Rejoinder

ELT 47 : 4 2004 still trying to link the past with the present, because the "modern" ways were sexually and aesthetically out of step (Drabble). Peter Firchow knows that his understanding of modernism represents during these times a minority view, and it is for this reason that he is all the more eager to put it forward—deservedly so—since his research is immaculate, his evidence well documented, and his achievement and contribution to modernism studies without blemish. HANS H. RUDNICK Southern Illinois University at Carbondale Rejoinder To John Gordon's Review: Bernard McKenna, James Joyce's Ulysses: A Reference Guide. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2002. ELT, 46.3 (2003), 335-41. JOHN GORDON, in his review oÃ- James Joyce's Ulysses: A Reference Guide mis-states what my book does and does not do. He represents disagreements in interpretation as errors of fact, inaccurately characterizes the book's components, and uses hyperbolic language and mockery to buttress his misrepresentations. Specifically, Gordon writes that "[r]emarkably, the book contains no verbatim quotations from Joyce's works" (338). The book does, in fact, contain verbatim quotations from Joyce's works. It quotes directly from Ulysses, of course, but also from Stephen Hero and Dubliners. My book also specifically references all of Joyce's other works. Gordon uses his unfounded accusation as a basis for his judgement that the book reflects a "kind of giddy insouciance" (338). If there is any carelessness or any lack of concern for professional standards, it is not in the book's use of primary source material but rather in the accusation that the book uses no primary source material. Gordon either did not carefully read the book and, consequently, missed the quotations, or he read the book with diligence and chose to misrepresent what the book does or, in this case, what it does not do. In either case, Gordon's blatantly inaccurate characterization points to a seriously flawed review and a seriously flawed set of professional and critical standards in the reviewer. Gordon's review goes on to make about twenty or so equally inaccurate points about the book. Sadly, space does not allow for a refutation of all of his accusations. Therefore, I will counter some of his most blatant misrepresentations. On page 339 of his review, Gordon writes that "Nelson 's statue, atop his pillar, does not have 'one arm raised.'" My book contends that Nelson in fact does have an arm raised in the statue, and 491 BOOK REVIEWS Gordon indicates that my claim is an example of one of my book's mistakes . Literally, Gordon is right, in the sense that Nelson's statue no longer has an arm raised. However, it did until the IRA blew it up in 1966. Specifically, the statue has a hand raised to about waist high. Gordon also, on page 340 of his review, quotes page 68 of my text: "He [Bloom] then thinks about urinating earlier, about how it enabled him to masturbate just now." Gordon comments on the quote: "What? In fact he last urinated about six hours earlier, a detail which nowhere figures in his cognations in 'Nausicaa,' about masturbation or anything else, and, really , I can't imagine how it could." Gordon may have misread or passed over the reference to urination and masturbation in the "Nausicaa" episode immediately following Bloom's ejaculation. In the "Nausicaa" episode , Bloom reflects, "The strength it gives a man. That's the secret of it. Good job I let off there behind coming out of Dignam's. Cider that was. Otherwise I couldn't have. Makes you want to sing after" (303, quotation taken from the Gabler edition, 1986). In note 482.21 on page 1095 of Declan Kiberd's edition of Ulysses, he glosses "let off there" as "urinated there" (London: Penguin Books, 1992). Moreover, Bloom's contemplations on cider and its effects do reveal a contemplation about urination. He follows his contemplation about urination by indicating that, if he had not urinated, he "couldn't have" done what he has just finished doing . Bloom has just finished masturbating. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that Bloom might refer to masturbation. Gordon also points out...