Joyce set Ulysses in Dublin. The River Liffey runs right through its guts. It is his symbol for life’s “riverrun” (that’s the first word of Finnegans Wake). I set Telemachus in Sydney. I could have chosen our famous harbour or beaches as my life symbol. But I chose Sydney Yellowblock Sandstone. There’s detailed history of Yellowblock in C9 (p.658). It is also the commodity for a corrupt political deal in C5 (p.274). The reflection off Yellowblock’s golden grains makes Sydney’s clear blue sky seem a still brighter blue, and deepen the torpor of our city streets when it is moistened and darkened by pixolating cloudscapes.
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