Blooms & Barnacles

We discuss Shakespeare's sonnets, the identities of the Fair Youth and Dark Lady, and the Oscar Wilde short story "The Portrait of Mr. W.H."

To hear the full episode, visit patreon.com/barnaclecast

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, Synge’s connection to the Aran Islands, Synge’s eccentricities, pampooties, Joyce and Synge in Paris, Oisín and Patrick, Joyce and Synge as the personification of the duality found in “Scylla and Charybdis,” why Synge is not like Aristotle, why Joyce is bourgeois, Joyce’s Italian translation of Riders to the Sea, riots in response to The Playboy of the Western World, and Joyce’s ultimate appreciation of Synge’s work.

The Chap that Writes like Synge

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“—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 Mr. W.H., Willie Hughes, homoeroticism in Sonnet 20, camp, the meaning of “ephebe,” Wilde’s connection of same-sex relationships in ancient Greece and the work of Shakespeare, gay coding in “Scylla and Charybdis,” the chilling effect of Oscar Wilde’s trial, Oscar Wilde as a model for Buck Mulligan, Lyster and Eglinton as foils for Mulligan, homophobia in “Scylla and Charybdis,” and Joyce’s thoughts on Oscar Wilde and homosexuality.

An Intimate Portrait of Mr. W. H.

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We interview author Eric Wagner about his new book, Straight Outta Dublin: James Joyce and Robert Anton Wilson

To listen to the full interview, visit patreon.com/barnaclecast

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 Mulligan wears on the reader throughout the course of Ulysses, Buck Mulligan playing the role of a Shakespearean fool in Ulysses, Will Kempe, why Mulligan’s tomfoolery must be directed at Stephen, why Mulligan’s clowning is ultimately hollow, Buck Mulligan as God’s messenger, why Stephen doesn’t accomplish anything on Bloomsday, Mulligan’s shifting identity, and joking for joking’s sake.

Puck Mulligan: A Joycean-Shakespearean Fool

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Bitches love sonnets.

Topics in this episode include putting Beurla on it, basilisks and 13th century bestiaries, Pericles and purported Shakespeare apocrypha, the Baconian theory of Shakespeare authorship, Bacon ciphers, George Brandes, Sidney, Frank Harris, the power of a granddaughter’s love, Hans Walter Gabler and the most controversial line in Ulysses, Thomas Aquinas, George Bernard Shaw’s take on Shakespeare, we finally get to the sonnets, Mary Fitton, William Herbet, Shakespeare’s trauma, consubstantiality, and one of the best entrances in all of literature.

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We discuss Djuna Barnes' novel Nightwood

Listen to the full episode at patreon.com/barnaclecast

I, for one, think geese really do have souls.

Topics in this episode include librarian Thomas Lyster and his Quaker faith, why Lyster always seems to be dancing in “Scylla and Charybdis,” the journal of Quaker founder George Fox, what James Joyce knew about the Quakerism, Christfox, leather trews, confusing Shakespeare and George Fox in the context of “Scylla and Charybdis,” whether or not women have souls, George Fox traveling about debating people about religion, Stephen’s jealousy of spiritual leaders who attract women, Anne Hathaway at the end of her life, the real Thomas Lyster, how the real Lyster compares to the Ulysses version, what “baldpink lollard costard” means, and the extremely petty reason Joyce wrote Lyster the way he did.

Decoding Dedalus: Christfox in Leather Trews

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We finally learn the weirdest thing that Joyce and Gogarty got up to.

Topics in this episode include Giacomo Joyce and dirty love letters, the pain of not being invited, Æ’s New Songs and Joyce’s exclusion from it, why Æ Russell hasn’t released any new songs this year, Aristotle’s experiment, the meaning of nookshotten, Shakespeare plays as political propaganda, so much theosophy, the true yogibogeybox, a pawned Pali book, the time Gogarty and Joyce vandalized the chambers of the Hermetic Society, Æ the chick magnet, Joyce’s incel era, Louis H. Victory, T. Caulfield Irwin, elitism in theosophy, and Æ the gulfer of souls.

Decoding Dedalus: Yogibogeybox in Dawson chambers.

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We discuss the James Joyce short story, Giacomo Joyce.

To listen to the full episode, or see a video version, check out patreon.com/barnaclecast