... how can I not?
Amy isn't Molly Bloom, and my reaction to her wonderfully expressive writing isn't
the same sort of "yes", but one association leads to another, and it's
hard not to quote those famous last lines of James Joyce's Ulysses:
... I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the
rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and
how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another
and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would
I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and
drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart
was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.
In addition to a number of complete volumes of Ulysses that can be found on the
web, numerous sites quote these lines. The Wikipedia has a page devoted to Molly's
soliloquy. This isn't the place to renew an examination of the accuracy of
the Wikipedia (on the history page of the soliloquy one editor notes that he's
returned things to a more neutral point of view, though just what that means when
dealing with a famous line in literature isn't fully clear). Still, it's interesting
to note that the Wikipedia entry reports a number of recent references to the
soliloquy in popular culture. I'm not an expert, but it's my guess that there
are numerous "better" references than those listed.
Go to: A better definition is hard to find, or
Go to: Mental Gymnastics?, or
Go to: On completing a web site