"As much as it is about every part of Dublin that ever passed by James Joyce's once-young eyes, Ulysses is also a book about books, and about writing and speech-as mythic invocation, as seduction, chatter, and rhetoric, fulsome and empty. Words-two-faced, like open books-carry with them at least two senses, the meaning of their present utterance, and the verso shades of history. This is at least partly the import of Joyce's mythical method, as it is that of all expositors of ancient texts, from preachers and theologians to literary critics."
"Joyce sets the scene in the newspaper offices of the Freeman's Journal, epitome of writing in the present tense, where reporters and editors give puffed-up speeches punctuated by reductive, pithy headlines. Amidst this business, erudite professor MacHugh and Stephen Dedalus wax literary and historical, making connections. MacHugh recites "the finest display of oratory" he ever heard—a defense of the revival of the Irish language that compares the Irish people to Moses and the ancient Hebrews spurning the seductions of an oppressive empire in the person of an Egyptian high priest: Vagrants and day-labourers are you called: the world trembles at our name."
Ulysses portrays Dublin alongside sustained reflection on books, writing, and speech as mythic invocation, seduction, chatter, and rhetoric. Words are depicted as two-faced, carrying immediate meaning and the verso shades of history. Joyce applies a mythical method comparable to expositors of ancient texts, spanning preachers to literary critics. The recorded reading comes from the 'Aeolus' episode, which parodies Odysseus's encounter with the god of wind. The episode is staged in the Freeman's Journal newspaper offices, where reporters' puffed-up rhetoric contrasts with erudite exchanges between Professor MacHugh and Stephen Dedalus. MacHugh defends the Irish language by likening the Irish to Moses and ancient Hebrews.
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