Joyce's 1922 novel, invoked across the dialogues chiefly as the book of the intact hero — the stage Bob sets before Finnegans Wake, where the hero dissolves. It enters through the biography of its printing, the first copy given to Joyce on his fortieth birthday ; recurs as the counterpoint to the Wake ; and, in Cameron's hands, becomes a model of wandering as thought . New to it — start with dialogue 25 for the Ulysses/Wake pairing.
Across the dialogues
Enters biographically — the first copy placed in Joyce's hands on his birthday, the numerological hinge Bob reads into the date
Bob dwells on the printing's timing — the first copy reaching Joyce on his fortieth birthday, the date Bob folds into his numerological reading of Joyce's life rather than treating as mere biography.
"he had the copy of Ulysses was given to him on his birthday, February 2nd, 1922."
Set against Finnegans Wake as the book of the intact hero, the stage before the hero dissolves
Bob's structural pairing of the two Joyce books — Ulysses as the book of the intact hero, Finnegans Wake as the "dissolved hero," the two staged as consecutive phases of a single dissolution.
"Ulysses is about the hero, Joyce's Ulysses."
Turned into a model of wandering — Bloom and Stephen crisscrossing the city as ideas "sparking all the time"
Cameron turns the novel into an epistemology — Bloom and Stephen's crisscrossing wander becomes a picture of thought as ideas "sparking," wandering conceived through neither space nor time but association.
"Joyce shows in Ulysses, you can conceive wandering as different ideas sort of sparking all the time."
Connections
Bob's pairing — Ulysses holds the intact hero (Bloom, Stephen); Finnegans Wake is the dissolved hero, the next stage.
Joyce received the first printed copy on his fortieth birthday, 2 February 1922 — the biographical hinge Bob dwells on.