A Note on Metempsychosis

[Jasper Fidget]

I seem to recall a chapter in Ulysses where there's a lot of eating going
on, and Bloom thinks "Eat or be eaten.  Kill!  Kill!"  Mostly just remember
the quote and that it's sort of a disgusting chapter in a way.


From: "Hank Baker" <velch at hotmail.com>
[...]
> What relevance does this have to the Pynchon's Learned English Dog?  One
> theory might proceed as follows: the dog and Leopold Bloom have both
> undergone some type of metempsychosis.  The dog has learned to speak and
> become more human in order to avoid being eaten.  Bloom, who appears to
the
> world at large as merely a cuckolded loser, is represented as a classical
> hero in Joyce's narrative.  Both have done so in order to get through the
> day, just as the dog says and as the narrative structure of ULYSSES
famously
> shows.  For the dog, it's to not end up as a food source; for Bloom, it's
to
> not be driven mad by his wife's promiscuity.   It's a stretch, sure, but
if
> there's any connection whatsoever it seems like it might be based on this.
>
> Due to its memorable repetition, I would gamble that I am not the only
> reader who was introduced to the idea of "met him pike hoses" from
ULYSSES,
> and who tends to associate the word closely with that work.  It seems hard
> to bring it up without somehow invoking Joyce.
>
>
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