Death Takes a Philosophy Class: Session 7 Steemit Book Club recording, plus details for session 8

"The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A Death! What's that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards.

You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you're too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you get ready for high school.

You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating... ...and you finish off as an orgasm." ― George Carlin.

In Homer’s timeless masterpiece The Odyssey, Odysseus travels to the realm of the dead (Hades) in order to receive a prophecy from a blind seer. As you might've guessed, the Hades chapter in Ulysses also deals with the same death thematic recounting Bloom’s journey to his friend’s funeral.

Taking a carriage ride to a funeral, Leopold’s mind is often caught reflecting back on his dead son Rudy as well as his late father. But then all of the sudden, his curious mind starts to drift away to uncharted territories as he begins to ponder about the intertwining relationship between life and death.

“In the midst of death we are in life” — Leopold Bloom

CHAPTER 6: HADES

Chapter six opens with Leopold Bloom heading to the cemetery to assist to Paddy Dignam’s funeral. In his journey, he shares a carriage with Jack Power, Martin Cunningham, and Simon Dedalus.

As the chariot passes by Watery Lane, they cross paths with Stephen and Leopold immediately points him out to his father Simon who didn’t hesitate in lamenting the company that his son is keeping, referring to our old friend Buck Mulligan.

Notably, at this exact time in the Proteus chapter, Stephen is walking to the Strand, so we get to see the scene from another point of view.

This causes Bloom to start thinking about his departed son Rudy, and this chapter sets up how unqualified in a sense Simon is to be his father and how qualified Leopold Bloom is.

This chapter unveils some huge revelations as Bloom starts pondering about life and death. Still in pain, he wonders about the value of bringing the newborn into a world they’re soon going to depart from anyway.

In fact, his refusal of having more children may hold the keys to the secret why Bloom has been sexually dead in the last years, totally unable of intimately connecting with his wife Molly after the terrible tragedy that struck upon them.

Some of the great things about this chapter are Joyce’s ear for Dublin dialect and catchphrase (“I’ll tickle his catastrophe, believe you me”). And the hostility towards Bloom, especially from Simon Dedalus.

We also learn of the suicide of Bloom’s father, and the note he left for his son.

And we learn of another man saved from drowning, and the grateful father’s tipping the boatman who fished his son out with a florin.

The florin in Greek mythology is the coin that was placed on the deceased eyes before sending them to the water. As you see it’s yet another clever parallelism that Joyce was able to subtly embed in the story. In this case, it’s about the hidden meaning of paying respect to the dead as they are crossing the river Styx, and entering Hades.

There is so much more in this chapter, like the mysterious man in the macintosh, and this only scratches the surface. There was great discussion this week. For more deciphered puzzles and interesting discussion, here’s the entire recording of session 7:

https://soundcloud.com/user-920645529/steemit-book-club-part-7

NEXT WEEK’S SBC CALL

Steemit Book Club, Session 8

Book: James Joyce, Ulysses (Preferably Gabler Edition)

Reading Assignment: Chapter Seven (“Aeolus”)

Date: Monday, October 31st

Time: 6 p.m. PST / 9 p.m. EST / 2 a.m. GMT / 11 a.m. (Tuesday) UTC

Phone: (800) 719-6100 or (218) 339-7800, access code 629-1831#

Web audio link (and location for international call-in
numbers): https://hello.freeconference.com/conf/call/6291831

Chat: #steemit-book-club channel on steemit.chat

Extras and Bonuses

Bonus #1:

Here’s an annotated guide to Ulysses that could be used as a map to the book, keep it close because it could be a huge help with the readings.

Bonus #2:
A short podcast interpreting every single line of Ulysses with painstaking accuracy
http://blog.frankdelaney.com/re-joyce/
Courtesy of @asaule

Bonus #3:
For those of us who have heavy schedules, this audio with the words of wisdom from Joseph Campbell is a true gift.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2hy62n_wings-of-art-joseph-campbell-on-james-joyce-2-6_creation
Courtesy of @shawnlauzon

Bonus #4:
A short book covering the basics, and all you need to know to understand and love Ulysses.
https://www.amazon.com/Read-Love-James-Joyces-Ulysses-ebook/dp/B00N2A6QN0/
Courtesy of @tyger

Best,

@neilstrauss, @the-alien, and the #steemit-book-club

P.S. Note that the Comments section of this post will also serve as a discussion forum for the current reading.