The section of the text hat stood out most to me was on pg. 517 when Stephen and Bloom discuss the sick-looking prostitute whom Bloom just barely sees out of the corner of his eye. This scene in particular interested me because it combined elements of my both my lexicon entry “soul”, as well as an opaque conversation about selling ones body. “In this country people sell much more than she ever had and do a roaring trade”. On the one the one hand the section reaffirms the humanity of prostitutes (frequently encountered throughout the text) through Stephen’s perspective while highlighting Bloom’s relative conservatism, in non-personal matters. Stephen points tot he morally bereft nature of a large portion of merchantism, while bemoaning the personal cost of such a transaction (“not power to buy the soul”). Juxtaposed with the previous begging scene, consumption and spending becomes a double ended sword, with both vendor and buyer becoming physically ailed by the transaction despite the fact that Stephen establishes that this particular transaction is no worse than many of the common ones frequently occurring. In this manner prostitution becomes an implicit critique of consumption and spending in general, without the “proper authorities”, medical, spiritual, or otherwise.