Plaque #3 - “Mr Bloom smiled O rocks at two windows of the ballast office.”
Once I finished crossing the bridge, and fighting my way through the crowds on Aston Quay, I found the next plaque near the Ballast House. While I'm not quite sure what exactly Bloom was smiling at with an 'O rocks' smile, I am sure it had more to do with remembering a conversation that he had with his wife earlier that day than with the ballast office. His eyes were drawn to the building because of the big copper sphere on a pole sitting on the roof. This was known as the timeball.
Unfortunately, there is no more timeball (in fact the building isn't even in same location it was in 1904) but then again, the reason for it no longer exists. Back in 1904 (and for a long wile before that) the "local mean time" was the official time across the British Isles despite Greenwich Mean Time having being adopted by the railroad companies as far back as 1847. As a result everyone needed to establish for themselves what time it was (time to get ill perhaps?). Dublin used the Dunsink observatory just outside of town to determine that they were 6 six degrees fifteen minutes west of London, which corresponds to 25 minutes behind GMT. So, the timeball would fall everyday at 1pm GMT, making it 12:35 Dublin Mean Time or "Dunsink time". This was the official Irish time until they adopted GMT in 1916.
Plaque #4 - “Hot mockturtle vapour and steam of newbaked jampuffs rolypoly poured out from Harrison's."
I proceeded south down Westmoreland St. until I reached a Chinese restaurant that use to be Harrison's Restaurant, and the next plaque. Bloom was temped to eat here because it was so inexpensive, but decided against it because it was just too sketchy ("Knife and fork chained to the table."). Not being much of a Chinese food fan, I didn't find much of interest in the area. However, at this point in the book Mrs. Josie Breen is introduced along with the infamous postcard reading "u.p.: up".
Joyce came out and said that he put so many riddles in Ulysses, it would keep the professors busy for three centuries. Most scholars think that "u.p.: up" is one of these riddles, since no one has any idea what it means. I've seen theories that range from it having something to do with a urinary tract infection to a threat on her husband, Denis', life. Denis, it turns out, is crazy and when they run into Bloom they are on their way to sue the unknown author of the card for libel. Some of the other riddles include: the identity of the Man in the Macintosh, what was Bloom going to write in the sand at the end of chapter 13 ("I AM A..."), and when is Bloom's birthday? Stuff like this is why more has been written about James Joyce than about Shakespeare.
Plaque #5 - “He crossed under Tommy Moore's roguish finger. They did right to put him up over a urinal: meeting of the waters.”
Continuing down the road I passed Fleet Street and came upon the Bank of Ireland. I didn't find a plaque here, but I bet if there is another it would have been in front of this building. It wasn't always a bank, this use to be the Irish Parliament House. In 1801 the Irish Parliament earned the dubious honor of being the only Parliament to ever vote themselves out of existence. If there is a plaque I bet the quote is, "Before the huge high door of the Irish house of parliament a flock of pigeons flew. Their little frolic after meals. Who will we do it on? I pick the fellow in black." Since sequence takes place in Blooms head and he is the only one in black; he is literally choosing to defecate on himself. A commentary on how Joyce feels about the Parliaments decision?
Another block down the road, at the intersection with College Green, I found the plaque at the base of a statue of Thomas Moore. Even though 'Tommy' died in 1852 he is still considered Ireland's national poet. For reasons I can't figure out, they put the statue over Dublin's largest public urinal, giving the title of one of his poems (The Meeting of the Waters) a rather comical twist. Sadly, the urinal no longer exists.
Once I finished crossing the bridge, and fighting my way through the crowds on Aston Quay, I found the next plaque near the Ballast House. While I'm not quite sure what exactly Bloom was smiling at with an 'O rocks' smile, I am sure it had more to do with remembering a conversation that he had with his wife earlier that day than with the ballast office. His eyes were drawn to the building because of the big copper sphere on a pole sitting on the roof. This was known as the timeball.
Unfortunately, there is no more timeball (in fact the building isn't even in same location it was in 1904) but then again, the reason for it no longer exists. Back in 1904 (and for a long wile before that) the "local mean time" was the official time across the British Isles despite Greenwich Mean Time having being adopted by the railroad companies as far back as 1847. As a result everyone needed to establish for themselves what time it was (time to get ill perhaps?). Dublin used the Dunsink observatory just outside of town to determine that they were 6 six degrees fifteen minutes west of London, which corresponds to 25 minutes behind GMT. So, the timeball would fall everyday at 1pm GMT, making it 12:35 Dublin Mean Time or "Dunsink time". This was the official Irish time until they adopted GMT in 1916.
Plaque #4 - “Hot mockturtle vapour and steam of newbaked jampuffs rolypoly poured out from Harrison's."
I proceeded south down Westmoreland St. until I reached a Chinese restaurant that use to be Harrison's Restaurant, and the next plaque. Bloom was temped to eat here because it was so inexpensive, but decided against it because it was just too sketchy ("Knife and fork chained to the table."). Not being much of a Chinese food fan, I didn't find much of interest in the area. However, at this point in the book Mrs. Josie Breen is introduced along with the infamous postcard reading "u.p.: up".
Joyce came out and said that he put so many riddles in Ulysses, it would keep the professors busy for three centuries. Most scholars think that "u.p.: up" is one of these riddles, since no one has any idea what it means. I've seen theories that range from it having something to do with a urinary tract infection to a threat on her husband, Denis', life. Denis, it turns out, is crazy and when they run into Bloom they are on their way to sue the unknown author of the card for libel. Some of the other riddles include: the identity of the Man in the Macintosh, what was Bloom going to write in the sand at the end of chapter 13 ("I AM A..."), and when is Bloom's birthday? Stuff like this is why more has been written about James Joyce than about Shakespeare.
Plaque #5 - “He crossed under Tommy Moore's roguish finger. They did right to put him up over a urinal: meeting of the waters.”
Continuing down the road I passed Fleet Street and came upon the Bank of Ireland. I didn't find a plaque here, but I bet if there is another it would have been in front of this building. It wasn't always a bank, this use to be the Irish Parliament House. In 1801 the Irish Parliament earned the dubious honor of being the only Parliament to ever vote themselves out of existence. If there is a plaque I bet the quote is, "Before the huge high door of the Irish house of parliament a flock of pigeons flew. Their little frolic after meals. Who will we do it on? I pick the fellow in black." Since sequence takes place in Blooms head and he is the only one in black; he is literally choosing to defecate on himself. A commentary on how Joyce feels about the Parliaments decision?
Another block down the road, at the intersection with College Green, I found the plaque at the base of a statue of Thomas Moore. Even though 'Tommy' died in 1852 he is still considered Ireland's national poet. For reasons I can't figure out, they put the statue over Dublin's largest public urinal, giving the title of one of his poems (The Meeting of the Waters) a rather comical twist. Sadly, the urinal no longer exists.
No comments:
Post a Comment