Related to a kidney

Semiotics and Structuralism Introduction to Theory of Literature Professor Paul Fry 

As anticipated from the last lecture the focus on form and structures can lead to a study of multiple languages. Semiotics concerns this and also deals with framing language in terms of what is intelligible in language why something is vague and liable to be misunderstood. 

Semiotics shares formalism's focus on structure but has departed in a few notions. Formalists seemed almost dogmatic about the structure of literature being meaning while semiotics separates ideals with the actual word or sign being used. Semiotics also takes into consideration language at a certain time rather than focusing on its continual change.

Semiotics sought to create a systematic study of language but it's methods are far from authoritarian. One of its main tenants is that language does not have an author and by nature compiled communally. If language was a personal matter ideas wouldn't be transferable to one another.

The way language is described is also free of tyranny to a degree. There are a multitude of languages and ways to signify signs. A curious trait of semiotics is its awareness of context and how often a sign becomes intelligible by a sign not being other signs around it. And it becomes clear the study involves a vast amount of information because a sign signifies something but also relates to every other sign in the given lexicon.

To be sure this makes even simple understandings ambitious feats, but to know what a sign is feels innate. The knowledge that semiotics brings forth distances us from what is comfortable and straightforward. In a way it is a turn away from a pastoral sense of the world and towards a scientific one where there is an inherent barrier from our understanding of the world we perceive--another curiosity as art is generally of the first archaic sensibility. While it deals with language, Semiotic in itself is probably far to atomistic of humanity to be useful in discussing works of art. Its interest probably have be modelled by a more specific field concerning art but most likely retained its scepticism and compiling symbols discursively.

p. 57-72 Calypso Ulysses James Joyce

We are introduced to Leopold Bloom and his day starts similarly to Stephen Daedalus. Their two breakfasts start off differently as Leopold seems to afford his but there is still a sense of scarcity. I'm not sure if kindey is short in demand because of hard times or if it's just a novelty and of rare taste. If it is so then we have to question why Leopold is concerned the attractive neighborhood girl will purchase the last one in stock. But this is section is categorized by this carnal desire that is illustrated by the physical nature of the butcher shop.

Curiously in the background of all this desire is Bloom's preparation for his friend's funeral. As he wonders to grab his breakfast meat his thoughts roam and he seems sceptical of his city as it feels unreal. The urbanity of the city contrasts with the pastoral scene Bloom finds in a magazine in the butcher shop and we contemplate the pastoral with the urban and how the pastoral is generative of life while the city is a placed for the flavor of meat you prefer and or funerals. Beauty is either budding or laying in bed but it seems to have an eye in another direction than that of Bloom. He seems keen on this but does not curb is sense of longing or duties he must attend to.

Bloom's attraction to the kidneys gives us pause. They are written unflatteringly and seem as this primordial substance that seduces him outdoors and we learn a little about him as he places himself to the butcher. These discerning hunks of flesh will give him the energy throughout the day that is provided by Bloom's bizarre hedonism that not only fills him with desire but also nourishes him.