The Larger World of “Wandering Rocks”: The Case of Father Conmee

Abstract

Once Stephen leaves the space of the library office with its stifling spirit, the novel opens up into the larger world of Dublin, a bustling city where we see a large number of people—including a host of minor characters—going about their business. Here are the multiple worlds, both actual and possible in Marie-Laure Ryan’s sense of the term, of a wide array of citizens—worlds that like the mythical “wandering rocks” of the Odyssey connect and collide in curious ways. I would prefer to stay with Stephen in this episode because this will be our last sighting of him in Ulysses before he resurfaces in “Oxen of the Sun” many hours later. But his appearance is so very brief—and puzzling in some respects—that it makes more sense to explore “Wandering Rocks” as an opening vista into Stephen’s wider social, economic, and spiritual world. In one sense, the Dublin of “Wandering Rocks” is illuminated by “The Parable of the Plums,” as though we were at the top of Nelson’s pillar looking with x-ray binoculars at the folks bustling about below, able to see and size up their smallest gestures and, in some cases, their intimate thoughts. However, we have difficulty hearing many things.