Scylla and Charybdis
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Ep. 173 – Medical Dick and Medical Davy
…Gravy? Topics in this episode include the grande finale of Stephen’s Hamlet theory, he finally proves by algebra that Shakespeare is the ghost of his own father, dio boia, James Joyce’s reaction to Karl Bleibtreu’s Shakespeare conspiracy theories, Dana, Fred Ryan, the poetry and theatrical stylings of Buck Mulligan, Oliver St. John Gogarty’s play Blight,…
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Ep. 172 – Lapwing
Agenbite of Lapwing. Topics in this episode include Shakespeare’s coat of arms, the significance of Cassiopeia to Stephen’s Shakespeare theory, the auspicious stars heralding the births of Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom, and Rudy Bloom, Stephen’s Hamlet dialectic fully unravels, the real Dedalus of myth, the charge of adultery against Susanna Shakespeare Hall, lapwings, a lapwing…
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Ep. 171 – Richard and Gilbert and Edmund and Will
What if the Shakespeares were really a bunch of crumb-bums? Topics in this episode include Shakespeare’s brothers Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund, which ones Stephen thinks were bad brothers and which were good brothers, whether Shakespeare turned his brothers into villains in his plays, Anne Hathaway’s relationship to her brothers-in-law, why Shakespeare’s brothers never married, Gilbert…
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Ep. 170 – Rutlandbaconsouthamptonshakespeare
In which, Stephen proves through algebra that Hamlet’s grandson is Shakespeare’s grandfather. Topics in this episode include Puritanism, whether or not Anne Hathaway became a religious fanatic late in life, Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna and her Puritan husband, the squandering of Shakespeare’s estate after his death, “Venus and Adonis,” the mystical estate of paternity, Hamlet and…
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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. 168 – Why Stephen Talks about Shylock
Isn’t Carrotty Bess great? Topics in this episode include why Stephen compares Shakespeare to Shylock, Shakespeare’s father John Shakespeare and his many business ventures, his legal troubles caused by some of those business ventures, Shakespeare’s corn-hoarding during a famine, the irony of Irish Nationalists being devoted to Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s role in providing propaganda for Britain’s…
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Ep. 167 – Secondbest Bed
Sometimes the secondbest bed is the better bed. Topics in this episode include Griselsa, Antisthenes and Helen, art of surfeit, the Dark Lady of the sonnets, the erotic adventures of Shakespeare and Richard Burbage, how the Dark Lady connects the works of Shakespeare to the world of Ulysses, misogyny in the interpretation of Shakespeare, the…
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Ep. 166 – Synge
Why do we always fight most with the people we have the most in common with? Topics in this episode include James Joyce’s fraught relationship with playwright John Millington Synge, the way Synge shows up in Ulysses, in-jokes about Yeats that made it into Ulysses, Synge’s artistic work and why Joyce took issue with it,…
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Ep. 165 – Mr. W. H.
“—Do you think it is only a paradox? the quaker librarian was asking. The mocker is never taken seriously when he is most serious.” Topics in this episode include Oscar Wilde’s “The Portrait of Mr. W.H.,” Shakespeare’s sonnets, the identity of the Fair Youth, the dedication on the folio of Shakespeare’s sonnets, the identity of…
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Ep. 164 – Puck Mulligan
You will serve that which you laugh at. Topics in this episode include how to pronounce “Szombathely,” Buck Mulligan’s incredible entrance into “Scylla and Charybdis,” Nicolas Cage, the heresies of Photius and Sebellius, Gloria in Excelsis Deo, why the other men must be relieved to see Buck Mulligan, whether we agree with Joyce’s claim that…