"He loves these kids"
He loves these kids, has raised millions of dollars of military equipment but I hate the mention of their sex of course it used to be at the border. Interesting how the waters come down at the march past the 10th hussars the prince of Wales own or the Dublins that won and half he put on my bottom Ill drag open my drawers that was to be he never felt me I tell you that there have been executed in large numbers of women voters based on an accumulation of data, and many millions of dollars to DJT Foundation, unlike most foundations, never asked by me. Working hard!
This is (most of) the first paragraph of "Penelope" #46. What’s going on here? Well, there’s Molly Bloom’s overall structure controlling the paragraph: the associative comma splices, the ambivalance about sexuality, the lack of periods at the ends of phrases that are jammed together. Many of the phrases are also Molly’s; some notable ones are highlighted in bold or italic above.
But I take the overall tone of the passage to be Trump’s, and not just because Trump is a dominating bully (though this is of course also characteristic of his language, and the chains generated reflect that). More centrally, though, there are prominently noticeable phrases that cannot come from Joyce: "millions of dollars" (the American unit of currency is not once mentioned in Ulysses; "military equipment"; "women voters" (there were none in Ireland in 1904); "accumulation of data" (the notion of "data" shifted substantially between Joyce’s writing and Trump’s); "DJT Foundation" (of course) and "unlike most foundations" (Ulysses is unconcerned with charitable or nonprofit foundations; and in fact the word "foundation" occurs only twice in Joyce’s novel, both times referring to the physical base of a building). And of course “Working hard!” is not a Joycean phrase, but a piece of chirpy Twitter bullshit salesmanship from the man who’s taken seven taxpayer-funded vacations to a Florida resort in the first three months of his presidency.
But what really makes this a Trump-identified passage for me is not just the number of Trumpy phrases that occur in it, but rather the meaning that emerges from the randomly generated text: “He loves these kids” is of course a phrase from a Trump tweet (Trump is here talking about his son Eric and the ostensible beneficiaries of the cancer research that the Trump Foundation funds directly to make the Trumps look good personally; whereas funding via government funds would be better for cancer research, but would deprive the Trumps of an opportunity to posture as both White Cancer Knights and beleaguered victims of a hopeless liberal bureaucracy and its senseless rules). Trump of course is claiming that his son Eric has an altruistic interest in helping sick and dying children; but the “but” that starts a subordinate clause here sets up the expectation of a reversal: “he” loves these kids […] but … I (and I think that we take the speaker to be Trump, for reasons outlined above) “hate the mention of their sex.” Eric loves the children, the automatically generated text seems to be suggesting, but the speaker, his father, is disturbed by the mention of sex in that context. The automatic text here, purely by chance, makes the speaker’s son out to be a pedophile. The further explanatory phrase just afterwards, “of course it used to be at the border,” happens to dovetail nicely with Trump’s rhetoric of drawing strong lines in order to clean up (what he thinks of as) “America”: it’s a claim of retroactive triumph that, like so many of Trump’s miscellaneous claims, is simple bullshit for the sake of bullshit: it’s reality by fiat, the defining feature of Trump’s rhetoric and his presidency. Of course, it’s automatically generated and devoid of content, but how is that substantially different from anything that Trump says?
I want to pay some attention to how the chains construct part of this segment: all of the following are Molly Bloom’s monologue in "Penelope":
- ”[…] those sham battles on the 15 acres the Black Watch with their kilts in time at the march past the 10th hussars the prince of Wales own or the lancers O the lancers theyre grand or the Dublins that won Tugela his father made his money over selling the horses for the cavalry well he could buy me a nice present up in Belfast after what I gave him […]” (Sentence 2 of “Penelope.” Note that four words in a row wound up getting pulled here.)
- “but he was like a perfect devil for a few minutes after he came back with the stoppress tearing up the tickets and swearing blazes because he lost 20 quid he said he lost over that outsider that won and half he put on for me on account of Lenehans tip cursing him to the lowest pits” (Sentence 2.)
- “no thats no way for him has he no manners nor no refinement nor no nothing in his nature slapping us behind like that on my bottom because I didnt call him Hugh the ignoramus that doesnt know poetry from a cabbage thats what you get for not keeping them in their proper place” (Sentence 8.)
- “God knows its not much doesnt everybody only they hide it I suppose thats what a woman is supposed to be there for or He wouldnt have made us the way He did so attractive to men then if he wants to kiss my bottom Ill drag open my drawers and bulge it right out in his face as large as life he can stick his tongue 7 miles up my hole” (Sentence 8.)
- “without him knowing he hadnt an idea about my mother till we were engaged otherwise hed never have got me so cheap as he did he was lo times worse himself anyhow begging me to give him a tiny bit cut off my drawers that was the evening coming along Kenilworth square he kissed me in the eye of my glove and I had to take it off asking me questions is it permitted to enquire the shape of my bedroom so I let him keep it as if I forgot it to think of me when I saw him slip it into his pocket” (Sentence 2.)
- “he puts his big foot in it Thoms and Helys and Mr Cuffes and Drimmies either hes going to be run into prison over his old lottery tickets that was to be all our salvations or he goes and gives impudence well have him coming home with the sack soon out of the Freeman too like the rest on account of those Sinner Fein or the freemasons” (Sentence 7.)
- “I took off only my blouse and skirt first in the other room he was so busy where he oughtnt to be he never felt me I hope my breath was sweet after those kissing comfits easy God I remember one time I could scout it out straight whistling like a man almost easy O Lord how noisy I hope theyre bubbles on it” (Sentence 6.)
- “I smelt it off her dress when I was biting off the thread of the button I sewed on to the bottom of her jacket she couldnt hide much from me I tell you only I oughtnt to have stitched it” (Sentence 6.)
All of this so far as been purely from “Penelope,” but the next set, “tell you that,” occurs nowhere in that chapter; it’s from a Trump tweet, as is a good chunk of the rest of the quoted paragraph.
(Note that the chain length for “Penelope” is currently 2.)
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