Westland Row

  • Ep. 77 – M’Coy. Get rid of him quickly.

    Leopold Bloom braves an awkward stop-and-chat. Topics in this episode include: Leopold Bloom’s encounter with M’Coy, what Bloom has in common with Larry David, M’Coy as a character in “Grace”, M’Coy as an early prototype for Bloom, a quincunx, Bloom wrestles with his Shadow, Bloom trying to catch a glimpse of a woman’s leg, outsider…

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  • Ep. 76 – Henry Flower, Esq

    Mr. Bloom runs a mysterious errand at the Westland Row Post Office. Topics include hidden lotuses, Corny Kelleher, Leopold Bloom’s missing hour, tooraloom tooraloom tay, Orientalism and Bloom’s fantasy of the Far East, stereotypes about climate’s affects the character of a culture, Tom Kernan, how Bloom succumbs to the Lotus Eaters, Henry Flower, what Bloom…

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  • Decoding Bloom: The Lotus Eaters Sutra

    “Buddha their god lying on his side in the museum. Taking it easy with hand under his cheek.” — Ulysses, p. 80 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 “Lotus Eaters,” the fifth…

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  • The Language of Flowers

    “P. S. Do tell me what kind of perfume does your wife use. I want to know.” – Ulysses, p. 78 To listen to a discussion of this topic, check out the podcast episode here. Mr. Leopold Bloom is predisposed to skulk. “Lotus Eaters” is a particularly skulky episode, during which Bloom kills an hour…

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  • Plumtree’s Potted M’Coy

    “This is the age of patent medicine.” – Stephen Dedalus To listen to a discussion of this topic, check out the podcast episodes here and here. “Lotus Eaters” is, by its nature, a sleepy section of Ulysses, full of seemingly inconsequential incidents, but there are secrets hidden around every corner. Early in the episode, Bloom…

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