The mind of Stephen Dedalus is certainly less intriguing than Leopold Bloom, but there were still some good bits to this section. Here are my favorite lines:

“. . . the Quaker librarian purred.” (184)

“A hesitating soul taking arms against a sea of troubles, torn by conflicting doubts, as one sees in real life.” (184)

“A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.” (190)

Absolute favorite:
“He laughed to free his mind from his mind’s bondage.” (212)

Traditional name of Episode 9, Scylla and Charybdis, always puts me in mind of my HS Mythology prof Mr. Percy who referred to it as “the original rock and a hard place.” What are are rock and hard place here? What are we finding ourselves caught between?

Personally I sought out the base levity among all the intellectual high-mindedness. Sample: ref. to H.P.B. (Mme. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, occultist, spirit medium, co-founder and leading theoretician of Theosophy) via an elaborate pun on genitals, “You naughtn’t to look, missus, so you naughtn’t when a lady’s ashowing of her elemental.” — elemental in theosophy = the lower, or mortal nature of man (ML 1946 p. 183). Also, Leopold Bloom espied in the museum, “His pale Galilean eyes were upon her mesial groove. Venus Kallipyge [lit. beautiful buttocks]. O, the thunder of those loins!” (p. 198) And the drubbing play on Dedalus’ name “Seabedabbled, fallen, weltering. Lapwing you are.” (p. 208).

Most quotable quote of the episode goes to, “Only crows, priests and English coal are black.”

Intertextual weaving: Neil Gaiman’s twitter is @neilhimself. In this chapter of Ulysses, Stephen riffs on WH (name from sonnets, I think) as possibly Will Himself, so was Neil giving a nod to Will, as he has done before?

I can relate to the “Penelope stayathome” myself sometimes -minus the infidelity.

P.S. I really need to finish the Sandman series.

Much of my knowledge of Shakespeare was started by reading the Sandman comic series, which featured Will in 3 critical issues: Men of Good Fortune, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the series ender #75 The Tempest. I loved these so much they spurred me to learn more about Shakespeare and his plays.

Also trying to be a fly on the wall to Stephen’s  philosophising through dialogue was exhausting; it was like walking into a room sober after all inside has just passed a bowl around and then trying to cypher the subject of conversation.

Stephen talking about Shakespeare, and Hamlet specifically, I think is a projection of what he feels about himself maybe?? “To be or not to be, that is the question.” He went on about Shakespeare/Hamlet as both father and son and past and present. Time being the main subject and how the ego plays a role.

Everything Mulligan interjected to encourage his buddy, Stephen, was both cheeky and timed perfectly and made the episode bearable and laugh out loud funny(ex. play for the mummers). What was best about Mulligan is no one was amused more by him than Mulligan himself.

“Buck Mulligan gleefully bent back, laughing to the dark eavesdropping ceiling.”

I thought the comparison to Ann Hathaway to Penelope was a stretch.

Some fave lines from the episode: 

“discussions of the historicity of Jesus. Art has to reveal to us ideas, formless spiritual essences. The supreme question about a work of art is out of how deep a life does it spring.” (p. 185)

“The schoolmen were once schoolboys first, Stephen said superpolitely. Aristotle was Plato’s schoolboy.” (p. 185)

“People do not know how dangerous lovesongs can be” (p. 186),

“A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.” (p.190)

“He carried a memory in his wallet.” (p.190)

“I am big with child. I have an unborn child in my brain.” (p. 208)