The sirens in Chapter 11 are not Mina (pun on Midas, gold) Kennedy and Lydia Douce (pun on deuce, i.e. the chapter's two noted motif; and on a certain hygenic device). The true siren is the evocative power of music, especially lyrics; effectively, like many of the preceding chapters, language is the Homeric analogue in "Sirens". As we have seen happen before, Joyce's prose adopts a new quality here, musicality. Its allure (a buzz word in 'Sirens') is misleading, and for Bloom, potentially deadly.
As he sits in the dining room of the Ormond listening to Stephen's uncle Richie Goulding, Bloom thinks "Rhapsodies about damn all. Believes his own lies. Does really. Wonderful liar. But want a good memory." The lines apply not just to Goulding's anecdote, but to Bloom's internal monlogue, and in fact all communications. Truly lyrical discourse, Joyce argues in this passage, can persuade one of lies, or dissuade one from his goal. "Taking my motives he twined and turned them": the message is lost in the beauty of the medium. The lyrics of Simon's song momentarily convince him: "Yes: all is lost", i.e., because Boylan has seduced Molly, he has failed.
The sing song rhythm, always in twos, reinforces this theme: the horses hooves', bronze gold, jingle jangle, etc. The alliteration and easy rhythm is appealing, but lacks depth ("gold from afar, bronze from anear"), and so is ultimately false. Besides, music as Bloom notes, is to be found anywhere, even in the sounds of farts. You can't lose your head over it. That is not to say that Joyce's musical language in "Sirens" isn't appealing. The greatest pleasure in this chapter is derived from it. And consider the alternative, presented by Pat the deaf waiter: "Pat set with ink pen quite flat pad. Pat took plate dish knife fork. Pat went." The language is dead on the page. Like Odysseus, the trick is to be able to hear the beauty of the siren song without being persuaded by it.
Kevin in his post writes that Joyce will write a very poetic line and on the last word break the structure, saying "fuuuuuuck that" to strict ideals. Yes. See above.
1 comment:
Agreed. It is nearly impossible to not take pleasure in Joyce's language in this episode - but in response to your comment about the odessey's siren (hearing the beauty but not being persuaded) do you think Joyce is trying to set us up here in a larger sense or was it only to give power to the last line of the episode?
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