Talk:Buck Mulligan

Buck Mulligan's Mythology

In a nice, one would almost say "Joycean" irony, it is Buck Mulligan who introduces the "mythological" aspects in the opening episode of Ulysses (Telemachus). Admittedly, he does so largely in a mocking register. But, he opens the novel with a parody of the (Latin) Mass (3). He jokes at the expense of the Mabinogion and the Upanishads, associating them with mother Grogan's tea and water pot; not to mention his sneer at the "folk and fishgods" of the "weird sisters"--actually the Dun Emer Press (13). Even Japhet and Zarathustra merit scathing references (18,22). Mulligan also evokes Mother Ireland, the "puir old wobban" (FW 13.25-6), but, unlike Stephen, he fails to recognize her (13-15).

However, the most splendid example of how the Buck immerses the "mythological" in the mundane occurs in "The ballad of Joking Jesus" (19-20) and this immersion is not fully glossed in the Notes to Jeri Johnson's 1922 Text (773). In fact, in that rhyme, the Buck "mingles" the wine of The Marriage Feast of Cana with the Dublin workingman's beverage, plain i.e. plain porter or stout. (Page references are to Ulysses, The 1922 Text, Oxford world Classics, Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Jeri Johnson, [1993], 1998.)--PeadarMaguidhir (talk) 14:01, 22 December 2008 (UTC)