They build it up just to burn it back down
The wind is blowing all the ashes around Arcade Fire – Rococo
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What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
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This is a fife
This is also another musical motif, it relates to Bloom’s adulterous behaviour. That’s explained here.
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Gold once again refers to the blond Mina Kennedy and her flushed cheeks. She likes the strong liquor you see.
Of course this is also meant to be interpreted as the gold trumpet/horn alluded to earlier being blown.
Then I'ma give it to them tonight Titus Andronicus (Ft. Nolen Strals & Okey Canfield Chenoweth III) – A More Perfect Union
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Patrick is busy at work repping New Jersey to his newfound Massachusetts neighbours. This is a reference to the film The Dark Knight, where The Joker, harrowingly portrayed by Heath Ledger, offers up his take on crime.
This town deserves a better class of criminal, and I’m gonna give it to ‘em. Tell your men they work for me now. This is my city.
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Like the Billy Bragg line above, this is an ironic inversion of a popular song, “Born To Run” by fellow New Jerseyan Bruce Springsteen.
We gotta get out while were young
Cos tramps like us, baby we were born to run
Patrick changes the lyric to “die,” implying there’s no escape waiting like the one that Springsteen describes. We all die one day, and are thus “born to die.” So he needs to act now and quickly, because, to borrow a phrase, “#YOLO.”
The line has a note of dignity when we examine it in the context of a similar lyric from “Four Score And Seven.”
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Hoofirons are Joyce’s way of saying horseshoes. The odd re-wording was used to keep our attention on the thumping sound of metallic hooves on the ground, rather than on the image of a horse.
The introduction of this episode is interpreted as a musical overture thus the sound the horseshoes make can be thought of as that of cymbals crashing, that’s the “steelyringing”.
This and some of what follows is a recreation of a band playing music. All the motifs for the rest of the episode are to be found in this introduction. Think of it as a sort of strange musical summary of the chapter to follow.
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What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
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What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
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Now recreating a trumpet being blown.
This is also foreshadowing the dish boy mocking Bronze by twisting her words into this noise. She originally says “impertinent insolence”.
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