II - Chapter 4 - Revisited

Overall chapter impression:

Just finished Chapter 11. There seemed to be a lot of references back to the first Blloom chapter(s). Thought I'd revisit Chapter 4 first and then see whether to continue by revisiting Chapter 5 or jumping back on the main path and reading Chapter 12.

I cannot remember when I've done something like this before. This book.

Also, I erred with 'a bit peckish' first time 'round. "Bloom are with relish..." doesn't mean he just finished eating. F you Joyce.

Notes: (commentary and/or scribble I wrote to look at/up later)

Four slices of toast, he's considering more. Is Molly ummm, non-slender?

Cat para: "Curious mice never squeal. Seem to like it." Giggle, then: wait - is this para even about a cat? It reads more interesting the other way, and why else would he spend so much time on pure banality? Next para is back on cats again. Nice trick.

Better a pork kidney at Dlugacz's. Ummm aren't you Jewish?

Vigorous hips got me again. 😁

He's perving on one chick and fantasising(-ish) about another?

Funny how I pay no attention to 'moist tender gland' first time 'round.

Molly in Citron's basket chair. So Boylan isn't the first.

Funny also how much easier it is to read now!? I know what he is calling the "grey sunken cunt of the world" this time. Still not the first race.

Grey horror seared his flesh. Cold oils, chilled blood. Is this some false premonitiony thing?

Sandow exercises. Not you Bloom, maybe try Richard Simmons first! 🤣

'... her cream'. 😁 In a sentence with "Bread and butter, four, sugar, spoon, her cream." Only one thing has possession.

He looked calmly down on her bulk. Yup, she's also BBW. Lol if she has a queen of spades tattoo... Refusing to ponder 'she-goat's udder'.

A strip of torn envelope peeped. No, it didn't. FFS you two.

Still in bed, soiled linen from last night, soiled drawers, shiny-soled stockings. We are really trying to suggest she was playing up last night, aren't we?

Why does he come out with 'met him what' like that, two or three sentences early?

Fuck. Ok, so Boylan has been grooming Milly. And Mr useless is going to do nothing about it. 'A soft qualm' my arse. He should be spitting fire.

'Better where she is down there' - where her boss is looking for some threesome action, if my radar serves correctly.

Did we have to sit through his bowel movements just so he could make the cuckstool reference?

Ahhh, the column writer in the newspaper is the guy mistaken later as Purefoy.

'That was the first night'. She's been at it for years with this Boylan guy, then?

Stuff I don't get:

We had very detailed descriptions of Bloom's (post evacuation, interestingly) flatulence. Joyce is out to shock - once you've peeled back a layer. How long till we're treated to explicit descriptions of the Boylan / Molly tryst. Lemme guess: the bed's loose brass quoits will be jingling one way (tink) on the up stroke and another (tonk) on the down. 😄

OK, it seems I am pondering she-goat's udder. First, why not cow? It makes as much sense, in fact given Molly's size would probably make more sense. But second, and more importantly, just why?
The later incident at blue o'clock is also under more ponderation now. Everyone's in on this?

Does it make any sense that I'm getting angry at Bloom? He deserves what he's getting, and he doesn't deserve what he's got.

And, in conclusion:

Oh my goodness! I missed so much of what's going on, because I was too busy looking up (only sometimes plot-related) references. There's a wood from the trees analogy here.

Didn't find what I was looking for, which was the reference to 4pm, but will proceed through Chapter 12 before I think whether to progress through Bloom's morning again, further.