Blooms & Barnacles

We discuss Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's novel Venus in Furs Listen to the full version at patreon.com/barnaclecast 

Put on your costliest frillies! Topics in this episode include Bloom's literary interest, Aristotle's Masterpiece , Fair Tyrants , Victorian flagellation literature, Molly's desire for some decent erotica, the origins of Sweets of Sin , why Bloom chooses Sweets of Sin , Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the novel Venus in Furs , masochism in literature, Bloom's inclination towards masochism, Joyce's inte...

We tell the story of Silken Thomas' rebellion in 1534. To listen to the full episode or watch a video version, please visit patreon.com/barnaclecast 

All you need is Love. Topics in this episode include tertiary Ulysses characters, Ned Lambert, J.J. O'Molloy, the many lives of St. Mary's Abbey, the Reverend Hugh C. Love, the Fitzgeralds, Silken Thomas' rebellion, what Reverend Love gets right and wrong about history, how Church and State are allies rather than rivals, Irish history through a Protestant lens, the Great Earl burning down Cashel C...

I hope you didn't expect us to know Italian. Topics in this episode include the real Almidano Artifoni, why he wears such stiff trousers, what he and Stephen are talking about in "Wandering Rocks," James Joyce's early passion for the Italian language, Joyce's early days in Trieste, his friendship with Artifoni, the Nolan, Christopher Nolan, Stephen's search for a father, and Joyce's brief music ca...

We discuss the history of two historic houses in Ireland -- Aldborough House and Belvedere House.   To listen to the complete episode or watch a video version, visit patreon.com/barnaclecast

What is Dublin without Church and State? Topics in this episode include Stephen/Joyce's past with Father Conmee, what Father Conmee represents, the eternal battle between Church and State (is it even a battle?), the collusion between Church and State, Father Conmee's fondness for high-class women, which children Father Conmee likes, Father Conmee's love of the aristocracy, the pawnbrokers of souls...

We discuss the June 15, 1904 General Slocum disaster. To listen to or watch the full episode, visit patreon.com/barnaclecast  

Here be dragons. Topics in this episode include why “Wandering Rocks” is the least Homeric episode of Ulysses , why the name “Wandering Rocks” isn’t quite right, how Jason escaped the Wandering Rocks, how Leopold Bloom is a mightier hero than Odysseus, correspondences for “Wandering Rocks,” the “blind mechanism” of the Wandering Rocks, clockspeed, how to escape the labyrinth, Joyce’s favorite boar...

This month, we tell the story of how Dubliners got published and read Joyce's most scorched-earth poem, "Gas from a Burner." Listen to the full episode and see a video version at patreon.com/barnaclecast

…Gravy? Topics in this episode include the grande finale of Stephen’s Hamlet theory, he finally proves by algebra that Shakespeare is the ghost of his own father, dio boia, James Joyce’s reaction to Karl Bleibtreu’s Shakespeare conspiracy theories, Dana , Fred Ryan, the poetry and theatrical stylings of Buck Mulligan, Oliver St. John Gogarty’s play Blight, and the origin story of Medical Dick and...

We complete our three-part series on Laurence Olivier's Shakespeare adaptations with a discussion of his 1944 version of Henry V .   Listen to the full episode at patreon.com/barnaclecast 

Agenbite of Lapwing. Topics in this episode include Shakespeare’s coat of arms, the significance of Cassiopeia to Stephen’s Shakespeare theory, the auspicious stars heralding the births of Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom, and Rudy Bloom, Stephen’s Hamlet dialectic fully unravels, the real Dedalus of myth, the charge of adultery against Susanna Shakespeare Hall, lapwings, a lapwing mentioned in Haml...

We discuss the 1955 film version of Richard III . Listen to or watch the full episode at patreon.com/barnaclecast

What if the Shakespeares were really a bunch of crumb-bums? Topics in this episode include Shakespeare’s brothers Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund, which ones Stephen thinks were bad brothers and which were good brothers, whether Shakespeare turned his brothers into villains in his plays, Anne Hathaway’s relationship to her brothers-in-law, why Shakespeare’s brothers never married, Gilbert and Richard...

In which, Stephen proves through algebra that Hamlet’s grandson is Shakespeare’s grandfather. Topics in this episode include Puritanism, whether or not Anne Hathaway became a religious fanatic late in life, Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna and her Puritan husband, the squandering of Shakespeare’s estate after his death, “Venus and Adonis,” the mystical estate of paternity, Hamlet and paternity, the...

We review the 2025 Chloe Zhao film, Hamnet . To watch or listen to the full episode, visit patreon.com/barnaclecast

Ora pro nobis! Pogue mahone! Acushla machree! Topics in this episode include Thomas Aquinas (but less than you might expect), Aquinas’ views on incest, the meaning on “new Viennese school,” whether or not Joyce had any interest in psychoanalysis (and whether it matters), how Joyce may have encountered psychoanalysis in Zurich, Professor Edward Dowden, the work of psychoanalyst Otto Rank and his vi...

Isn’t Carrotty Bess great? Topics in this episode include why Stephen compares Shakespeare to Shylock, Shakespeare’s father John Shakespeare and his many business ventures, his legal troubles caused by some of those business ventures, Shakespeare’s corn-hoarding during a famine, the irony of Irish Nationalists being devoted to Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s role in providing propaganda for Britain’s c...

Sometimes the secondbest bed is the better bed. Topics in this episode include Griselsa, Antisthenes and Helen, art of surfeit, the Dark Lady of the sonnets, the erotic adventures of Shakespeare and Richard Burbage, how the Dark Lady connects the works of Shakespeare to the world of Ulysses , misogyny in the interpretation of Shakespeare, the binary of Stratford and London, William Davenant, Fette...

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, J...

“—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...

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 Uly...