Ep. 78 - An Abode of Bliss

The Blooms’ household is anything but an abode of bliss.

In this episode, topics include: Plumtree’s Potted Meat, Joyce’s love for advertising, the narcotic effect of adspeak, why Plumtree’s Potted Meat is the perfect metaphor for a modern Odysseus, M’Coy’s various scams, Boylan’s metaphorically significant gifts to Molly, Bloom’s missing hour and how his cat helps solve this mystery, Love’s Old Sweet Song, why M’Coy doesn’t turn up at Dignam’s funeral, Mrs. M’Coy, smallpox in Belfast, M’Coy as an unflattering mirror of Bloom, how Plumtree’s Potted Meat reveals Bloom’s connection to Moses, the symbolic motif of the plum in Ulysses, the ritual consumption of flesh, how waste product becomes meat through transubstantiation, Plumtree’s Potted Meat as a magical spell, and what Plumtree’s Potted Meat has in common with The Sopranos.

Sweny's Patreon helps keep this marvelous Dublin landmark alive. Please subscribe!

On the Blog:

Plumtree’s Potted M’Coy

Social Media:

Facebook | Twitter

Subscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher

Further Reading:

1. Budgen, F. (1972). James Joyce and the making of Ulysses, and other writings. London: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y2qpjk4g 

2. Del Río Molina, B. (2006). From Iconophagy to Anthropophagy: Cannibalising Images in Ulysses. Papers on Joyce, 12, 25-43. Retrieved from http://www.siff.us.es/iberjoyce/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/6-PoJ12-Benigno.pdf 

3. Ellmann, R. (1959). James Joyce. Oxford University Press.

4. Ellmann, R. (1972). Ulysses on the Liffey. Oxford University Press. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.65767/page/n39 

5. Gifford, D., & Seidman, R. J. (1988). Ulysses annotated: Notes for James Joyce's Ulysses. Berkeley: University of California Press. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/vy6j4tk 

6. 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/yy2gpfhs 

7. 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 

8. Leland, B. (2014). An Abode of Bliss: Plumtree's Potted Meat and the Allegory of the Theologians. James Joyce Quarterly, 52(1), 37-53. Retrieved September 16, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/44162649 

9. Osteen, M. (1995). The economy of Ulysses: making both ends meet. New York: Syracuse University Press. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/yycf2ar5

10. Wellington, F. (1977). A Missing Conversation in "Ulysses". James Joyce Quarterly, 14(4), 476-479. Retrieved February 11, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/25476087