Leopold Bloom
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Ulysses & The Odyssey: Cyclops
The Odyssey – Book IX Following their misadventure with the Lotus Eaters, Odysseus and his fleet come to the home of the Cyclopes, a rude, violent and uncivilized people. Odysseus and his men enter the cave dwelling of the Cyclops Polyphemus while he is out tending to his sheep. They eat Polyphemus’ food while waiting…
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“Sirens” Songs: The Croppy Boy
This is part one of a two part series about select songs from the “Sirens” episode. You can read part one here. Ulysses’ eleventh episode, “Sirens,” closes with its second major musical set piece – “base barreltone” Ben Dollard’s rendition of the ballad, “The Croppy Boy.” Set during the 1798 Rebellion, “The Croppy Boy” tells…
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“Sirens” Songs: M’Appari
This is part one of a two part series about select songs from the “Sirens” episode. You can read part two here. Stuart Gilbert, in his book, Ulysses: A Study, explained that in the view of the average Dubliner, music was an “essentially Italian art.” Simon Dedalus recalls the music of Italian sailors to Ben…
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Ulysses & The Odyssey – Sirens
The Odyssey – Book XII Circe advises Odysseus on the route to take home to Ithaca, warning him of the Sirens, fearsome creatures who sing beautifully to lure sailors to their island, where they sit enthroned among the bones of all the sailors they’ve eaten. Circe tells Odysseus to have his crew block their ears…
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Sweets of Sin
In the tenth section of “Wandering Rocks,” the tenth episode of Ulysses, we rejoin Dublin’s Odysseus, Leopold Bloom, perusing some reading material in a bookseller’s stall in Merchants’ Arch. What ancient tome of grave import is our hero uncovering? Recall an earlier scene in “Calypso,” in which Molly was disappointed with the insufficiently smutty novel,…
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Ep. 151 – Blind Stripling
A wild Blazes Boylan appears. Topics in this episode include the incredible story of Reverend Thomas Connellan, the Bible Wars, Soupers, the Bird’s Nest orphanage, apostasy and conversion, a typographical error heroically corrected, the blind stripling, whether or not the blind stripling actually wants help from Leopold Bloom, Bloom’s savior complex, Bloom’s empathy, the history…
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Ep. 150- Throwaway
I need to see a man about a horse. Topics in this episode include a return to nutarianism, Tom Rochford’s surprisingly heroic back story, the Ascot Gold Cup, racehorses with weird names, Jack B. Yeats’ Olympic career, the life cycle of a pernicious rumor, Tom Rochford’s invention, Don Giovanni’s ending (spoiler alert), peristalsis nearing its…
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Ep. 149 – Ancient Free and Accepted Order
Are you on the level? Topics in this episode include discussion of whether or not Leopold Bloom is a freemason, how well Nosey Flynn knows the business of the other Dubliners, why Bloom never thinks about being a freemason, whether or not Tom Kernan is in the craft, whether or not you can leave the…
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Ep. 147- Seed Cake
Should you bring oysters to your naughty liaison on Howth? Topics in this episode include your thoughts on Bloom’s glass of burgundy, whether or not oysters are an aphrodisiac, where you used to be able to find the best oysters in Ireland, whether or not it’s ok to eat oysters in months that don’t have…
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Ep. 145 – Gorgon-Zola
Fermentation is hot. Topics in this episode include Davy Byrne’s moral pub, Nosey Flynn, Noah and the curse of Ham, Plumtree’s Potted Meat, cannibalism, missionaries who get eaten by cannibals, long pig, Reverend MacTrigger, lapses in Leopold Bloom’s empathy, the Jesuits’ mission of conversion, colonialism, Yom Kippur, food as an expression of religion, mity cheese,…