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Omphalos
Parallax is the visual effect in which different observers located in different positions view the same object as located in different places or directions. In astronomy, parallax is also the name for the amount that this apparent position changes between the different observers.
Parallax Quotes in Ulysses
The Ulysses quotes below are all either spoken by Parallax or refer to Parallax. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Episode 8: Lestrygonians
Quotes
His smile faded as he walked, a heavy cloud hiding the sun slowly, shadowing Trinity’s surly front. Trams passed one another, ingoing, outgoing, clanging. Useless words. Things go on same, day after day: squads of police marching out, back: trams in, out. Those two loonies mooching about. Dignam carted off. Mina Purefoy swollen belly on a bed groaning to have a child tugged out of her. One born every second somewhere. Other dying every second.
[…]
Cityful passing away, other cityful coming, passing away too: other coming on, passing on. Houses, lines of houses, streets, miles of pavements, piledup bricks, stones. Changing hands. This owner, that. Landlord never dies they say. Other steps into his shoes when he gets his notice to quit. They buy the place up with gold and still they have all the gold. Swindle in it somewhere. Piled up in cities, worn away age after age. Pyramids in sand.
[…]
No-one is anything.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Parallax Term Timeline in Ulysses
The timeline below shows where the term Parallax appears in Ulysses. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Episode 8: Lestrygonians
...He passes a public clock, remembers reading about astronomy, and reflects on the concept of “parallax,” which he never fully understood. He remembers Molly asking about “met him pike hoses” (metempsychosis)...
(full context)
...with his finger, which leads him to think about meeting Professor Joly to ask what parallax means. He gives up, figuring that astronomy is really just about stars and planets doing...
(full context)
Episode 14: Oxen of the Sun
...his soul flying towards the Dead Sea, surrounded by a herd of moaning beasts in parallax. He sees a “wonder of metempsychosis,” a radiant figure who is both Martha and Milly.
(full context)
