from James Joyce*, Ulysses, page 70 (episode 5, lines 517-44):He strolled out of the shop, the newspaper baton under his armpit, the coolwrapped soap in his left hand.
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At his armpit Bantam Lyons' voice and hand said:
—Hello, Bloom. What's the best news? Is that today's? Show us a minute.
Shaved off his moustache again, by Jove! Long cold upper lip. To look younger. He does look balmy. Younger than I am.
Bantam Lyons's yellow blacknailed fingers unrolled the baton. Wants a wash too. Take off the rough dirt. Good morning, have you used Pears' soap? Dandruff on his shoulders. Scalp wants oiling.
—I want to see about that French horse that's running today, Bantam Lyons said. Where the bugger is it?
He rustled the pleated pages, jerking his chin on his high collar. Barber's itch. Tight collar he'll lose his hair. Better leave him the paper and get shut of him.
—You can keep it, Mr Bloom said.
—Ascot. Gold cup. Wait, Bantam Lyons muttered. Half a mo. Maximum the second.
—I was just going to throw it away, Mr Bloom said.
Bantam Lyons raised his eyes suddenly and leered weakly.
—What's that? his sharp voice said.
—I say you can keep it, Mr Bloom answered. I was going to throw it away that moment. Bantam Lyons doubted an instant, leering: then thrust the outspread sheets back on Mr Bloom's arms.
—I'll risk it, he said. Here, thanks.
He sped off towards Conway's corner. God speed scut.
Mr Bloom folded the sheets again to a neat square and lodged the soap in it, smiling. Silly lips of that chap. Betting. Regular hotbed of it lately. Messenger boys stealing to put on sixpence. Raffle for large tender turkey. Your Christmas dinner for threepence. Jack Fleming embezzling to gamble then smuggled off to America. Keeps a hotel now. They never come back. Fleshpots of Egypt.
A passage from Ulysses can help to illustrate the issues about both annotations in general and Ulysses in hypermedia that I've been talking about. The three variables for annotation that Martin Battestin* mentions - the nature of the text, the assumed audience, and the annotator - all figure into the example. So does the question of an annotation's social ineptitude or grace that John Lavagnino* raises: is the annotation needed or unnecessary? does it say too much or too little? does it try to answer the right questions or the wrong ones? does it provide the information that its presumed audience wants and needs? is it appropriate to the text it is annotating, that is, in this case, to Joyce's Ulysses?
The passage I want to focus on occurs at the end of the fifth episode. (The episode's Homeric name is "Lotus Eaters.") Leopold Bloom is walking along a street in Dublin after spending a few minutes in a church, and he is approached by Bantam Lyons, a man he knows slightly and likes even less. Bloom mainly wants to get rid of Lyons as quickly as he can, and after a brief conversation Lyons walks away. Bloom is pleased with himself for extricating himself from Lyons so easily and effortlessly.
So what's the problem? What even needs to be annotated here?
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