Micheal Dirda of the Washington Post claims there is an owl reference in the first sentence of every episode of Ulysses. Can you help me find them?
The first one is easy: “owl” is hidden in “bowl.”
Happy belated Bloomsday!
As far as I can tell, the only other plausible obvious one is from the word “fowls” in the opening sentence of Calypso. Though presumably it’s a certainty that there’s an owl reference somewhere in the first sentence of Penelope.
But the obvious question has to be, why owls?
There is at least one prominant undisguised owl reference in the book: the ornament on the Blooms’ mantlepiece, which was a wedding present.
Yeah, I was a little skeptical myself, and the deafening silence which has greeted this thread has increased my skepticism.
Anyway, here is the article where Dirda makes the claim. He gets it from critic and essayist Guy Davenport, who only “belives” there are these owl references.
Hmm. OK, let’s give it a shot:
Telemachus: Already noted.
Nestor’s opening sentence:
Hmm. Not so easy. Perhaps “You” sounds like “who”? Or “Cochrane” sort of has “crane” in it, and a crane is a bird that’s… well, really not much at all like an owl, but still they’re both birds.
Proteus:
Visible? Eyes? I know what you’re thinking, and you’re on the right track: Owls have eyes too. This is easier than I thought…
Calypso: Already noted.
Lotus Eaters:
OK, at this point I’m starting to think everything is a reference to owls. The twin O’s in “Bloom” look like owl’s eyes; the linseed crusher reminds me of seed-eating birds (which owls aren’t, but anyhoo) (get it? anyhoo?). The telegraph office could be a reference to the folkloric legend of owls as harbingers of death or bad news.
In short, I could probably read owls into the phone book at this point if I wanted to.
…and “Hibernian” in Aeolus suggests the French word for owl (hibou), and “hoofirons” in Sirens has “hoo” in it.
In fact, it all sounds like hooey to me.