odysseus as storyteller

The man of many turns created stratagems but also told tales to manipulate situations. Joyce's Ulysses is about Odysseus the storyteller. A new Odysseus tells us about Bloom and Stephen's and Molly's day using many tricks and turns and styles. Some call it the reader's Odyssey through the styles. I call it an Odyssey of storytelling, wily, crafty, show-offy, and bewildering. The motives of the new Odysseus are far from clear. But think of Odysseus taunting the Cyclops. Joyce's motives for having a new Odysseus tell this tale may be similar. That makes the reader into the enraged Cyclops, and that seems to be about right.