Homeric Parallels
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Ep. 174 – The Wandering Rocks
Here be dragons. Topics in this episode include why “Wandering Rocks” is the least Homeric episode of Ulysses, why the name “Wandering Rocks” isn’t quite right, how Jason escaped the Wandering Rocks, how Leopold Bloom is a mightier hero than Odysseus, correspondences for “Wandering Rocks,” the “blind mechanism” of the Wandering Rocks, clockspeed, how to…
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Ulysses & The Odyssey – Sirens
“A musical episode was easy to place in Dublin, for Dublin is, or was, a musical town, with a particular passion for vocal music. A few Dubliners of the older generation meet in the lounge of the Ormond Hotel and a couple of songs, with an improvisation on the piano, constitute the entertainment. No writer…
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Ulysses & The Odyssey – Wandering Rocks
‘Wandering Rocks,’” following immediately on Stephen’s theorizing, is Joyce’s most complete celebration of Dublin, demonstrating succinctly his conception of the importance of physical reality, meticulously documented, as the soil from which fictions may best grow.” – Clive Hart The Odyssey – Book XII Circe advises Odysseus on how to sail safely home. She warns him…
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Ep. 131 – The Lestrygonians
Who’s for dinner? Topics in this episode include revisiting Ulysses-themed tarot, Odysseus’ encounter with the Lestrygonians, being in Leopold Bloom’s head once more, the Homeric parallels found in Ulysses’ eighth episode, the dangers of being too hangry, translating The Odyssey into French, anthropomorphic geography, trophomorphism, the intersection of food and sexuality, bloody imagery, and why…
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Ulysses & The Odyssey: Scylla & Charybdis
“[The paternity motif], which, applied to the Godhead, has been so fruitful a cause of misunderstanding and dissension in the Christian Church, that this episode is the subtlest and hardest to epitomize of all the eighteen episodes of Ulysses.” – Stuart Gilbert “The Aristotelian and Platonic philosophies are the monsters that lie in wait in…
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Rawhead and Bloody Bones in the Burton
“Although Joyce’s parallel reduces Homer’s ‘murderous reception’ to the farce of teeth chomping, a similar violence does exist here, if only in the poverty that has produced this scene…” – Trevor L. Williams After passing through Grafton St. on the way to lunch in “Lestrygonians”, Ulysses’ eighth episode, Leopold Bloom must pass through one more…
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Ep. 110 – Aeolus
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind… We kick off our series on Ulysses’ seventh episode, “Aeolus”! Topics in this episode include Book X of The Odyssey, Homeric parallels found in “Aeolus”, the headlines, the Evening Telegraph as it appears in Ulysses, Stromboli, brazen walls and floating isles, wind and air imagery, the…
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Ulysses & The Odyssey – The Lestrygonians
“I have just got a letter asking why I don’t give Bloom a rest. The writer of it wants more Stephen. But Stephen no longer interested me to the same extreme. He has a shape that can’t be changed.” – James Joyce to Frank Budgen The Odyssey – Book X After their dust-up with Aeolus,…
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Ep. 92 – Hades
The parallels between Bloom and Odysseus’ journeys to the Underworld. Topics include a summary of Chapter XI of The Odyssey, Bloom as sideways Odysseus, the neighborhoods of Glasnevin and Sandymount, Paddy Dignam and his “apoplexy,” Elpenor, Martin Cunningham the Sisyphus of Dublin, Dublin’s waterways, Dublin’s Charon, coins for the eyes, psychopomps, Reuben J. Dodd, Corny Kelleher,…
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Ulysses & The Odyssey: Aeolus
“We mustn’t be led away by words, by sounds of words.” – “Professor” MacHugh Part of an occasional series on the Homeric parallels in James Joyce’s Ulysses. To listen to a discussion of this topic, check out the podcast episode here. The Odyssey, Book X: After escaping the Cyclops, Odysseus and his surviving crew find…