Bloom’s extremely detailed outhouse scene again indicates that Joyce is interested in portraying all aspects of human life, including those generally considered too vulgar for respectable literature. The popular British newspaper
Titbits compiled quotes, jokes, and short articles from other publications around the world; it could be seen as the earliest version of what is now clickbait journalism. Bloom is evidently interested in the paper’s strategy and success, and his own literary aspirations are mostly about getting published, not about creating exquisite art. Between
Titbits and Molly’s erotic novels, it’s clear that the Blooms don’t share Stephen Dedalus’s sophisticated taste in literature and belief in the absolute purity of art. Finally, the church bells that Bloom hears in this passage are the same ones that Stephen heard at the end of the first episode. This shows that the events of these episodes are happening simultaneously.. It’s one of the first times in the book that Joyce applies his literary interpretation of the astronomical concept of “parallax”—the same event is seen from two distinct perspectives, which makes it possible to understand the difference between these perspectives. While they’re both also thinking about death at this moment, Stephen is fixated on the past (his mother’s death) while Bloom is thinking about the future (his friend Dignam’s funeral).