Blooms & Barnacles

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...

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 t...

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 h...

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 yogibog...

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

No, not that Anne Hathaway. The Shakespearean one. Topics in this episode include Socratididion’s Epipsychidion, unparalleled pettiness, Stephen’s unfair characterization of Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway, why commentary about Anne Hathaway has been so problematic historically, Anne as a Gertrude stand-in, how we can learn factual information about the Shakespeares’ lives, sixteenth century age...

Stephen Dedalus beats debt with this one simple trick! Topics incluce: “Scylla and Charybdis’” dialectic as metacommentary on Ulysses as a whole, the perils of offending the gods of the sea, Stephen takes offense to Æ, Stephen’s many debts, the artistic value of green room gossip, contrasting Æ and Mr. Deasy, Stephen as the ship of Theseus, Aristotelian logic destroying Stephen’s sill loophole, Fr...

We decided to brush up on our Hamlet knowledge in the only way we know how -- by watching a movie from the forties! We watch and discuss Laurence Olivier's Hamlet from 1948. Listen to the full episode at patreon.com/barnaclecast

Stephen Dedalus finally gets to the fireworks factory. Topics in this episode include lots of Hamlet , Stephen introduces his theory of Hamlet, James Joyce’s Shakespeare sources, Elizabethan slang, Sackerson the bear, everything we know about the real Hamnet Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s reaction to his son’s death, how Hamnet’s death shows up in the works of Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s reaction to hi...

Was Hamlet just distracted the whole time? Topics in this episode include: the continued character assassination of Mr. Best, Haines makes a return, Douglas Hyde’s poetry, the artistic ethos of the Celtic Revival, the political demands of the art scene in 1904 Dublin, Æ, symbolist poetry and Stéphane Mallarmé, the influence of Mallarmé on Joyce, “Hamlet et Fortinbras,” Rudyard Kipling and “The Abs...

We hope to see you at our live show in  Dublin on Bloomsday. You can join us in person or on the livestream. Tickets at the link below: https://www.bloomsdayfestival.ie/event/blooms-barnacles-podcast-could-an-ai-write-ulysses/

Are you Team Aristotle or Team Plato? Topics in this episode include Charybdis, schoolboys and schoolmen, whether or not Plato was shallow, artists being rejected by Plato’s Republic, platonism v. neoplatonism, Aristotle’s view of art, Stephen’s dagger definitions, the Plato and Antisthenes’ thoughts on horses, horse v. horseness, Plato’s Forms, the ineluctable modality of the visible, Joyce’s tho...

We discuss the history of the house at 15 Usher's Island where "The Dead" was set. Listen to the full episode at patreon.com/barnaclecast

You naughtn’t to look, missus, so you naughtn’t when a lady’s ashowing of her elemental. Topics in this episode include Old Ben’s critique of Shakespeare, bardolatry, Shakespeare as a symbol of English supremacy, how Plato is like Charybdis, formless spiritual essences, seeing ourselves as others see us, the paintings of Gustave Moreau, and so much theosophy. On the Blog: Decoding Dedalus: Horsene...

Satan comes forward a sinkapace. Topics in this episode include Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister , Goethe’s thoughts on Hamlet translated through Thomas Lyster, Elizabethan dances, Sir Toby Belch, Monsieur de la Palice and a hilarious French pun, John Milton, Paradise Lost , Stephen’s six brave medicals, Marie Corelli’s The Sorrows of Satan , Cranly, Medical Dick and Medical Davy, betrayal, W.B.’s shining...

Kelly and Dermot discuss the stories of Elizabeth Aldworth, the lady mason, and author P.L. Travers Listen to the full episode at patreon.com/barnaclecast

Eglinton knows Best. Topics in this episode include the real-life versions of John Eglinton and Richard Best, Best’s contribution to the study of Irish mythology, how Best supported James Joyce’s abandoned music career, what his portrayal in Ulysses gets right and wrong, how the real Best felt about his fictional counterpart in Ulysses , gay-coding and homophobia in the fictional portrayal of Best...

Here be monsters. We crack into Ulysses' ninth episode: "Scylla and Charybdis." Topics in this episode include: a great philosopher's thoughts on Shakespeare, Dermot, another great philosopher's, thoughts on Shakespeare, Odysseus' encounter with Scylla and Charybdis, the geography and currents of the Strait of Messina that likely inspired the story of Scylla and Charybdis, the triumphant return of...

We discuss Oscar Wilde's novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray.   To listen to the full episode, visit patreon.com/barnaclecast 

We discuss the 1949 film, The Third Man because James Joyce is briefly mentioned in it. Also, it's a really good movie. Listen to or watch the full episode at patreon.com/barnaclecast

A wild Blazes Boylan appears. Topics in this episode include the incredible story of Reverend Thomas Connellan, the Bible Wars, Soupers, the Bird’s Nest orphanage, apostasy and conversion, a typographical error heroically corrected, the blind stripling, whether or not the blind stripling actually wants help from Leopold Bloom, Bloom’s savior complex, Bloom’s empathy, the history of blind piano tun...

I need to see a man about a horse. Topics in this episode include a return to nutarianism, Tom Rochford’s surprisingly heroic back story, the Ascot Gold Cup, racehorses with weird names, Jack B. Yeats’ Olympic career, the life cycle of a pernicious rumor, Tom Rochford’s invention, Don Giovanni ’s ending (spoiler alert), peristalsis nearing its inevitable conclusion, Prescott’s Dye Works, gambling...

Artist Penelope Wade joins the podcast to discuss her project, "The Tarot of Mme Marion Bloom." Wade uses collages of found objects to create densely symbolic images based on the themes and characters in Ulysses. She has arranged her collages into a one-of-a-kind tarot deck. We discuss tarot, Ulysses, Molly Bloom. Kelly even gets a tarot reading! Listen to or watch the full episode at patreon.com/...

Are you on the level? Topics in this episode include discussion of whether or not Leopold Bloom is a freemason, how well Nosey Flynn knows the business of the other Dubliners, why Bloom never thinks about being a freemason, whether or not Tom Kernan is in the craft, whether or not you can leave the freemasons, freemason symbols and lore, whether Bloom has connections to the upper echelons of Dubli...