I AM A ?

Near the end of the Nausikaa episode--after completing the rite of Onan--Bloom considers writing a message to the (illusional?) Gerty. His thoughts lead us to believe that he is considering a possible physical confrontation--or another sexual encounter--with the young girl if she indeed returns to the strand. Regardless of the evidence that Gerty may be a mirage (I think she is real but redressed by Bloom's mastrubatory theatre of the mind), let us consider what Bloom had in mind to write.

The idea of a message begins three paragraphs previous, when B observes the discarded scrap of Stephen's from earlier. He begins to read, then decides "No. Can't read. Better go". (U381) [Why can't he read it? Can't see in the dark, or is it written illegibly?] The scrap brings to mind the things people throw in the sea, he finds a stick, wonders if he should return [murderers do]. Will he?

Bloom writes "I" and immediately considers its destruction by some careless boot [consider the rusty boot stephen saw this morn], sees a tide pool [a moment of Narcissus], and recalls Martha's letter from earlier that day--specifically the "other world" she mistakenly wrote.
He continues: "AM. A." then dashes the idea because "No room."
He considers a nap, bothered by bat, and concludes with a sleepy jumble of his voyeurism and Molly's adultery.

The first allusion here is the instance in John 8:3 when the Pharisees try to entrap Jesus with the adulterer. They say the woman had been caught in the act of adultery which of old testament law demands a stoning. Jesus doesn't immediately answer , but instead writes in the sand with his finger. They ask again, and he responds: 'The sinless of you -- let him first cast the stone at her;' (John 8:7 Young's Literal Trans.) They leave. When the Pharisees have left, Jesus stands and asks who is it that accusers her. She answers: No one, Sir.
Joyce would have intended the reader to recall this popular biblical story, but the situation is ironically inverted. Bloom is alone on the strand and the adulterer at large is not Gerty but Bloom's wife. And he is not sinnless, he has just spilled his own seed without copulation [though technically Onan sinned because his hit the ground; Bloom's stays in his trousers].

Also, "Bend, see my face there, dark mirror, breathe on it, stirs" (U381) recalls the first lines of Genesis: "In the beginning of God's preparing the heavens and the earth, the earth hath existed waste and void, and darkness [is] on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God fluttering on the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:1-2 Young's Literal Translation).

These two allusions lend to the idea that Bloom's writtings may recall the name of God used both by God in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New: I am that I am from the hebrew Ehyeh asher ehyeh. But there's no way he intends for Gerty to get this allusion (Bloom is unaware he is odysseus/jesus/etc...) the intention of his scribbling is to continue their sexual encounter; Bloom wants to impart some informaton that will excite Gerty, or create some tie between them.

3 good possibilities for the sense of his message:

i Apologetic/Masochistic (I AM A: SINNER, PIG, CUCKOLD, ...)
ii Identity (I AM A: JEW, MARRIED MAN,...)
iii Affirmation (of masc.) (I AM A: MAN, or "A" = "ALPHA"..)

Of these, i and ii seem the most likely to be for Gerty to read while iii seems like Bloom reasserting his power. But we must remember the technique of this chapter: tumescence and detumescence. Bloom has finished mastrubating and is just coming down from that high. He may feel guilt and in this case "sinner", "pig", "cuckhold", and "married man" all make sense.
He never finishes his message for there is "no room". This clue lends us a few ideas as to why he erases the message and to what the message could have been. If we interpret "no room" to mean a lack of space for writing, then the longer words seem more plausible. Though if interpreted as "no room" for another woman in his life, then all seem likely and we're back at square one.

What he says immediately before writing "AM. A." may help us eliminate a few of the options.
"Besides they don't know. What is the meaning of that other world. I called you naughty boy because I do not like." (U381)
Martha is here indicating a word that Bloom had used in his previous letter, a word similar to "naughty boy",not commonly known--like "metempsychosis" earlier in the morning, and indicitive of instability in his household. Because the phrase pops in his head as he is writing in the sand, it can be assumed that the word he wants to write is exactly the word he had used in his letter. Whatever word he used, it was not oozing with confidence, so "MAN", "ALPHA", etc. can be crossed out. "JEW", "MARRIED MAN" and the like are too neutral in conotation to be replaced by "naughty boy". What we're left with is the masochistic vocabulary, which fits with Bloom's attitude throughout the day. The longer of these are "CUCKOLD" and "SINNER", so if there is indeed no room to write Bloom may have had one in mind. What we do know is what the narrator has in mind by juxtapositioning Gerty's thought that "that foreign gentleman that was sitting on the rocks looking was" (U382) with the "cuckoo" of the nearby clock.

One more interesting bit.

If we compare the Proteus and Nausicaa episodes, we find many little bits of speech eroded from Stephen's soliloquy and deposited nonrandomly in the thoughts of both Gerty and Bloom. I don't think its merely chance. First of all, Proteus and Nausicaa happen in the exact same spot on Sandymount Strand. Secondly, the same act of mastrubation is commited (or at least implied in Stephen's case) at this spot. Third, at corresponding times during the two hour-long chapters, words pop up as though they were found on the beach. For example, from Proteus: "Soft soft soft.." (U49), "As I am. As I am. All or not at all." (U49), "Vehement breath of waters" (U49), "What is that word known to all men?" (U49). And from Nausicaa: "O so lovely! O so soft, sweet, soft!" (U367), "I."..."AM. A." (U381), "see my face there, dark mirror, breathe on it, stirs" (U381), "What is the meaning of that other world." (U381).
Also, as Jorn Barger has mentioned, these two episodes are the only two staged completely out of doors.

And of course there's that bat...