Ulysses ’s Unanswered Questions

Three enigmas confront Bloom near the end of "Ithaca." The first is "self-imposed" ("the cause of a brief sharp unforeseen heard loud lone crack emitted by the sentient material of a strainveined timber table"); the second is self-involved ("Who is M'Intosh?"); the third is self-evident ("Where was Moses when the lights went out?"). Only the self-involved enigma remains unsolved, by Bloom at least, leading us to suspect that there are certain mysteries that are—narratively as well as existentially—best left unanswered. This essay explores why this should be so.