Ep. 82 - The Buddha in the Museum
What did James Joyce think of Buddhism?
The reclining Buddha Bloom saw in the museum. Image source: http://100objects.ie/reclining-buddha/
Topics in this episode include: All Hallows or St. Andrew’s Church?, why Bloom hangs out in a church, the very reverend John Conmee S.J., sectarian scorekeeping, prayers for Gladstone, St. Peter Claver, the Opium Wars, racist poetry, the reclining Buddha statue in the National Museum of Ireland, Leopold Bloom misconceptions about Buddhism, Walter White’s misconceptions about Buddhism, depictions of the Buddha in art, what Joyce did and didn’t know about Buddhism, Buddhism viewed through lens of Western spiritualism, Joyce’s 1903 review of H. Fielding Hall’s A Soul of a People, Joyce’s characterization of Buddhism as a “passive philosophy,” Paul Carus and The Gospel of Buddha, whether or not Buddhism is a religion, the Bill Murray movie that best illustrates Buddhist principles, the Anglo-Burmese wars, U Dhammaloka, Orientalism, Homer’s lotus eaters and Buddhism, the Buddhist symbolism of the lotus, vegetarianism, tales from the Hegeler-Carus mansion, Ecce Homo, and Patrick’s sham shamrock.
The Westernized image of Buddha discussed in the episode
On the Blog:
Decoding Bloom: The Lotus Eaters Sutra
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Media Mentioned in this Episode:
The Gospel of Buddha, Paul Carus
“A Suave Philosophy,” James Joyce, 1903
A Soul of a People, H. Fielding Hall
Ecce Homo, by Mihály Munkácsy, a painting reviewed by James Joyce: http://www.jstor.org/stable/44871346
St. Andrew’s Church, Westland Row, 2018
Further Reading:
Aithal, S. (1979). Allusions to the Buddha in "Ulysses". James Joyce Quarterly, 16(4), 510-512. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25476236
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
Grimes, K. M. (2015). Racialized Humility: The White Supremacist Sainthood of Peter Claver, SJ. Horizons, 42(02), 295–316. https://doi.org/10.1017/HOR.2015.108
Ito, E. (2003). Mediterranean Joyce Meditates on Buddha. Language and Culture, No.5 (Center for Language and Culture Education and Research, Iwate Prefectural University), 53-64. Retrieved from http://p-www.iwate-pu.ac.jp/~acro-ito/Joycean_Essays/MJMonBuddha.html
Ito, E. (2004). How Did Buddhism Influence James Joyce and Kenji Miyazawa? Language and Culture, No.6 (Center for Language and Culture Education and Research, Iwate Prefectural University, January 2004), 11-23. Retrieved from http://p-www.iwate-pu.ac.jp/~acro-ito/Joycean_Essays/J&KM_Buddha.html
Ito, E. (2008). Orienting Orientalism in Ulysses. James Joyce Journal, 41(2), 51-70. Retrieved from http://p-www.iwate-pu.ac.jp/~acro-ito/Joycean_Essays/U_Orientalism.html
Ito, E. (2013). “A Suave Philosophy”:Reconciling Religious Identities in Joyce's Works. Journal of Policy Studies, 15 (1), pp. 37-47. Retrieved from https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/229817675.pdf
O’Toole, F. (2012, Oct. 20.) A history of Ireland in 100 objects. The Irish Times. Retrieved from
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/a-history-of-ireland-in-100-objects-1.555488