Blooms & Barnacles

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, how our Dubliner friends have been double crossed by economics, the paralyzing economics of colonialism, the Vatican, St. Peter and the keys of heaven, the Urim and Thummim, various spirit merchants, Vico’s cyclical view of history, the keyholders in Ulysses and their keyless counterparts, and a chance crossing of paths by James Joyce and Alexander Keyes.

The House of Keyes

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Kelly and Dermot discuss Joseph Strick's 1967 film adaptation of Ulysses. 

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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 neck, lungs and the rhythm of breathing, Mario the Tenor, Martha, croziers, the rivalries of bishops, and who will save the circulation of the Freeman’s Journal.

Stayed tuned to the end for a short talk between Kelly and Antony Farrell of Lilliput Press. For more information on Lilliput Press or to peruse their Joycean selections, please visit their website here.

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Once maligned, later tentatively praised, James Joyce's only existing play, Exiles, may be his least popular work. Though it is rarely staged these days, Bloomsday in Melbourne's Steve Carey is up to the challenge. We talk why Exiles has been so maligned, why it's actually good, and how to go about staging a play that is famously unpopular.

Come see us in person this Bloomsday! Get tickets to our live show (in person or online) here!

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We're thrilled to announce our live show at the James Joyce Centre this Bloomsday. 

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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 "Aeolus", how "Aeolus" is structured like a classical rhetorical treatise, just a smidge of Aristotle's Rhetoric, how the rhetorical examples found in "Aeolus" line up with Aristotle's categories of rhetoric, Socrates' ideas about writing v. oratory, what the heck an enthymeme is, a crash course in syllogistic logic, whether or not Portland has kept itself weird, how enthymemes can be used to persuade can be used to persuade (or manipulate), why no one can agree what an enthymeme actually is, and where to find enthymemes in "Aeolus" and Ulysses at large.

Rhetoric and the Enthymeme in Aeolus

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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 history of the Freeman’s Journal, the Sham Squire, Sir John Gray, the downfall of the Freeman’s Journal, bathos, the degradation of language, and the oppression of mad, invisible god.

Ulysses & The Odyssey: Aeolus

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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 a reduced vulture population, the gentleness of seadeath, leaving the Underworld, Mrs. Sinico and “A Painful Case”, Leopold Bloom’s affirmation of life, John Henry Menton, whether JHM ever had a shot with Molly, Mat Dillon’s parties, Tantalus, Tantalus glasses, Ajax revisited, and our closing thoughts on “Hades”.

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Sometimes, Bloom is right to be wrong.

Topics in this episode include Charles Stewart Parnell’s funeral and grave, Parnell as Agamemnon, Parnell as a Christ figure, graveyard iconography, Old Ireland’s Hearts and Hands, All Souls’ Day, euphemisms for death, Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” a stuffed owl, Milly’s funeral for a bird, white stones on Irish graves, Ireland’s devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the paintings of Zeuxis, grandfather’s graveyard gramophones, and who died while Bloom worked for Wisdom Hely.

Plus, we speak to Jordan LeVeque of the Portland band Slender Gems about how the works of Joyce have influenced his music.

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What’s up with that donkey in Glasnevin?

Topics in this episode include seagulls in Ulysses, the Blooms’ old digs in Lombard St. West, The Joyce Project, Mesias the tailor, donkey lore, superstitions of death, a strange work of art, Lucia di Lammermoor, Ivy Day, the location of Bloom’s future grave, Altman the Saltman, Finglas, Joe Hynes, the crimes of Charley M’Coy, Bonnie Prince Charlie, more M’Intosh, kabbalah, numerology, hypostasis and umbilical cords.

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