blinds him by plunging 
a red-hot sword into his eye, and then escapes the cave by 
clinging to the underside of P's sheep.  As Odysseus sails away 
and yells taunts at him, P. hurls rocks at the ship.  In 
"Ulysses," Bloom has a cigar (the sword), the Citizen is a 
bigoted, anti-semitic Irish nationalist with an eyepatch, and a 
biscuit tin serves for a rock to be thrown at Bloom as he rides 
off in a coach.  (See especially p. 251.)

Of course:  one-eyed = half-blind, bigoted, intolerant.

Also, Bloom is described as a champion talker (very much 
polytropic) -- P. 260.

Narrative style:  "gigantism" (expressed in the wild parodies, 
but also in the exaggerated nationalist views of the fanatical 
Citizen.

Narrative voices: 

     1.  "Thersites," an unnamed Dubliner with a very caustic 
         tongue.  Modeled somewhat on John Joyce.

     2.  "Gigantic" parodies.  Mainly journalistic idioms 
         (executions, obituaries, diplomatic visits, weddings, 
         sporting events, etc.), applied in higly inappropriate 
         ways with bizarre details.  Also, heroic sagas, baby 
         talk, legal jargon, business jargon, spiritualist 
         claptrap, and others.

         
Functions of all this: 

     1.  Bloom, whom we now know well via interior monologue, is 
         shown from the outside from the viewpoint of a wholly 
         unsympathetic narrator, and through wild distortions 
         of other kinds.  PARALLAX.

         Bloom as we know him showing through:  250, 257
         
     2.  In the parodies, extreme ideas are scorned, and the 
         extremism of the yellow press is equally scorned (along 
         with other extremist discourses).  

     3.  Thus the chapter is both an ideological and aesthetic 
         commentary on Ireland (or on modern Europe, for that 
         matter).

Sample "gigantic" parodies:

     241 -- description of Michan (begins like Arthurian romance 
            but gets infected soon by journalese)

     243 -- description of the Citizen 

     247 -- spiritualist burlesque

     251 -- the execution

     265 -- romance/Irish legend/the Old Testament

     268 -- forest wedding

     274 -- Zulu visit


Sample "Thersites" narration:

     262 -- on Molly's tour with Boylan

     271 -- Bloom on nationalism

     273 -- Bloom on love
          

Concluding battle:  279-283.