Blooms & Barnacles

Is a bar of soap just a bar of soap? Topics in this episode include Leopold Bloom’s visit to Sweny’s Pharmacy, how often chemists move, Dublin geography, Bloom’s forgetfulness, the shrunken skull of Sweny the pharmacist, lotuses in the chemist’s, the philosopher’s stone, doing drugs, distilled water prices, Bloom’s filthy bath plans, the lemon soap, the Victorian virtue of cleanliness, perpetual p...

Have you repented for the sin of reading this filthy book yet? Topics in this episode include the Spanish Inquisition, English v. Latin, the Leonine prayers, the similarity between Catholic Mass and Columbo, Dermot’s priest voice, praying for the conversion of godless Communists, the difficulty of leaving Dodger stadium, Joyce’s parody of the Leonine prayers, Mike Birbiglia’s parody of the Mass, t...

Why can’t we use Guinness instead of wine at Mass? Topics include Leopold Bloom’s thoughts on Communion wine, lots of lotuses, why wine must be used in the Mass instead of Guinness, temperance, transubstantiation, shew wine, cadging wine at Mass, Old Glynn, sacred music, Rossini’s Stabat Mater , footdrill, sacred music as a lotus, how sacred music is a bit sexy, how sacred music helps put butts in...

Give us this day our daily Bloom. Topics in this episode include: mazzoth, shewbread, matzo v. Communion wafer, what it feels like to consume the body of Christ in the Eucharist, more cannibals, the hokey pokey and whether or not it mocks the Catholic Mass, Leopold Bloom use of popular culture to connect with more complex issues, the feeling of religious community, how Holy Communion is like Plumt...

Is the Eucharist tantamount to cannibalism? Let’s ask Thomas Aquinas. Topics in this episode include: Fr. Conmee, Martin Cunningham, why Molly wasn’t admitted to the choir, bluey specs, Jesuit rock stars, Bloom’s skepticism of priests, a story from James Joyce’s 50th birthday party, the Eucharist, transubstantiation, the romantic possibilities of Mass, scapulars, nuns, everything Leopold Bloom doe...

What did James Joyce think of Buddhism? Topics in this episode include: All Hallows or St. Andrew’s Church?, why Bloom hangs out in a church, the very reverend John Conmee S.J., sectarian scorekeeping, prayers for Gladstone, St. Peter Claver, the Opium Wars, racist poetry, the reclining Buddha statue in the National Museum of Ireland, Leopold Bloom misconceptions about Buddhism, Walter White’s mis...

Did James Joyce once covertly suggest a new Guinness slogan? Topics in this episode include Mary Lost the Pin of her Drawers , flat Dublin voices, the Coombe, Bloom’s preoccupation with correct pronoun-antecedent agreement, Jesus in the house of Martha and Mary, a famlus forgery, Ashtown and the trottingmatches, a famous hole in the wall, alcohol has the ultimate lotus, Barons Iveagh and Ardilaun,...

“Angry tulips with you darling manflower punish your cactus if you don’t please poor forgetmenot how I long violets to dear roses when we soon anemone meet all naughty nightstalk wife Martha’s perfume.” Kelly and Dermot untangle the mysterious language of flowers. Topics include James Joyce’s affair with Marthe Fleischmann, the pitfalls of method acting, Kate Bush, the tonal shifts in Martha Cliff...

Henry dear, do not deny my request before my patience are exhausted. In this episode, Kelly and Dermot try to figure out who Martha, Leopold Bloom’s saucy penpal, could really be. Topics include Dermot’s interest in Islam, Bloom’s missing hour, Leah the Forsaken , jugginses and guttapercha, castration anxiety, hopscotch and marbles, senior infants, Martha’s letter, Martha’s possible true identity,...

The Blooms’ household is anything but an abode of bliss. In this episode, topics include: Plumtree’s Potted Meat, Joyce’s love for advertising, the narcotic effect of adspeak, why Plumtree’s Potted Meat is the perfect metaphor for a modern Odysseus, M’Coy’s various scams, Boylan’s metaphorically significant gifts to Molly, Bloom’s missing hour and how his cat helps solve this mystery, Love’s Old S...

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 jaunting cars, Hoppy Holohan, Bob Doran, Bantam Lyons, more lotus...

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 has hidden in his hat, Major Tweedy and...

We begin our foray into the languorous “Lotus Eaters” episode. Topics in this episode include how Kelly is like the Terminator, Odysseus and his crew’s misadventure with the Lotus Eaters in The Odyssey , why forgetfulness is evil in Odysseus’ view, some peculiar tales from Westland Row, cultivating an appreciation for the mundane, the Lotus Eaters that Bloom encounters in Westland Row, whether or...

We explore Leopold Bloom’s connection to the ancient Phoenicians. Topic covered in this episode include: social hierarchies in Ireland, Dubliners v. culchies, Leopold Bloom’s fascination with the Orient, how imperial British culture informs Bloom’s worldview, whether or not some people in Irish society benefited from colonialism, the Celtic Revival movement, how the Revivalist applied an Orientali...

Does Leopold Bloom seem a bit anal retentive to you? Content Warning: We talk an awful lot about poo in this one. If that’s not your cup of tea, use your own discretion.   In this episode, Dermot and Kelly finish Ulysses ’ fourth episode - “Calypso.” Topics include Ezra Pound’s sense of propriety, the number of toilets in the Bloom household, Titbits , using dung to clean kid gloves, James Stephen...

Is a picnic really just picnic? In this episode, Dermot and Kelly discuss Milly’s letter from Mullingar, those lovely seaside girls, Milly’s purpose in the narrative of Ulysses , the implication of a picnic, whether or not Milly is a poor substitute for Rudy, the significance of Milly’s fifteenth birthday, how Milly’s maturity has affected her parents’ marriage, Freud’s concepts of censorship and...

Leopold Bloom contemplates the purchase of immense melonfields north of Jaffa. Topics covered in this episode include the Zionist movement of the early 20th century, how to pronounce Agendath Netaim, why Joyce might have changed Agudat to Agendath, hypostasis, the business sense (or nonsense) of buying farmland in Palestine, Bleibtreustrasse 34, morphic resonance, Dlugacz the porkbutcher as Hermes...

Happy Bloomsday, one and all! Enjoy a selection of readings from Ulysses by our talented listeners from across the globe. It’s a Bloomsday bash you can listen to anywhere. Just add gorgonzola and burgundy! Cool stuff to support: Sweny's  Patreon helps keep this marvelous Dublin landmark alive. Please subscribe ! U22: The Centenary Ulysses Podcast Ulysses - for the Rest of Us! A free book club host...

We do our best to take Molly’s advice and tell it in plain words - what is metempsychosis? Topics covered in this episode include Boylan’s bold hand, whether or not cats are kosher, moustache cups, secret letters, “La Ci Darem La Mano”, an orangekeyed chamberpot, how Molly can be both Calypso and Penelope, Joyce’s personal interest in metempsychosis, why understanding reincarnation is a key to und...

Why is Leopold Bloom so captivated by the “mysterious East”? In this episode we discuss the Orientalist motif in Ulysses , with a focus on “Calypso.” Topics include what is Orientalism?, how Orientalism manifests in Irish culture, the blurred continuum between Irish and British culture, Edward Said, why the “Orient” is really a dream, the Whig interpretation of history, what Leopold Bloom has in c...

This gland is your gland; this gland is my gland. Bloom finally makes it to the butcher to buy his kidney! In this episode, we discuss the geography (or joggerfry) of Bloom’s neighborhood, Larry O’Rourke’s, Bloom’s idea to build a tramline from the quays to the cattle market, bartenders who become rich, the art of economics, Moses Dlugacz, why a Jewish butcher sells pork, the Woods family of 8 Ecc...

This week, we’re talkin’ ‘bout ‘tatoes! Kelly and Dermot unpack the deeper symbolism behind Leopold Bloom’s idiosyncratic hobby of carrying a potato upon his person. Topics include Tayto crisps, Stephen and Bloom’s parallel lost keys, Bloom’s potato as a protective object, why the potato may actually possess magic powers, the potato as Odysseus’ moly, the potato as a panacea, the potato as a remed...

Who was Molly Bloom’s father, Major Brian Cooper Tweedy? Far more than meets the eye. Topics in this episode include Michael Caine and Zulu , what the heck a footleaf is and other lovely minutiae, the origin of the Blooms’ jingly-jangly bed, Major Brian Cooper Tweedy and his military career, Molly’s time in Gibraltar and her memories of her father, Rorke’s Drift, Plevna, cheating at auctions, phil...

Organ meats: the breakfast of champions. In this episode, we cover the opening pages of Ulysses’ fourth episode, “Calypso.” Topics include who eats organ meats, how Bloom’s thoughts are different from Stephen’s thoughts, the humbleness of “Calypso,” what mundane actions tell us about a character, kidneys as a correspondent organ in “Calypso”, art as the office of purgation, Joyce as an artistic ki...

This week we cover the parallels to “Calypso,” the fourth episode of James Joyce’s Ulysses and Book V of Homer’s Odyssey . Topics include how Leopold Bloom and Odysseus are similar, how they’re different since Bloom is really a sideways Odysseus, Bloom as a feminine man, the danger of nostalgia, the Blooms’ many secrets, Molly as a character especially veiled in secrets, so much etymology, the loc...