49 (76.176)

A pointsman’s back straightened itself upright suddenly  

49th cast. page 76, line 176. 

 A pointsman’s back straightened itself upright suddenly against a tramway standard by Mr Bloom’s window. Couldn’t they invent something automatic so that the wheel itself much handier? Well but that fellow would lose his job then? Well but then another fellow would get a job making the new invention?


Episode 6. At about 11.00 am. Mr Bloom is travelling by horse-drawn carriage across the city from the Dignam House in the south-east of Dublin to Glasnevin Cemetery on the north-west edge of the city to attend the funeral of his friend Mr Dignam. Ths passage is the thought of Mr Bloom.

 

Great Brunswick Street (1916)


In the carriage are Stephen's father Simon Dedalus, Jack Power, Martin Cunningham and Mr Bloom.

 

The four are seated facing each other. Towards the direction of travel, Simon is thought to be sitting backwards at the front left, Mr Cunningham next to him, Mr Power facing forwards opposite Mr Power, and Mr Bloom next to Mr Power. It revises the ideas expressed in the 35th issue of the blog, the reasons for which will be explained in a later blog.


                                          

The carriage is travelling west on Great Brunswick Street (now Pearse Street), which runs north of Westland Row Station (now Pearse Station). The carriage is approaching the intersection with Westland Row.


 

The tramway standards are thought to be the ones shown on the postcard above. It stands in the middle of the road, so it would be on the right from a carriage running on the left-hand side. It is somewhat incongruous that it is visible from “Mr Bloom’s window”, who sits behind the carriage on the left.

 

It is likely that at the junction, he looked towards Westland Row, which runs to the left (south), and saw the standards and pointsman on that row.

 

Mr Bloom loves inventing, and he comes up with several inventions in this novel.

 

It is still often said that as artificial intelligence develops, people will lose their jobs, but people to create artificial intelligence will be needed instead. People have been thinking the same way for 100 years.


The method of this blog  Here


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