Stephen came back from Paris with several light entertainment
magazines stuffed in his pockets. "Le Tutu" and, even
more, the "five tattered numbers of Pantalon
Blanc et Culotte Rouge" offered risqué reading which
the conservative arbiters of French fashion were endeavoring
to suppress. The magazines' preoccupation with sex and with
female undergarments link Stephen with James Joyce and with
Leopold Bloom.
Le Tutu was a
weekly entertainment magazine founded in 1901. La Vie en
Culotte Rouge (Life in Red Breeches) followed in 1902,
its title referring to the pants worn by French soldiers.
Thornton found both weeklies listed in the "Humoristiques"
section of the 1904-5 Annuaire de la Presse Française.
John Simpson notes on the James Joyce Online Notes
website that La Vie en Culotte Rouge was "mildly
erotic, and was clearly the sort of magazine that might have
been attractive to Joyce’s eclectic taste. It presented the
adventures of amorous military types and their easy-going lady
friends." He observes that "Conservative French opinion was
not in favour of a magazine lavishly illustrated with sketches
of near-naked ladies, whatever their artistic quality. The
publishers came under strong pressure to withdraw it. It
eventually ceased publishing in 1912, but not before the
revealing illustrations had been severely toned down. As late
as 1928 the magazine was still on a list (alongside Le
Tutu) consisting of 'titres des ouvrages contraires aux
bonnes mœurs' and not sold in respectable bookshops."
The longer title Pantalons Blancs et Culottes Rouges
that appears in Proteus (though with its plurals
misremembered as singulars) came from a collection of ten
issues of La Vie en Culotte Rouge. Simpson reports
that the publishers of the weekly decided, as a marketing
ploy, to repackage its issues in bound volumes. The first ten
weekly issues were sold together as Mars et Vénus,
emphasizing even more than did the weekly title the encounters
of the warrior class with the fair sex. The next ten followed
suit under the title Le Cœur et l’Épée (The Heart
and the Sword). Episodes 21 through 30 appeared as Poudre
à Canon et Poudre de Riz (Gunpowder and Ricepowder).
Episodes 31 through 40 were repackaged as Pantalons
Blancs et Culottes Rouges (White Undies and Red
Trousers).
The young Joyce left Paris one month before this fourth bound
volume was first advertised and sold in May 1903, but he could
have encountered it during later trips to Paris. Since the "five
tattered numbers" pretty clearly refer to
individual issues, he appears to have confused their title
with that of the bound album.
The frilly white undergarments of the ladies in Le Tutu
and La Vie en Culotte Rouge clearly invite readers
to relate Stephen's sexual proclivities to those of Bloom. It
also seems possible that the red pants of the soldiers bear
some connection to the red pants that Molly wears in Bloom's
dream—as the image at right may suggest.
