Also Sprach Molly Bloom

Abstract

According to Jacques Mercanton, Joyce remarked that he often found himself complimented for his portrayal of Molly Bloom with the comment, “Yes, women are just like that.” Joyce said that such a sentiment annoyed him and his typical response to these effusions was simply to stare at the corner of the ceiling in silence.¹ Joyce thus refuses to affirm a proposition that defines women in relation to his writing and this indefinite affirmation, in its own way, is as affirmative as Molly’s “Yes.”