Leopold Bloom
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Decoding Bloom: John Howard Parnell
This is a post in a series called Decoding Bloom where I take a paragraph of Ulysses and break it down line by line. The passage below comes from “The Lestrygonians”, the eighth episode of Ulysses. It appears on page 164-165 in my copy (1990 Vintage International). It begins “Provost’s house” and ends “house of…
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Up the Boers!
As Leopold Bloom passes beneath Tommy Moore’s roguish finger on his long walk to lunch in “Lestrygonians”, Ulysses’ eighth episode, a flock of cops catches his attention: “A squad of constables debouched from College street, marching in Indian file. Goosestep. Foodheated faces, sweating helmets, patting their truncheons. After their feed with a good load of…
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Ep. 115 – AND IT WAS THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVER
Why is this Bloomsday different from all other Bloomsdays? Topics in this episode include orthography, Dermot’s recollections of working in graphic design, the saving grace of calligraphy, spellingbee conundrums, dayfathers, nightfathers, Old Monks, unions, an obituary surprise, Passover and how it shows up in Ulysses, Rudolph Bloom’s Haggadah, how Charlton Heston traumatized us as children,…
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Ep. 114 – HOUSE OF KEY(E)S
We finally unlock the secrets of Ulysses! Topics in this episode include Joseph Nannetti Sr. and Jr., the debts of Joe Hynes, Bloom’s passivity, the real Alexander Keyes, his struggle to advertise in print in Dublin, advertising in late Victorian Ireland, an innuendo of Home Rule and the Manx Parliament, heraldic imagery in Bloom’s ad,…
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The Women of Ulysses: Lizzie Twigg
“Everybody who met her liked her – because she was warm and outgoing. Here I am saying good things about Lizzie. Poor Liz – nobody remembers her now.” – Padraic Colum, 1969 As Leopold Bloom passes the offices of the Irish Times in “Lestrygonians”, Ulysses’ eighth episode, he can’t help but think about all the…
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Ep. 113 – IN THE HEART OF THE HIBERNIAN METROPOLIS
All aboard for the heart of the Hibernian metropolis! Topics in this episode include HEADLINES, trams, Nelson’s Pillar, The GPO, the mythic kingdom of Aeolia, post boxes, Joyce’s portrayal of his uncle John “Red” Murray, excessive piety, reformed atheists, Ruttledge the ghost, Davy Stephens the king’s courier, the creeping threat of native advertising, William Brayden’s…
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Ep. 111 – Enthymemic
All men are mortal, and Socrates is a man. Therefore, all men are Socrates. Wait… In this episode, we discuss the art and technic of “Aeolus”: rhetoric and “enthymemic.” Topics include Stuart Gilbert and his schema, rhetoric as a classical art form, the Jesuits and rhetoric, the extremely comprehensive lists of rhetorical forms found in…
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Ep. 110 – Aeolus
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind… We kick off our series on Ulysses’ seventh episode, “Aeolus”! Topics in this episode include Book X of The Odyssey, Homeric parallels found in “Aeolus”, the headlines, the Evening Telegraph as it appears in Ulysses, Stromboli, brazen walls and floating isles, wind and air imagery, the…
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Who was the real Cashel Boyle O’Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall Farrell?
“Dubliners were proud of Endymion. They were proud that they tolerated Endymion, but also that he tolerated them. Most people watched him and remembered him with affection, and only a few were aware of the darker side to some of his mutterings.” – John Simpson This post is a part of an occasional series on…
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Ep. 109 – The Tower of Silence
Break out the Tantalus glasses – we’re finally getting out of the Underworld! Topics in our final episode covering “Hades” include paying the ferryman, turning a suit, rats, Robert Emmet, the speech from the dock, toxic nostalgia, cremation, the Catholic Church’s position on cremation, quicklime, Zoroastrianism, the Parsi Tower of Silence, the unexpected consequences of…