Episode II.4 reunites two of the earliest vignettes-- T&I and Mamalujo-- immediately following the first, ROC.
In 1923, Mmlj seemed like a short afterthought inserted into a long, melodramatic boy-girl soap opera. A year later Mmlj was published on its own, and the first part of T&I (the stereotypes' kiss) was set aside, while the second part (their dramas) was abandoned (probably rejected not lost).
When they were reunited, Mmlj took priority, with T&I's kiss split into many very short passages inserted out of sequence... maybe to show the kiss through Mmlj's eyes? (The 'kiss' section didn't really have much of an internal story arc that needed preserving.) Issy's characteristics are especially freely redistributed.
It's frustrating that the dominant literary effect in Mmlj seems to be simple repetition with variation, because it's BORING. Or did Joyce come up with a way to deepen their boringness? Maybe rehearsing the other major themes in this boring minor key?
Horseshows, history, misremembering, drowning, divorce, voyeurism...
And this is finally positioned after the kiddies play and study, and after a long tavern scene.
And T&I's original perfect hyper-stereotypes seem to have completely lost their interest for Joyce, as if he started there as an exercise whose value was solely in moving beyond it...
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