James Joyces Ulysses - Balancing Information in Ithaca...

James Joyces Ulysses - Balancing Information in Ithaca I hold this book [Ulysses] to be the most important expression which the present age has found; it is a book to which we are all indebted, and from which none of us can escape. T.S. Elliot In the midst of Ithaca, the climactic second to last episode of Ulysses, James Joyce provides the necessary information for calculating how much excrement, in pounds, is produced annually by the entire population of Ireland (p. 718). The type of information offered is not, however, the most shocking quality of the narrative. Instead, it is the amount of information Joyce presents to the reader that comes as a shock. Ithaca is the only episode in Ulysses which offers too much†¦show more content†¦The fact that Joyce titled his novel Ulysses but edited out the episode titles we still use today creates several major dilemmas. To what extent is Ulysses simply a modern retelling of The Odyssey? How important are the links that can be drawn between the two novels? The information-rich narrative of Ithaca helps resolve these dilemmas. As Bloom and Stephen return to Blooms house, a great deal of links are established with The Odyssey. Like Odysseus, Bloom enters his house through a stratagem (p. 668). Stephen is link to Telemachus as he helps lock the door to the house (p. 669). Bloom, like Odysseus, fumigates his house sees that his furniture had been moved (pp. 675, 705). Stephen and Bloom witness a celestial sign as they pee, much like the appearance of Athena in the climax of the battle between Odysseus and the suitors (p. 703). Joyce strengthens the importance of The Odyssey to his novel through these connections, which often employ the same language used in Homers epic. Both Bloom and Odysseus corrugate their brow as they look over the state of affairs before them (p. 675). This is only a partial list of the correspondences one can draw between the two books. The multiplicity of parallels between the two works in Ithaca support The Odysseys importance in understanding Ulysses. However, the information-oriented narrative works in a contrary fashion as well, clarifying that Ulysses is not simply a retelling of The Odyssey. Stephens