Hamlet
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Ep. 169 – Pray for us, Saint Thomas
Ora pro nobis! Pogue mahone! Acushla machree! Topics in this episode include Thomas Aquinas (but less than you might expect), Aquinas’ views on incest, the meaning on “new Viennese school,” whether or not Joyce had any interest in psychoanalysis (and whether it matters), how Joyce may have encountered psychoanalysis in Zurich, Professor Edward Dowden, the…
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Ep. 158 – Hamnet
Stephen Dedalus finally gets to the fireworks factory. Topics in this episode include lots of Hamlet, Stephen introduces his theory of Hamlet, James Joyce’s Shakespeare sources, Elizabethan slang, Sackerson the bear, everything we know about the real Hamnet Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s reaction to his son’s death, how Hamnet’s death shows up in the works of Shakespeare,…
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Ep. 157 – The Absentminded Beggar
Was Hamlet just distracted the whole time? Topics in this episode include: the continued character assassination of Mr. Best, Haines makes a return, Douglas Hyde’s poetry, the artistic ethos of the Celtic Revival, the political demands of the art scene in 1904 Dublin, Æ, symbolist poetry and Stéphane Mallarmé, the influence of Mallarmé on Joyce,…
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Lapwing
Near the end of “Scylla and Charybdis,” Ulysses’ ninth episode, Stephen realizes his lecture on Hamlet is rapidly disintegrating before his eyes. Not only are John Eglinton and the rest wholly unconvinced by his arguments, but he also has Buck Mulligan nipping at his heels, undermining him at every opportunity. Stephen looks to the heavens…
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A Shakespearean Ghoststory Part 3: Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund
This is part three of a three part series about searching for real-life “ghosts” by prying into Shakespeare’s personal life. You can read part one here and part two here. Near the end of “Scylla and Charybdis,” Ulysses’ ninth episode, Stephen finally arrives at the rousing conclusion of his Shakespeare theory: not only did Shakespeare…
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Decoding Dedalus: Saint Thomas’ New Viennese School
This is a post in a series called Decoding Dedalus where I take a passage of Ulysses and break it down line by line. The line below comes from “Scylla and Charybdis,” the ninth episode of Ulysses. It appears on page p. 205-206 in my copy (1990 Vintage International). We’ll be looking at the passage…
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Decoding Dedalus: He drew Shylock out of his own long pocket.
This is a post in a series called Decoding Dedalus where I take a passage of Ulysses and break it down line by line. The line below comes from “Scylla and Charybdis,” the ninth episode of Ulysses. It appears on page p. 204 – 205 in my copy (1990 Vintage International). We’ll be looking at…
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A POLISHED PERIOD
“—He spoke on the law of evidence, J. J. O’Molloy said, of Roman justice as contrasted with the earlier Mosaic code, the lex talionis. And he cited the Moses of Michelangelo in the vatican.” To listen to a discussion of this topic, check out the podcast episode here. In Ulysses’ seventh episode, “Aeolus”, Evening Telegraph…
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Ep. 59 – Rere Regardant
This episode’s passage comes from p. 50-51 in my edition of Ulysses (1990 Vintage International), and covers the passage beginning “Come. I thirst.” and ending “…a silent ship.” We did it!!! We finally finished “Proteus”! We’re covering the last page of Ulysses’ third episode this week. Topics include Dermot’s love of tall ships and the…
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Ep. 38 – Pico della Mirandola like.
This episode of Blooms & Barnacles takes an esoteric twist as we continue deeper into “Proteus”, Ulysses‘ third episode. Topics include: why Dermot is not impressed with the Library of Alexandria, the length of a mahamanvantara, what the heck a mahamanvantara is, Joyce’s youthful rage put into poetry, Joyce’s youthful interest in theosophy, Pico della…