Why should you read James Joyce's "Ulysses"? - Sam Slote

ULYSSES
set in DUBLIN in 1904
It deals with a day in the life of Leopold Bloom.
Leopold is an ADVERTISING AGENT
THE NOVEL⇉  3 books → 18 EPISODES

                               ⇊
                            Each book is modelled on a section  of                                              Homer's  Odissey
                              ⇊
                            It covers an hour of Bloomsday
LEOPOLD → ULYSSES
STEPHEN → TELEMACHUS
MOLLY→ PENELOPE

FIRST BOOK 3 episodes → STEPHEN
SECOND BOOK 12 episodes → LEOPOLD (his wanderings)
THIRD BOOK 3 episodes → STEPHEN and LEOPLOD go to Bloom's home, where Molly is already in bed


There are few incidents. During his wanderings Bloom meets Stephen Dedalus, who is the alienated protagonist of A Portrait of an artist as a young man. He becomes his adopted son.

WHO IS LEOPOLD?

LEOPOLD =JOYCE's COMMON MAN

The alienated common man
He leaves his home at 8 o'clock to buy his breakfast and he comes back at 2 the following morning
Places he visits; a newspaper office
                          the cemetery
                          the library
                          the public baths
                          a brothel

THE MYTHICAL METHOD
Homer's myth is used to give the actions and people of a Dublin day another dimension and to express the universal in the particular

STEPHEN pure intellect (every young man seeking maturity)
MRS BLOOM sensual nature
MR BLOOM he unites the extremes. He is everybody

THEME ⇉QUEST or JOURNEY →MORAL???
Human life means suffering, falling but also struggling to rise and seek the good (overcoming chaos)