Episone 13, Nausicaa

I am a few pages into Episone 13, Nausicaa. Apparently this was the episode that caused the serializations to stop because the censors found it so offensive. For readability, it is very straightforward so far, being a direct, percise, and somewhat over-written (on purpose) account of a few young women contemplating their lives.

In other, related news, I found a really great web resource. I will be referring to the site often for help as it appears to cover pretty much everything related to the book. I like the little "things you should know about Ulysses" list on the site:

• It takes place in a single day, 16 June 1904 (Bloomsday).
• The main characters-- Leopold and Molly Bloom, and Stephen Dedalus-- correspond to Homer's Odysseus (aka Ulysses), Penelope, and Telemachus.
• Joyce first thought of the idea in 1906 as a story for Dubliners.
• He quickly realised it should be the sequel to his autobiographical novel, Stephen Hero (which he rewrote with this in mind, as A Portrait).
• Each of the 18 chapters corresponds to one of Odysseus's (or Telemachus's) adventures.
• Each chapter is written in a different style, with symbolism appropriate to the corresponding adventure. These patterns were hinted by Joyce in privately-circulated schemata.
• Joyce included hundreds of puzzles that can only be understood by very careful reconstruction of exactly what each character is thinking and doing.
• Because the book was so complex, no one has ever managed to create an authoritative 'corrected' edition.
• The most useful companion-volume is Gifford's Ulysses Annotated.
• Harold Nicolson claimed that Joyce pronounced it 'oolissays'.

Hey, I knew that part about the Gifford annotations!