Leopold Bloom
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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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Was Leopold Bloom a Freemason?
— “He doesn’t buy cream on the ads he picks up. You can make bacon of that.” After Leopold Bloom finishes his lunch at Davy Byrne’s moral pub in “Lestrygonians,” Ulysses’ eighth episode, he steps away from the bar. The only other two people in the pub, patron Nosey Flynn and proprietor Davy Byrne, strike…
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Ep. 122- A Hungarian it was one day…
Did Leopold Bloom really give Arthur Griffith the idea for Sinn Fein? Topics in this episode include Stephen delivering Mr. Deasy’s letter, Stephen’s vampire poem, Crawford dunks on Mr. Deasy, a cure for foot and mouth disease, the assassination attempt against Emperor Franz Josef, Maximilian Karl O’Donnell, graf von Tirconnell’s heroic defense of the Emperor,…
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Leopold Bloom’s Gorgonzola
“He entered Davy Byrne’s. Moral pub. He doesn’t chat. Stands a drink now and then. But in leapyear once in four. Cashed a cheque for me once.” Following a long, restless journey across Dublin’s city centre in “Lestrygonians”, Ulysses’ eighth episode, Leopold Bloom finally sits down to his lunch. After a close encounter in the…
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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. 116 – ERIN, GREEN GEM OF THE SILVER SEA
Inspired by your beauty…effulgent. Topics in this episode include lemon soap, Ned Lambert, Wilson Ruttledge, Hedges Eyre Chatterton, waiting for your rich uncle to die, Dan Dawson and “Our Lovely Land,” Aristotle’s Rhetoric, epideictic speeches, encomia for Helen, what Dan Dawson’s speech has in common with classical rhetorical treatises, making fun of subpar art, masturbatory…
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Decoding Bloom: John Howard Parnell
This is a post in a series called Decoding Bloom where I take a paragraph of Ulysses and break it down line by line. The passage below comes from “The Lestrygonians”, the eighth episode of Ulysses. It appears on page 164-165 in my copy (1990 Vintage International). It begins “Provost’s house” and ends “house of…
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Up the Boers!
As Leopold Bloom passes beneath Tommy Moore’s roguish finger on his long walk to lunch in “Lestrygonians”, Ulysses’ eighth episode, a flock of cops catches his attention: “A squad of constables debouched from College street, marching in Indian file. Goosestep. Foodheated faces, sweating helmets, patting their truncheons. After their feed with a good load of…
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Ep. 115 – AND IT WAS THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVER
Why is this Bloomsday different from all other Bloomsdays? Topics in this episode include orthography, Dermot’s recollections of working in graphic design, the saving grace of calligraphy, spellingbee conundrums, dayfathers, nightfathers, Old Monks, unions, an obituary surprise, Passover and how it shows up in Ulysses, Rudolph Bloom’s Haggadah, how Charlton Heston traumatized us as children,…