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Wow. Sayng "The islanders speak frequently of the collector of prepuces" to a poor old lady delivering milk is unbelievably rude. Not because of it's meaning, but because he's assuming she would never understand what he means. It's interesting that Buck is saying this to Haines, who is an Englishman. Too much of the imagary is about Ireland as a free and independent country, but stil Buck Mulligan is still kissing the Englishman's ass. I'm liking Buck Mulligan less and less. |
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collector of foreskins
I think Buck is talking over the Englishman's head also directly to Steven as if to say "Here is what they think of the Irish." Buck also seems committed to showing that he is as intellectual as the boy from Oxford.
He is being defensive and young. He often speaks without thinking as he did on Stephens mothers death. But his intentions are not evil.
I have a lot of sympathy for the character. He is always entertaining.The line is very blasphemous both toward religion and the Irish.
Geert Lernout - Collector of Prepuces: Foreskins in Ulysses - James Joyce Quarterly 44:2 James Joyce Quarterly 44.2 (2007) 345-352 Muse Search Journals This Journal Contents Collector of Prepuces: Foreskins in Ulysses Geert Lernout University of Antwerp Buck Mulligan's reference in "Telemachus" to God as the collector of prepuces may not be much more than a blasphemous joke (U 1.394), but circumcision was a theme that we can now document Joyce having been interested in while he was writing Ulysses. In one of the new Ulysses notebooks in the National Library of Ireland, we find, under the title "Jesus" and among notes from at least one other source, a number of references to the Catholic veneration of Christ's foreskin, a theme that was prominent in the work of Protestant writers such as John Calvin and in the anticlerical writers of the Enlightenment such as John Locke and Voltaire. The brief notes on the foreskin of Jesus were all taken out of a short book written by Alphons Victor M?ller under the title Die "hochheilige Vorhaut Christi" im Kult und in der Theologie der Papstkirche and published in Berlin in 1907. The study, written by a Dominican historian who had converted to Protestantism and become an anti-Catholic propagandist, left only one trace in the text of Ulysses in a place where a reference to circumcision is most obvious. In "Ithaca," just before the two men observe the falling star and part, Stephen and his host urinate together in...
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Lernout, Geert, 1954-. "Collector of Prepuces: Foreskins in Ulysses." James Joyce Quarterly 44.2 (2007): 345-352. Project MUSE. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 26 May. 2009
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Lernout, Geert, 1954-. (2007). Collector of prepuces: Foreskins in ulysses. James Joyce Quarterly 44(2), 345-352. Retrieved May 26, 2009, from Project MUSE database.
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Lernout, Geert, 1954-. "Collector of Prepuces: Foreskins in Ulysses." James Joyce Quarterly 44, no. 2 (2007): 345-352. http://muse.jhu.edu/ (accessed May 26, 2009).
TY - JOUR
T1 - Collector of Prepuces: Foreskins in Ulysses
A1 - Lernout, Geert, 1954-
JF - James Joyce Quarterly
VL - 44
IS - 2
SP - 345
EP - 352
Y1 - 2007
PB - The University of Tulsa
SN - 1938-6036
UR - http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/james_joyce_quarterly/v044/44.2lernout.html
N1 - Volume 44, Number 2, Winter 2007
ER -
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James Joyce Quarterly, nice.
First, thanks for the link to James Joyce Quarterly. I'll post it in the Links Page, and will have to dig around there.
My attitude toward Buck has lightened a bit, and I can see what you mean about him speaking over everyone's head to talk directly to Stephen. There is definitely a defensive tone, but I'd say he's more defensive toward Stephen than Haines.