Ulysses
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Ep. 84 – Iron Nails Ran In
Give us this day our daily Bloom. Topics in this episode include: mazzoth, shewbread, matzo v. Communion wafer, what it feels like to consume the body of Christ in the Eucharist, more cannibals, the hokey pokey and whether or not it mocks the Catholic Mass, Leopold Bloom use of popular culture to connect with more…
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Ep. 83 – Eating Bits of a Corpse (w/ Russell Raphael)
Is the Eucharist tantamount to cannibalism? Let’s ask Thomas Aquinas. Topics in this episode include: Fr. Conmee, Martin Cunningham, why Molly wasn’t admitted to the choir, bluey specs, Jesuit rock stars, Bloom’s skepticism of priests, a story from James Joyce’s 50th birthday party, the Eucharist, transubstantiation, the romantic possibilities of Mass, scapulars, nuns, everything Leopold…
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Rhetoric and the Enthymeme in Aeolus
“All very fine to jeer at it now in cold print but it goes down like hot cake that stuff.” To listen to a discussion of this topic, check out the podcast episode here. If you’ve ever picked up a reading guide or annotation for Ulysses, you’re likely familiar with the lists of correspondences arranged…
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Ep. 82 – The Buddha in the Museum
What did James Joyce think of Buddhism? 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…
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Ep. 81 – No rose without thorns.
Did James Joyce once covertly suggest a new Guinness slogan? Topics in this episode include Mary Lost the Pin of her Drawers, flat Dublin voices, the Coombe, Bloom’s preoccupation with correct pronoun-antecedent agreement, Jesus in the house of Martha and Mary, a famlus forgery, Ashtown and the trottingmatches, a famous hole in the wall, alcohol…
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Ep. 80 – The Language of Flowers
“Angry tulips with you darling manflower punish your cactus if you don’t please poor forgetmenot how I long violets to dear roses when we soon anemone meet all naughty nightstalk wife Martha’s perfume.” Kelly and Dermot untangle the mysterious language of flowers. Topics include James Joyce’s affair with Marthe Fleischmann, the pitfalls of method acting,…
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The House of Keyes
“Love laughs at locksmiths.” -Gerty MacDowell To listen to a discussion of this topic, check out the podcast episode here. There’s a parallel universe where, rather than becoming one of the great novelists, James Joyce became a master advertiser and propagandist on par with Edward Bernays. Consider the following tableau: “– a colored picture… representing…
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Ep. 79 – Martha
Henry dear, do not deny my request before my patience are exhausted. In this episode, Kelly and Dermot try to figure out who Martha, Leopold Bloom’s saucy penpal, could really be. Topics include Dermot’s interest in Islam, Bloom’s missing hour, Leah the Forsaken, jugginses and guttapercha, castration anxiety, hopscotch and marbles, senior infants, Martha’s letter,…
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Ep. 78 – An Abode of Bliss
The Blooms’ household is anything but an abode of bliss. In this episode, topics include: Plumtree’s Potted Meat, Joyce’s love for advertising, the narcotic effect of adspeak, why Plumtree’s Potted Meat is the perfect metaphor for a modern Odysseus, M’Coy’s various scams, Boylan’s metaphorically significant gifts to Molly, Bloom’s missing hour and how his cat…
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Who Were the Real Men in Aeolus’ Newsroom?
This post is a part of an occasional series on the real people behind the characters in Ulysses. Myles Crawford During a 1909 visit to Dublin, James Joyce made several visits to the office of the Evening Telegraph where he became acquainted with its then editor Patrick Meade, Lord of the Wind Bags. Meade was…