Notes on "Oxen of the Sun"

Bloom & Stephen transformation begins (because of accident, via Dixon,
etc.)

Homeric Parallel: Killing of the sacred Oxen of Helios (which leads to
the death of all of Odysseus's crew) is equivalant to the ribald
denial of fertility undertaken by the young revelers.

STYLE:

The most artificial of any chapter, and often condemned for it. 

Historicity of English ~ Gestation

Stylistic "parodies" of styles, writers, periods.

Recurring Anglo-Saxon-sounding passages -- the clumping of the oxen's
hooves. 

In defense of the chapter: Since there *is* no *right* style for
depicting reality, how can this selection of styles be condemned as
artificial? Likewise, each style reveals a different aspect of what it
treats. How much more interior monologue do we really need now? Bloom
and Stephen will henceforth be distanced, contextualized, objectified.

Examples of various styles:

Prehistory, magic, ritual: 314
Latin: 314-316
Anglo-Saxon: 315-316
Everyman: 316
Malory: 316 ff.
17th c.: 321 ff.
Bunyan: 323 ff.
Pepys: 324-325
Gothicism: 336-337
19th c. scientific, Victorian: 341 ff.
Modern babel of tongues: 346 ff.

Important themes:

Bloom's personality showing through despite any stylistic distortions
(analogous to Joyce's notion of the perpetual recurrence of mythic
archetypes): 315, 316-317.

Fertility vs. Abortion: 

	  Bloom the proponent of fertility, the students the
	  proponents of sterile, non-progenitive sexuality,
	  Stephen arguing the traditional Catholic view: 321-335
  
          ALSO: There is something ovum-and-sperm-like about 
	  this meeting between opposites Stephen and Bloom,
          who each gradually begin shifting from their familiar
	  roles into something new and inter-related. this process
	  culminates not in this chapter, but in Ithaca, when
	  Stephen/Bloom become Blephen/Stoom.