Snotgreen (5 of 783)
A taste of things to come? This page opens with Buck proclaiming a new colour (love the English-English spelling) for Irish poets, based on the contents of Kinch's noserag -- snotgreen -- which he then uses to describe the sea, obviously visible from the parapet where is he shaving. He then breaks into Greek, epi oinopa ponton, which means "to the sea that looks like wine", and descibes the sea as "our great sweet mother."
He calls Kinch (aka Stephen Dedalus) a cold bastard (hyperborean was the exact word) for refusing to pray with his own mother when she was dying. Under his breath he says Kinch is the loveliest mummer of them all, and continued to shave. Kinch spends the rest of the page remembering a dream about his mother visiting him after her death, she smelled of wax and rosewood, and her breath smelled of wetted ashes. He then compares the green sea to the bowl "green sluggish bile" next to her deathbed, filled by her vomitting.
Yum, from a snotgreen rag to a bowl of vile in a single page. Except for the Greek and 5+ syllable words, this could have been from a pilot script of an MTV grossout show. Reading about bodily functions could have been a bit discomfitting to the "civilized" reader circa 192o.
A lot of conflicting imagery here, in order, from Buck:
sea = grey sweet mother
sea = snotgreen
sea = scrotumtightening
sea = looks like wine
sea = great sweet mother
then Kinch:
bay = dull green mass of liquid
white china bowl full of green sluggish bile
Scrotumtightening doesn't sound positive, yet Buck segues through this appellation from snotgreen to the sea being "our great sweet mother". It sounds like praise, but is it backhanded? or is Buck conflicted about the sea? Or his own mother?
Kinch is clearly less enthused about the sea "hailed as great sweet mother" by Buck. Of course his mother has died painfully, he has been accused of killing her (spiritually anyway), so perhaps he is not enthused about anything, despite his brave face. Any bets on when or if this becomes clear? No fair reading ahead.
Tomorrow on as "Ulysses" turns...
- Will Buck finish shaving?
- Will Kinch blow his nose?
- What does he really think about his mother?
- What other bodily emission will be described in colorful detail?
He calls Kinch (aka Stephen Dedalus) a cold bastard (hyperborean was the exact word) for refusing to pray with his own mother when she was dying. Under his breath he says Kinch is the loveliest mummer of them all, and continued to shave. Kinch spends the rest of the page remembering a dream about his mother visiting him after her death, she smelled of wax and rosewood, and her breath smelled of wetted ashes. He then compares the green sea to the bowl "green sluggish bile" next to her deathbed, filled by her vomitting.
Yum, from a snotgreen rag to a bowl of vile in a single page. Except for the Greek and 5+ syllable words, this could have been from a pilot script of an MTV grossout show. Reading about bodily functions could have been a bit discomfitting to the "civilized" reader circa 192o.
A lot of conflicting imagery here, in order, from Buck:
sea = grey sweet mother
sea = snotgreen
sea = scrotumtightening
sea = looks like wine
sea = great sweet mother
then Kinch:
bay = dull green mass of liquid
white china bowl full of green sluggish bile
Scrotumtightening doesn't sound positive, yet Buck segues through this appellation from snotgreen to the sea being "our great sweet mother". It sounds like praise, but is it backhanded? or is Buck conflicted about the sea? Or his own mother?
Kinch is clearly less enthused about the sea "hailed as great sweet mother" by Buck. Of course his mother has died painfully, he has been accused of killing her (spiritually anyway), so perhaps he is not enthused about anything, despite his brave face. Any bets on when or if this becomes clear? No fair reading ahead.
Tomorrow on as "Ulysses" turns...
- Will Buck finish shaving?
- Will Kinch blow his nose?
- What does he really think about his mother?
- What other bodily emission will be described in colorful detail?
posted by DBugger32 | 8:44 PM
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