B U L L E T I N - The Taft School

My stomach growled as we entered the James Joyce Center. We were introduced to a ball of energy also knownas James Quinn, the all-knowing James Joyce scholar who would be our tour guide on our Bloom’sday walk. UsingJoyce’s “Lestrygonians” chapter we followed Leopold Bloom’s footsteps through the hectic city and the more we readthe more I began to feel as though I was being digested by the city, just as Joyce intended. While were in the heartof the city, I could feel it pulsating with my every move. It was just like a movie, a flashback to the early 1900s, Icould hear the loud clatter of the carriages as they rode across the cobblestoned streets and the chatter of thewaves of people gallivanting throughout the city in this mid-afternoon scene. After I caught myself daydreaming ofthe life Bloom must have led, James Quinn continued to guide us through the rest of the city like we were a groupof untrained puppies aimlessly pulling in different directions. We moved through the entire digestive tract of thecity finally ending at the National Art Museum. By this time it was my stomach that was growling not the city’s.My friend Liz and I meandered our way finally stumbling on a little café where we drank fresh fruit smoothies andpondered the literary devices of James Joyce that have scholars perplexed to this day.—Barbara Romaine ’09Taft Bulletin Fall 2008 19