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 8oIv 
"Wandering Rocks" and "Sirens": 
The Breakdown of Narrative 
In a letter to John Quinn, Joyce pointed out that "Scylla and Chanybdis"
was the ninth chapter of eighteen, the last chapter of the book's first half.'
Indeed, this division has more than numerical significance, for both "Lestrygonians"
and "Scylla and Charybdis" concern themselves primarily with developing our
knowledge of the two main characters, the kind of novelistic enterprise paramount
in the first six chapters. After the strange intrusive headings in "Aeolus,"
the return to the narrative mode in these chapters restores a comforting
novelistic convention. Although rhetorical play continues in both chapters,
and even some typographical play in "Scylla and Charybdis," it is not until
"Wandering Rocks" and "Sirens" that we witness the breakdown of the initial
style and a departure from the novelistic form of the book's first half.
"Lestrygonians" and "Scylla and Charybdis," then, are less relevant to our
discussion of style than the succeeding chapters. 
 However, before proceeding to "Wandering Rocks" and "Sirens," I would like
to comment briefly on a specific aspect of the literary self-consciousness
in "Scylla and Chanybdis," namely, Stephen's public display of his theory
on Shakespeare. In its own way, Stephen's verbal fancywonk is as showy and
attention-getting as the headings of "Aeolus," and, with his literary theory,
as with the headings, the book 
 ' 3 September 1920, Letters of James Joyce, Vol. 1, ed. Stuart Gilbert (New
York: The Viking Press, 1957), p. 145.