Molly Bloom

  • 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. 89 – Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom (w/ Aedín Moloney)

    Kelly speaks with actress Aedín Moloney about playing Molly Bloom in her one-woman show, Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom. Sweny’s Patreon helps keep this marvelous Dublin landmark alive. Please subscribe! Aedín Moloney: http://www.aedinmoloney.com/ Instagram | Twitter Blooms & Barnacles Social Media: Facebook | Twitter Subscribe to Blooms & Barnacles: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher

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  • Ep. 88 – NIGHTTOWN (w/ Benjamin Wenzelberg)

    Blooms & Barnacles chat with composer Benjamin Wenzeberg about his new, Ulysses-inspired opera NIGHTTTOWN. Topics include adapting Ulysses for the stage, the process of writing an opera during Covid, gender politics and #metoo in Ulysses, gender-inclusive casting, Molly as a force of nature, the proper use of Italian, the symbolic power of musical notation, and…

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  • The Women of Ulysses: Milly Bloom

    Part of an occasional series on the women of Ulysses. To listen to a discussion of this topic, check out the podcast episode here. Poor Milly Bloom. She’s the daughter of one of literature’s greatest heroes, but she’s been given short shrift. Joyce critics over the decades have largely ignored her or written her off…

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  • Ep. 71 – Agendath Netaim

    Leopold Bloom contemplates the purchase of immense melonfields north of Jaffa. Topics covered in this episode include the Zionist movement of the early 20th century, how to pronounce Agendath Netaim, why Joyce might have changed Agudat to Agendath, hypostasis, the business sense (or nonsense) of buying farmland in Palestine, Bleibtreustrasse 34, morphic resonance, Dlugacz the…

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  • Ep. 69 – Met Him Pike Hoses

    We do our best to take Molly’s advice and tell it in plain words – what is metempsychosis? Topics covered in this episode include Boylan’s bold hand, whether or not cats are kosher, moustache cups, secret letters, “La Ci Darem La Mano”, an orangekeyed chamberpot, how Molly can be both Calypso and Penelope, Joyce’s personal…

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  • Ep. 68 – The Orientalism Show

    Why is Leopold Bloom so captivated by the “mysterious East”? In this episode we discuss the Orientalist motif in Ulysses, with a focus on “Calypso.” Topics include what is Orientalism?, how Orientalism manifests in Irish culture, the blurred continuum between Irish and British culture, Edward Said, why the “Orient” is really a dream, the Whig…

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  • Ep. 63 – Calypso

    Welcome to the next stage of your journey! This week we cover the parallels to “Calypso,” the fourth episode of James Joyce’s Ulysses and Book V of Homer’s Odyssey. Topics include how Leopold Bloom and Odysseus are similar, how they’re different since Bloom is really a sideways Odysseus, Bloom as a feminine man, the danger…

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  • The Language of Flowers

    “P. S. Do tell me what kind of perfume does your wife use. I want to know.” – Ulysses, p. 78 To listen to a discussion of this topic, check out the podcast episode here. Mr. Leopold Bloom is predisposed to skulk. “Lotus Eaters” is a particularly skulky episode, during which Bloom kills an hour…

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  • The Secret Life of Martha Clifford

    “Of course he has a knife, he always has a knife, we all have knives! It’s 1183 and we’re barbarians! How clear we make it. Oh, my piglets, we are the origins of war: not history’s forces, nor the times, nor justice, nor the lack of it, nor causes, nor religions, nor ideas, nor kinds…

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