Ireland
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Ulysses & The Odyssey: Hades
Part of an occasional series on the Homeric parallels in James Joyce’s Ulysses. The Odyssey, Book XI: Odysseus travels to the underworld and meets the prophet Tiresias, who reveals the ultimate fate of Odysseus and his crew. Odysseus has a chance to speak to other souls in the underworld, including his mother, a parade of…
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Ep. 53 – The Virgin at Hodges Figgis’ Window
Dermot and Kelly carry on discussing “Proteus” in their flutiest voices! Topics in this episode include: yet more discussion of the philosophy of the good bishop of Cloyne, George Berkeley, shovel hats, the fluttering of the veil between the material world and the metaphysical world, Dermot’s grudge against Bertrand Russell, how language obscures one’s perception…
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Ep. 49 – O, My Dimber Wapping Dell
White thy fambles, Red thy gan! Wait, what? Find out what this phrase and much more means in this episode as we continue our discussion of “Proteus,” the third episode in James Joyce’s Ulysses. Topics covered in this show include: what Stephen means by “red Egyptians,” background on the Romani and Irish Travellers, Stephen’s class insecurity,…
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Ep. 48 – Haroun al-Raschid’s Melons
Kelly and Dermot take a look at Stephen Dedalus’ prophetic dream in “Proteus.” Topics discussed include James Joyce’s fascination with dream analysis, Stephen’s connection to the mysterious Akasic record, Dermot’s own experience with slippery time, the location of the “street of harlots” in Dublin, how Leopold Bloom and Haroun al-Raschid are connected, Orientalism, almosting, and prolonged…
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Ulysses & The Odyssey: The Lotus Eaters
“[Focusing in the Homeric parallels] is decorous when the Homeric theme is narcosis, but is apt to occur whatever the Homeric theme, and years of concentration on the large-scale patterns … have fostered an expositor’s Ulysses in which characters sleepwalk through a grand design… and very little happens save the display of eighteen successive tableaux…
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Ep. 46 – Paradise of Pretenders
Kelly and Dermot explore Ireland’s historic connections to various pretenders to the English throne, how this connects to Stephen’s unsquashable beef against Buck Mulligan, Solange Knowles, medieval abstrusiosities of all sorts, the mystery of the princes in the Tower, Dermot’s disdain for the Tudors, whether or not Ireland is still a “paradise of pretenders,” Stephen’s…
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Is Leopold Bloom Jewish?
“It is odd that the creator of the most outstanding Jew in modern literature did not at that time know any of the Jewish community in Dublin.” – Padraic Colum, p. 56, Our Friend James Joyce “Yes. Only a foreigner would do. The Jews were foreigners in Dublin at that time. There was no hostility…
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Ep. 44- Galleys of the Lochlanns
Kelly and Dermot set sail for the time of Vikings and jerkined dwarfs! They discuss the differences of similarly-shaped seafaring vessels, Lochlanns, Fr. Dineen’s Irish dictionary, the intersection of Viking and Celtic cultures in Ireland, torcs, tomahawk, the horrors of 14th c. Dublin, famine, plague and slaughters, the story of the time a pod of…
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Ep. 43 – Panthersahib and Pointer
Kelly and Dermot consider, Stephen’s decision to leave the Martello Tower, his struggles as a would-be artist in the colonial landscape of Edwardian Dublin, his fear of dogs, the protean process of death and decay, what the heck a grike is, why Sir Lout talks like that, how to pronounce “gunwale,” some more meditations on…
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Bloom’s Potato
To listen to a discussion of this topic, check out the podcast episode here. “On the doorstep he felt in his hip pocket for the latchkey. Not there. In the trousers I left off. Must get it. Potato I have. Creaky wardrobe. No use disturbing her.” Ulysses, p. 57 The episodes “Calypso” and “Telemachus” correspond…