MDMD(5)----Charlie and Poldy

[Christine Karatnytsky]

Now I've been thinking about Charles Mason and Leopold Bloom.

There are points of comparison other than the ones I mentioned yesterday
(their affinity with the sensuality of scents and fabrics, and with
female sexuality), enough to make a nice little study.  Both Mason and
Bloom are men of Science, with a particular interest in Astronomy:  Mason
by training and profession, Bloom by temperament and interest.  Remember
Bloom's Star-Gazing, with Molly and others?  Both are married to somewhat
unlikely (for them) women of extraordinary physicality, the seductiveness
of whom they attempt to disguise or ignore:  Mason, if we accept the
argument made in my previous post (to which I am interested in hearing
any alternatives and additions), uses the fantasy of the giant cheese as
a mask for the possibly tawdry manner in which he and Rebekah Really met;
Bloom engages in purblind, passive near-complicity wrt Molly's sexual
assignations.  (Though neither Mason nor Bloom, at heart, is fooling
himself.)  Both suffer for two "failures" associated with traditional
male gender roles:  The first, a certain nonsuccess in being a prosperous
and steady wage earner.  Neither Bloom’s unstable ad revenues, nor
Mason’s insufficient Astronomer’s earnings would put these two at the top
of a list of providers that included Blazes Boylan or Clive of India. 
The second, a lack of virility (or sexual self-confidence):  Bloom
suffers by being unwilling or unable (I have never been sure) to
consummate full sexual relations with Molly since the death of Rudy;
Mason suffers by his own internalized ambivalence about Rebekah’s past.

Finally (well, all I can think of at the moment)--and this is the
clincher for yours truly, Sovereign of Sobriquets, Duchess of Diminutives
(just ask the Sultan of the Sofa)--both are given Cute Nicknames by their
wives, thereby relieving them of some of the stuffiness associated with
the scientific nature.  

Now on to Dixon and Stephen Dedalus...

Chris, just kidding, it’s after 3AM, but I am liking this laptop at home
deal, that's for sure