Conversational Prose

I am now in the middle of Episode 12, Cyclops. Now this is more my speed. A bunch of guys in a bar shooting the shit. Now this I can get. Actually, I am enjoying this section quite a bit. There is some really great prose in here. Like this: “Hard by the block stood the grim figure of the executioner, his visage being concealed in a tengallon pot with two circular perforated apertures through which his eyes glowered furiously.” Actually, there is a whole bunch of fine, descriptive prose in this episode, like the passage above, stories told between the pubgoers. And I like the way it is presented. Joyce tells the reader what is going on in a sort of after-the-fact, third-person narrative. Like this: “So Joe starts telling the citizen about the foot and mouth disease…” or “So Bob Doran comes lurching around asking Bloom to tell Mrs. Dignam he was sorry for her trouble…” And so on. It’s like listening in on a conversation. He captures the casual, back-and-fourth socializing we all do, between ourselves, all day, everyday. It’s how it is.