Ulysses Annotated - Hats Part the first.

There are approximately five hundred drafts of my annotations of 'Ulysses' written in black and blue biro, written in 1994 and on subsequent readings. On the back page of the thumbed copy (Penguin 1992), there is also a list of all references to hats. There are many more hats mentioned in the book than just Boylan's.

There is also a doodled image of a small child, with, 'A going away that returns' scrawled beneath in silver pen. Something I must have drawn in a moment of awe of wonder, of which I had many.

-Your hat is a little crushed, Mr Bloom said, pointing.
John Henry Menton stared at him for an instant without moving.
(page 146)

Here, the hat is a symbol of male authority. Oh, look at how John responds - got a 'dinge' in the side of his hat. Caused by a carriage. Men phrase their words on the basis of authority and for Bloom to comment on the appearance of a hat is as subtle and crushing as the hat itself.

Martin Cunningham looks at the dinge and points it out as well. Whereupon John smooths the hat 'bulged out the dinge' and then 'claps' the hat back onto his head. For Bloom, this is a reminder of all those who wear hats - the hint of Molly's former lovers and Boylan. The physical bulge is also an obvious reminder of her infidelity. Bloom is literally pulled back, walking 'chapfallen' behind both Martin and John. If he were 'crestfallen' we could be reminded of the coxcomb, but the chapfallen even snatches away that masculinity from Bloom. Poor Poldy, he draws back from the men as Martin is, 'laying down the law' - perhaps a law from which Leopold will never escape.

The men are back in their rightful places with the, 'How grand we are this morning' a nasty chip on Leopold's shoulder.

A Haberdasher’s Spectacle

Hats I neither own nor have doffed or thrown willy-nilly into the air.

Calico Cat hats and hats made from Ruggeri and ammonite, a haberdasher’s spectacle of hats, caps, bonnets and toques. A milliner’s hatter of hats: bonnets, caps, toques, boaters, bucket hats, fedoras, pointy, slouchy, sun bonnets, Trilbies, Balmoral Bonnet, Borsalino, zucchetto, turban, Boucle, capuchon, Taqiyah, Suma cap, Flat cap, garrison cap, wedge cap, rain hat, kepi, skullcap cap, Kufi cap, Nasaq toque, Salakot, newsboy cap and the nightcap cap.

da drew a bead
jowl to shoulder
then backed off as the calf’s
head fell, calving season
came late that year, too
late for prayers or
da’s temper

The clochard met the harridan who in turn met the man in the hat at the church bazaar, the second of the year. The harridan’s sister was busy arranging her knick-knacks, Pop-sickle stick figurines and dollies tatted from old rags and shoestring, an assortment of glass jars, some blue and red, others red and blue, and gunboats made from Paper-Mache, when the clochard appeared to the left of her, his eyes closed tighter than a pugilist’s fist. ‘Orange’ he said in a hissing staccato, ‘lime sherbet and kiwi’.

da
poached
flies with the
cob of his tongue
drawing blood
blacker than
quid

your eyes two greenstones
dulse blue lips that bespoke not a lie; I make paper kites

without tails: palmaria palmate, you said
you’re lips making a pocking sound

I will gather your hair into a skein
the taut of my fingers ferrying knots into bows

then I will lay you in the crib of my arms
a child’s smirk on the kip of my face