You’ll remember that Bloom is waiting on Nannetti’s go-ahead to finalize the sale of the Keyes ad, and he here again notes his need to “see him for that par” (11.187). His inner monologue here is fascinating: the wares displayed in the window of one of these shops reminds him of Nannetti’s father selling Catholic devotional statues, which leads him to think succinctly that “religion pays” (11.187), an echo of Bloom’s previous pragmatic assessments of faith. In another interpolation, the narrative pops back to Bloom as he passes first Cantwell’s wine and whiskey merchants and then Ceppi & Sons framers and statuary manufacturers along Wellington Quay (across the river from the Ormond). Miss Douce strikes us as a bit indecorous. We return to the Ormond for about 25 lines, where the women are wrapping up their fit of laughter and resume drinking tea. He thinks again of goddesses and remarks that he “could not see” (11.153) whether the goddess statues in the National Museum were anatomically accurate - remember that he had wanted to examine their downbelows? He recalls leaving the National Library alongside Stephen about an hour earlier and reasons that Mulligan must have been the fellow exiting with him. Another interpolation shows Bloom walking past shopfronts: first Figatner’s jewelers, then Lore’s hat store, then Bassi’s framing shop. They discuss home remedies and laugh about an old man druggist they both know. Miss Douce, recently returned from vacation, asks Miss Kennedy if she’s sunburned. The young man mocks her as he leaves, and Miss Kennedy advises Miss Douce to ignore him. He gives Miss Douce some attitude, and she threatens to tell their boss about his rude behavior. A barback, identified with the synecdoche of “the boots” (11.89), brings the barmaids their afternoon tea and loudly drops the tray on the counter. An interpolation shows Bloom carrying The Sweets of Sin (the erotic novel he just purchased for Molly). The episode begins with the barmaids watching the passing cavalcade and laughing at a man in one of the carriages craning his neck to admire them in the window. The episode also borrows from the interpolation technique of “Wandering Rocks” as the narrative includes events that occur simultaneously but at a geographical remove from those taking place at the Ormond (such as Bloom purchasing paper, Blazes traveling to the Ormond in a “jingl” carriage, and, later, the blind stripling “tapping” his cane on the way to retrieve his tuning fork from the bar’s piano). It is cacophony here, but it will all make sense when properly arranged and elaborated upon in the performance/chapter ahead. While Sultan’s label is apt, I also like to think of this section as an orchestra warming up prior to a performance the reader is like an audience listening to musicians practicing trills and phrases of the composition to be performed. In The Argument of Ulysses, Stanley Sultan describes this opening section as an “overture,” introducing the major notes of the chapter’s language and plot. The first 62 lines of the episode are jarring and largely incomprehensible to the first-time reader. The prominence of this musical style in the episode’s discourse signals a departure from what we have come to regard as the normal narration of the novel in “Sirens,” the Arranger’s influence is dominant. With this episode’s depiction of singing performances along with its musical prose elements (such as onomatopoeia, linguistic refrains, and syncopated syntax), “Sirens” directly engages and seeks to replicate the qualities of music, which is the art listed on the Gilbert/Linati Schemas for this episode. Additionally, he suggests that Bloom’s “impulse to interfere in their affair is a siren-song that would destroy them all.” Cope argues that Miss Douce and Miss Kennedy are the sirens, trying to tempt Boylan from his imminent adultery with Molly. In The Odyssey, Odysseus plugs his crew’s ears with wax to prevent them from hearing the sirens’ song Odysseus himself, clever enough to have his cake and eat it too, ties himself to his mast so that he can enjoy the sirens’ song while preventing himself from steering the ship toward the temptresses. The correspondence of the sirens refers to two birdwomen whose beautiful singing tempts sailors off course, luring their ships to wreck on a craggy island.
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