In societies of extreme consumerism, Bloom’s questions on the role of food in times of peace and prosperity, but also of war, and others regarding class distinctions, or the transitory nature of happiness through consumption are all valid today. The creation of mega-cities as evidence and proof of the power of money in the film becomes a metaphor for modern Lestrygonians.
The existing, anonymous mega-cities, reflections in huge, glass building facades, the scale of skyscrapers obliterating human figures, the hard black & white images are all references to today’s Lestrygonians.
And under the Mediterranean sun, surrounded by the sea, the Trieste of absence but also intense presence in James Joyce. In this city of borders, the symbolic end of the West, but also of the North, Joyce will reacquaint himself with Greek.
The Greeks have always brought me good luck.
- James Joyce