This one is by the incomparable Chris Murphy, who always does a wonderful job:
FW Reading Group, December 2011: 101-103
“[Soiled] Man Saved By Sillied Woman by the Waters of Babalong”
We spent a few minutes catching up as several of the members were not present at the previous meeting. We recalled the foxhunt and the chasing of HCE from and spent a few moments going over some of the issues that appear in the text, specifically several that appear in the first half of the paragraph we continued (the Pranksquean riddle, Buckley and the Russian General, and Humpty Dumpty). We continued from the line “What fullpried paulpoison in the spy of three castles…” (101).
The paragraph moves away from HCE, “Homo Capite Erectus” (101.12) and, instead, shifts the focus onto a woman using feminine pronouns. We assume this woman is ALP, “zhanyzhonies” [wife, wives], “bondwoman of the man of the house” (101.32), with a “mouthless face” [a river] (101.30). There is the thought of a letter, as the “queen’s head affrancisant [a stamp], a quiet stinking plaster zeal [glue/plaster onto an envelop]” and “prepostered or postpaid” [preposterous or an HCE imposter, Shaun the Post, delivering a letter with postage paid] (101.24-25). There are praises of this woman throughout the remainder of this page as well as many paired words and phrases, which played into thoughts of brother battles of “cadet and prim” [younger son and first son], the hungray and anngreen [in a Leopold Bloom observation in Lestrygonians: Hungry man is angry man, but also grey and green, or the conquer Attila the Hun—grey in beard, and orphaned Anne of Green Gables] (101.35-6).
The paragraph continues with more praise but now with Biblical and Irish Folk references on the next page. “She who shuttered [sheltered] him after his fall and waked [the Tim Finnegan fall and wake] him widowt [became a widow but also without] sparing and gave him keen [the Irish tradition of crying at the wake + Cain] and made him able [Able] and held adazillahs [Adah and Zillah, the wives of Cain and Able] to each arche [Ark] of his noes [Noah]…” and so forth (102.1-4). The aside, “(ur, uri, uria) [water, rain, gold with connotations of urine…dare I say Golden shower?] we referenced dually to the woman being a “Szpissmas” [shit-piss-ma/mom] (101.28) and an earlier reading of ALP as the stream of urine that washes vomit down the sewer drain on 64.9-22- from the November 2010 posting:
We discussed the possibility of a character’s vomit being similar to the ash coving Pompey in regards to Leopold Bloom’s thoughts in the Lestrygonians episode of Ulysses. Bloom thinks, “Drink till they puke again like christians” (U.8.49), and we believe, like Pompey is covered in volcanic ash, so too is the pavement covered in vomit by “an overthrewer [thrower-upper]” (64). “All are washed in the blood of the Lamb” (U.8.9-11) and the idea of through dirtiness we become clean. Interestingly enough, it is the meaning of the Greek prefix para, as in parasoliloqusingly, that Bloom struggles to remember in Lestrygonians. Continuing with cleanliness coming from dirtiness, a “young reine,” we believe to be ALP, in the form of the “liffopotamus” [Liffy + Potamus, Greek for river, or hippopotamus] (64) cleans the pavement, washing “as mud as she cud be, ruinating…” [as much as she could by urinating – a stream of urine cleaning the vomit, but also cleaning as mud and cud – as mud and regurgitation]. The paragraph ends with an allusion to the end of the Anna Livia Plurabelle (FW.I.VIII) chapter and close of Book 1: “they were all night wasching the walters of, the weltering walters off. Whyte” (64) is strikingly similar to “Beside the rivering waters of, hitherandthithering waters of. Night!” (216).
The paragraph again, however, takes a turn. We began to discover Queen Victoria allusions within the passage. There are two explicit references to a queen/quean in the section (101.24, 102.10). In the context of a fallen man, we discussed Queen Victoria after the death of Prince Albert: Victoria’s long mourning—“she gave him keen” (102.2) and the rumors of her “finicking here and funckin there” “straddl[ing]” the stable-boy, John Brown, “Equerry” [horsestables]: the rumors of Victoria as a “louisequean” [French slang for “whore” + queen] (102.9-14). The “circusfix” of life—birth, love, and death—happen, in a Christian sense, here, with the “Tinktink[ing]” of churchbells on “Equerry Egon” [Basque for Christmas Day – Egueri Egun]: and for the one on the crucifix, begin again. Yet, the contents of the “piecebag” (“pawns, prelates [bishops], and pookas [Irish folklore goblin who spoils the harvest + also the Rook in chess]” are “pelotting” [plotting] “to crush the slander’s head” (102.15-7), or bring down the person who ruined HCE’s reputation.
All of these issues resonate within the next paragraph. “Notre Dame de la Ville” [Our Lady of the City] (102.18-19) will plead for HCE. We are affirmed “her name is A.L.P. And you’ll agree. She must be she” (102.23-4). There is reference to the rainbow girls “Poppy Narancy, Giallia, Chlora, Marinka, Anileen, Parme” – which, translated into various languages create the spectrum of visible light – the “rainbow huemoures” in order: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet (102.25-7). But life’s circus “Tifftiff today, kissykissy tonay and agelong pine tomauranna” (102.28-9) can often be a curse: as Eve is “Crippled-with-Children” but must “speak up for” Adam, “Dropping-with-Sweat?” (102.29-30), forced to labor.
A poem follows conflating the Book of Genesis with the curse of marriage. It also appears to take a counter tone to the praises of the woman from the earlier passages. The poem begins with a reference to Arthur Guinness [Genesis] who leased the land for the Guinness Brewery for 9000 years “Sold him her lease of ninenineninetee, / Tresses undresses so dyedyedaintee” [999-year-lease was a British common law agreement for “life” but typically restricted to 99 years, in Guinness’s case, it is truly a lifetime lease]. But the buyer, here, may be experiencing some remorse: Goo, [Fool]… gulped it all / Hoo was the C.O.D.? / Bum!
The remorse comes in the form of the allusion the poem draws upon, that is, it is fashioned after the song “At Trinity Church I met my doom” about a man who thinks his new wife is rich—“Cash in the bank of course she’d plenty / and I like a lamb believed it all / I was an M-U-G (Drum!) , but ends up crippling him with poverty (102.33-5). The poem continues with a reference to “Island Bridge” [Islandbridge in Phoenix Park where the Liffey River becomes tidal] (103.1), presumably referencing ALPs next encounter with “The Fin” (103.3) of The Wake, HCE. The poem ends with a regretful “That’s what she’s done for wee! / Woe!” (103.3-7), as in, she has only caused ruin. This, however, cannot be taken seriously, as, within the poem, is a reference to the woman who translated Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man into Swedish and signed an International Protest against the pirating of Joyce’s Ulysses, Ebbe Attaboom (Attabom, attabom, attabombomboom! [yet, we also discussed how this sounds very much like something from Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade”] (103.2-3).
The final paragraph seems to return to praises of the power of ALP as a stand in for all women. She has the power to cure any “Nomad” [Noman (Odysseus)/Everyman] (103.8) as with the reference to “Naaman” who, in the Bible, is said to be cured of Leprosy when bathing in the “Jordan” river in Palestine (103.8-9). The song itself seems to be someone “taken our sheet upon her stones” [taking a shit upon her story] (103.9). It seems as though the singer of the song is aware that “we list [live], as she bibs us [a mother placing a bib on a baby feed it], by the waters of babalong [baba – in baby sounds + Babylon]” (103.10-11) – that the manchild needs his motherly/wifely mate to cure him of his ills – A solid [or soiled] man, once again, saved by his sillied woman.
The episode ended. We opted not to venture into Book I.5 without the rest of the group – to turn a new chapter in a new year! We wished each other respective happy holidays. Enjoyed a few merry drinks, a lot of laughs, and shared a lively discussion on why we read Joyce. We hope to see you all again in January.
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