Blooms & Barnacles

How exactly does God become a featherbed mountain? What the heck is a featherbed mountain? We answer these questions and more in this episode of Blooms & Barnacles!

Topics covered in this episode include Dermot’s hot take on Richard Dawkins, Renaissance magic, theosophy, metempsychosis, Dublin seagulls, linear v. cyclical world-views, Dermot takes on Jared Diamond, consubstantiality, the Stephen seeks freedom from his father, the ichthys symbol, minnows eating spongy titbits, Hamlet, the legend of the barnacle goose, Gerald of Wales, the conundrum that barnacle geese caused the Catholic Church, the immaculate conception of barnacle geese, domestic geese v. wild geese, the Featherbed Mountains, Molly’s featherbed, why Lenehan is the worst, and why Stephen needs the love and support of a good friend.

Decoding Dedalus: God Becomes Featherbed Mountain

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The end is nigh.

Kelly and Dermot discuss in the depth the drowning motif of “Proteus”. Other topics include The Tempest and Ariel’s Song, the wily nature of the sea, Stephen’s estrangement from his father Simon, the role of alcohol in the lives of Ulysses characters, quitting alcohol, rising corpses, sea change, porpoises, the ancient Egyptian Book of Thoth, spongy titbits, Stephen’s connection to a corpse, looking for a way out of a suffocating home life, why Buck Mulligan is a terrible friend, Stephen’s fear of failure and of becoming his father, Stephen’s guilt at abandoning his sisters, the mentality of a bucket of crabs, and why Dermot thinks the Dedalus family would have been great on The Jerry Springer Show.

Decoding Dedalus: Full Fathom Five

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**If you’re unfamiliar with the peeing Calvin decal (or if you are), here’s the story.

The divine and the profane live side by side in Ulysses. In this episode, we discuss what the heck Cock Lake is, why Stephen pees on the strand at the end of “Proteus”, the themes of generation and corruption in “Proteus”, the artistic merits of excrement, urination as an expression of freedom and creativity, Mother Grogan and her teapot, endowing waves with speech and animating the natural world, onomatopoeia, the rolling tide, St. Ambrose and the groaning of Creation, Ariel’s Song and The Tempest, and Dermot’s anti-Shakespeare propaganda.

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Kelly helps Dermot remember why he drew James Joyce wearing red, killer heels. Topics include subtle Homeric correspondences, Dermot’s allegiance to Mr. Kipling’s cakes, Stéphane Mallarmé’s ‘L'après-midi d'un faune’ (The afternoon of a faun), more ire directed at that mocker Buck Mulligan, Stephen’s tiny feet, Stephen’s erstwhile friendship with Cranly, Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, John Francis Byrne, Cranly’s feelings for Stephen, Wilde’s love that dare not speak its name, themes of masculinity and male friendships, Senator David Norris on gay themes in Ulysses and Dedalus/Mulligan slash fiction.

Decoding Dedalus: A Dedalus Never Pays His Debts

The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name

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Kelly and Dermot take on a deceptively simple passage in “Proteus” as they attempt to answer that ultimate question - what is the word known to all men?

Topics covered in this episode include Stephen’s loneliness and why Joyce felt it was necessary for him to be totally alone, a mysterious discrepancy in Ulysses’ various editions, the 1984 Gabler edition of Ulysses, the universal Truth of a mother’s love, the universal Truth of death, how to escape from a troublesome duality, Rawhead and Bloodybones, the connection between love and death, and crab people.

No Berkelyan idealism, we promise!

**A note from the Department of Corrections: Kelly remarks that her 1990 edition of Ulysses contains the text as it was corrected and reset in 1963. That year should have been 1961. The responsible parties have been flogged.

The Word Known to All Men

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Dermot and Kelly carry on discussing “Proteus” in their flutiest voices!

Topics in this episode include: yet more discussion of the philosophy of the good bishop of Cloyne, George Berkeley, shovel hats, the fluttering of the veil between the material world and the metaphysical world, Dermot’s grudge against Bertrand Russell, how language obscures one’s perception of the material world, the heraldic system of hatching, Stephen playing with his stereoscopic vision, Stephen’s ideal woman, Hodges Figgis,  and how Stephen has trouble handling rejection, even if it’s in his own mind. 

Decoding Dedalus: Signs on a White Field

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Form of my form! Who watches me here?

Kelly and Dermot wade into the final pages of “Proteus” to spend some time with old faves like Aristotle, Bishop Berkeley and Giordano Bruno. We dig deeper into Stephen Dedalus’ internal monologue while discussing Stephen’s concern for his future legacy, Stephen’s shadow, darkness shining in the brightness, the squid people of Procyon 5, the Delta of Cassiopeia, Roman augury, Giordano Bruno’s belief that the constellations were morally corrupt, and the written word as a Berkeleyan abstraction. 

Decoding Dedalus: Signs on a White Field

Form of Forms

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We're taking a week off! See you in October!

Kelly and Dermot discuss one of the most metal passages in all of Ulysses! You can find it at the end of “Proteus” beginning with “A side eye at my Hamlet hat.” Topics include Hamlet (so much Hamlet), Stephen’s creative spark, more resent for Buck Mulligan, more grief for Stephen’s mother, the shifting protean nature of language and tides, various Biblical allusions, Stephen’s poem, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Hellas, Dermot’s grudge against Galileo, the philology of colors, did the sea really look like wine in ancient Greece?, the Annunciation and Mary’s connection to the sea, the requiem Mass death, vampires, ghouls, anti-semitism and homophobia in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Joyce’s (possible) dig at Douglas Hyde’s Love Songs of Connacht, the music of the spheres and how libraries used to work.

Decoding Dedalus: Pale Vampire

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We welcome Phil Holden to the podcast to talk about the early publishing of history of Ulysses. Phil is a collector of early Ulysses editions, so he shares his collection while telling the arduous tale of getting a book like Ulysses published in the first place, the role played by Sylvia Beach and Shakespeare and Company in publishing Ulysses, concerns about obscenity, pirate editions of Ulysses, books as art objects, the complications caused by Joyce’s early manuscripts, and who should play James Joyce in a movie version of this epic tale! This episode has a strong visual component, so consider watching the video version available below and on our YouTube channel.

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The Most Dangerous Book - Kevin Birmingham

Jim Norton audio book of Ulysses

“The Scandal of Ulysses” - John Kidd