Ep. 75 - The Lotus Eaters
We begin our foray into the languorous “Lotus Eaters” episode.
Topics in this episode include how Kelly is like the Terminator, Odysseus and his crew’s misadventure with the Lotus Eaters in The Odyssey, why forgetfulness is evil in Odysseus’ view, some peculiar tales from Westland Row, cultivating an appreciation for the mundane, the Lotus Eaters that Bloom encounters in Westland Row, whether or not the Lotus Eaters were really all that bad, bliss ninnies and how they are a diversion from true enlightenment, hologram utopia, a detour into tales of psychedelia, Leopold Bloom as a Lotus Eater, religion as anaesthetic, the alchemy of Sweny’s chemist, narcissism, a wounded male ego, a one-sided affair, coping with uncertainty, Bloom’s failure to connect with his acquaintances in “Lotus Eaters,” and avoiding intellectual lotuses.
Illustration to Tennyson's "The Lotos-Eaters" by W. E. F. Britten, 1901
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Ulysses and The Odyssey: The Lotus Eaters
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Further Reading:
Frank Budgen’s take on “Lotus Eaters”
Burgess, A. (1968). ReJoyce. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Ellmann, R. (1972). Ulysses on the Liffey. Oxford University Press. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.65767/page/n39
Findley, A. The Lotus Eaters - Modernism Lab. Retrieved from https://campuspress.yale.edu/modernismlab/the-lotus-eaters/
Gilbert, S. (1955). James Joyce’s Ulysses: a study. New York: Vintage Books.
Herring, P. (1974). Lotuseaters. In C. Hart & D. Hayman (eds.), James Joyce’s Ulysses: Critical essays (71-90). Berkeley: University of California Press. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/wu2y7mg
Homer, translated by Palmer., G.H. (1912). The Odyssey. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications.
Kenner, H. (1987). Ulysses. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=Ajlz5rzPBOkC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA19#v=onepage&q&f=false
Williamson, A. The Lotus Eaters. Modernist Commons. Retrieved from https://modernistcommons.ca/islandora/object/yale%3A454