Lesson Plan for Week 7: General Thoughts and Notes

Patrick Mooney, TA
Eng 150, Prof. Duffy
6 November 2013

Major topics:

1. Thought for the day:

   There has never been a document of culture, which is not simultaneously one of barbarism.

   — Walter Benjamin, On the Concept of History, section VII, tr. Dennis Redmond

2. Administrative Issues:
   1. Attendance.
   2. More administrative issues after presentations.
   3. Assignment: Professor Duffy has said that he wants a short description of your intended final project to me by the time lecture starts on Tuesday 12 November. Please remember to send me at least a paragraph by email by this time. You may not have a fully developed idea yet, but the more specific you're able to be, the more helpful my feedback will be.
3. Recitations this week:
   • 5 p.m.
     • none!
   • 6 p.m.
     • Gloria Perez, Ulysses (from "Telemachus," p. 17)
4. Other points for discussion:
   • Midterms will be returned tomorrow.
     • Discussion of midterm answers and strategies.
     • Stats for my 40 students:
       • mean: 80.2%
       • median: 81.5%
       • mode: 78.5%
       • standard deviation: 13.1%
       • A: 4
       • A-: 5
       • B+: 4
       • B: 6
       • B-: 5
       • C+: 6
       • C: 4
       • C- and below: 6
       • High score: 96% (2 students tied for this)
       • Low score: 37.5%
   • Paper-related topics:
     • Professor Duffy wrote on his paper prompt that your paper should be approx. seven pages, but the attentive amongst you will have noted that he spoke of it continually in lecture as an eight-page paper, and that the syllabus says that you must write a paper of eight to ten pages. For the sake of being perfectly clear, I would like to take this opportunity to say that your paper must be eight full pages, because this is the formal requirement of the University for classes that satisfy the college writing requirement. Falling short of eight full pages — even if you only fall short by one line — will seriously hurt your grade on your paper.
     • Discussion of paper handout.
     • Questions?
   • Passages for close reading:
     1. Fifteen yesterday. Curious, fifteenth of the month too. Her first birthday away from home. Separation. Remember the summer morning she was born, running to knock up Mrs Thorton in Denzille street. Jolly old woman. Lot of babies she must have helped into the world. She knew from the first poor little Rudy wouldn't live. Well, God is good, sir. She knew at once. He would be eleven now if he had lived. (IV.415-20, p. 54)

     2. He ceased. Mr Bloom glanced from his angry moustache to Mr Power's mild face and Martin Cunningham's eyes and beard, gravely shaking. Noisy selfwilled man. Full of his son. He is right. Something to hand on. If little Rudy had lived. See him grow up. Hear his voice in the house. Walking beside Molly in an Eton suit. My son. Me in his eyes. Strange feeling it would be. From me. Just a chance. Must have been that morning in Raymond terrace she was at the window watching the two dogs at it by the wall of the cease to do evil. And the sergeant grinning up. She had that cream gown on with the rip she never stitched. Give us a touch, Poldy. God, I'm dying for it. How life begins.

        Got big then. Had to refuse the Greystones concert. My son inside her. I could have helped him on in life. I could. Make him independent. Learn German too.

        —Are we late? Mr Power asked.

        —Ten minutes, Martin Cunningham said, looking at his watch.

        Molly. Milly. Same thing watered down. Her tomboy oaths. O jumping Jupiter! Ye gods and little fishes! Still, she's a dear girl. Soon to be a woman. Mullingar. Dearest Papli. Young student. Yes, yes: a woman too. Life, life. (VI.72-90, pp. 73-74)

     3. I was happier then. Or was that I? Or am I now I? Twentyeight I was. She twentythree. When we left Lombard street west something changed. Could never like it again after Rudy. Can't bring back time. Like holding water in your hand. Would you go back to then? Just beginning then. Would you? Are you not happy in your home you poor little naughty boy? Wants to sew on buttons for me. I must answer. Write it in the library. (VIII.608-613; p. 137)
   • Reading quiz, if necessary:
     • Part One (recall).
       1. In episode 1 of Ulysses, Stephen mentions to Buck Mulligan that he is going to get paid later that day. How much does his employer owe him? (Answer: £4, I.292, p. 9)
       2. Fill in the blank in Haines's comment to Stephen: We feel in England that we have treated you rather unfairly. It seems _______________ is to blame. (Answer: history, I.649, p. 17)
       3. Bloom attends a funeral during the morning of the day on which Ulysses is set. Though the description of the funeral itself is not in your reading assignment, Bloom discusses the funeral often enough that you should know the name of the friend who was buried that morning. What is his name? (Answer: Patrick "Paddy" Dignam, e.g. on V.116, p. 60; or IV.551, p. 57).
       4. Bloom is engaging in a flirtatious correspondence with a woman he has never met. Give either the first name of the woman from whom Bloom receives a letter on the morning of 16 June 1904, or else the first and last name by which she addresses him. (Answers: Martha, V.257, p. 64; and Henry Flower, V.62, p. 59.)
       5. Name both items Bloom orders for lunch; or else give the name of the establishment where he eats lunch. (Answers: Bloom eats a Gorgonzola cheese sandwich [VIII.764, p. 141] and drinks a glass of burgundy [VIII.740, p. 140] at Davy Byrne's [VIII.697, p. 139; and elsewhere]).
     • Part Two (vocab). You may refer to your copy of Ulysses for this portion. If you do not have your copy of Ulysses, then you are not prepared, and you may not look at anyone else's copy, because this is a quiz. Define the underlined word in each passage.
       1. My name is absurd too: Malachi Mulligan, two dactyls. (I.40, p. 4) (Answer: a three-syllable metrical foot, accented-unaccented-unaccented.)
       2. Choose either of the two underlined words in this passage: If a fellow gave them trouble being lagged they let him have it hot and heavy in the bridewell. Can't blame them after all with the job they have especially the young hornies. (VIII.420-22, p. 133). (Answer: a bridewell is a jail; a horny, here, is a policeman.)