North London Ulysses

Brave or foolish? The sun gods shall determine. Russell dives in and gives his thoughts on the early part of Oxen. Penguin Classic: 499 Gabler: 314 Project Guttenberg: Deshil Holles Eamus This podcast forms part of an educational reading group and is intended for criticism, discussion, and study. James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) is in the public domain in the UK. This recording includes commentary, in...

Oxen of the Sun; some have been know to wince at its mere mention. Not so at North London Ulysses. We finally have Stephen and Bloom in the same room so not an opportunity to miss. Russell dons his best Anglo-Saxon garb, ups his beaver and reads the first 10 pages or so. Penguin Classic: 499 Gabler: 314 Project Guttenberg: Deshil Holles Eamus This podcast forms part of an educational reading group...

This phrase, Hamlet ou Le Distrait appears early on in the Scylla episode, when Richard Best seems to imply that a so titled French production of, or based on Hamlet, has been held in a provincial town. Stephane Mallarme the French poet, gets mentioned and it's all slightly confusing, not to say distracting. Russell admits that he's often glossed over it, hoping it won't 'distract&...

This is the analysis of the second part of Nausicaa. Bloom's erotic bubble may have burst as he notices Gerty's imperfection. Gerty's romantic bubble may have burst if she (and she surely must) realizes the sleazy stuff Bloom has been up to. Or do we need to recalibrate them both? Did any of it even happen? And where, as perfumed air wafts over to turn fantasy to reality, does Bloom an...

Russell reads the second half of the Nausicaa episode and can we all just calm down a little. Please! We've had our excitement but now its time to come down a little from those blasphemous and even erotic heights. For what goes up, must come down. The fireworks lie there, a little limp, a little forlorn and Bloom will need to reflect on his actions and consider how it all reflects upon him. Th...

The sun is setting on Sandymount Strand and as twilight heralds the lighting of streetlamps, little bats fly, and fireworks as well as other things explode. Joyce described this episode in terms of tumescence and de-tumescence. This first half is the tumescence. Do join me as we watch things go up. Penguin Classic: 449 Gabler: 284 Project Guttenberg: The summer evening had begun This podcast forms...

If you've been waiting to get to the dirty part that got the book banned, you've found it. The twilight scene on the beach was the final straw for the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice which successfully petitioned for the book to be banned in the USA. Britain quickly followed suit. It seems to be for obscenity rather than blasphemy which is equally damming if not perhaps, quite...

Lunita Laredo, Molly Bloom's mother, is little known among readers and even relatively ignored by commentators. Merely a footnote. But not at North London Ulysses. Here we take a good look at Lunita and discover that she may be a lot more significant than expected. Is she the most underestimated character in Ulysses??!! Please be aware that this comments on events close to the end of the book....

Here Russell analyses the final and explosive third of the Cyclops episode. Racism, nationalism, fiery chariots and flying biscuit tins. It's all here and washed down with lashings of Guinness's porter. And through the madness, Bloom tries to make a case for love, which the citizen takes as symptomatic that the likes of Bloom, who has temporarily left the scene, whom have been allowed into...

The final part of the Cyclops episode is a personal favourite part of the book and I doubt I'm alone in this. Whether it's Bloom's stress of Molly's adultery or his exasperation at the side swipes (and front swipes) at his Jewishness and his perceived lack of manhood, that he has faced all day and perhaps all of his life, the levee finally breaks. Accompanied in equal measure by hi...

The citizen is getting into his stride now, albeit remaining sedentary on his bar stool. He rampages against the British and lauds the Irish in equal measure. As suits his fictional link to Michael Cusack, he is particularly anxious to support the testosterone inducing goodness of traditional manly Irish sport, the more violent the better, and naturally, also the Irish language, though he does not...

This is the middle third of the Cyclops episode. The citizen has used the reference to Joe Brady's erection to segue into all things Irish nationalist and we ended last time with the Parodist narrator spoofing on what may have been Robert Emmet's execution. Now the citizen, increasingly drunk, has a full head of steam, and drawing on his inner Michael Cusack, extolls all things Irish and l...

This is a really fun episode but with some very serious undertones, that as it progresses, spill into overtones. We meet the citizen, holed up in the pub, an Irish hero, waiting for what the sky would drop by way of drink. He does not wait in vain as punters queue up to buy him pints - 'wine of the country'. He holds court and spouts forth to his audience. He is assumed to be based on Mich...

Here we begin the Cyclops episode and this time Russell will read about one third of the chapter. As per usual, his accent is diabolical. It's such an interesting episode in which the style changes yet again. We now have two narrators, both unnamed, perhaps reflecting Noman, the pseudonym Odysseus selects in The Odyssey. We meet the first as the episode begins, and immediately observe him to b...

Today we I hope not too controversially, examine the touchy subject of nationalist sentimentality. The second half of the episode centres on the song The Croppy Boy and Ben Dollard's trenchant rendition has the pub audience welling up with emotion. Save Bloom, who pays attention to the siren song, but is not swept up onto its rocks. He has other things on his mind. Whether or not you agree tha...

Last time our song M'Appari concerned love and loss, which of course resonated so powerfully with poor Bloom, sitting disconsolate in the restaurant area, now that Boylan is on his way to see Molly. So much so, he almost couldn't manage to write to Martha. In the second half of Sirens, with Dollard's rendition of The Croppy Boy, the atmosphere turns political. Joyce displays the nation...

Here we analyse the first half of the Sirens episode. Joyce endeavours to write music with words...well, sort of. If you are technically musical, you might get a kick out of that. For the rest of us, we will work with that but not get over concerned. Of greater import is that the feted hour of 4 o'clock occurs in this episode. Bloom is worried. Why is Boylan still in the bar and where is he go...

We've a song in our hearts as we move clear of the scary wandering rocks. We just need to breeze past the Sirens, those nice sweet singing mermaids perched on their benign rocks. What could possibly go wrong? Joyce boasted he could do anything with words and some say that in this episode he uses them to write music. Here at North London Ulysses, we'll bear that in mind but won't let it...

Russell analyses vignettes #13-19 of the Wandering Rocks episode. What is the health of the city's arteries? Clean and open, allowing the smooth passage of the populace, the life blood of any city? Or congested and clogged, stifling and slowly but surely paralysing it in a labyrinth? Here we meet Stephen in the challenging #13 - it's Stephen, what do you expect? his father and other layabo...

Russell concludes the airing of his holiday video, I mean very serious poetry, I mean, well...you know. Now calm down and take your seats for vignettes #13-19, this is supposed to be educative and shall illuminate the Wandering Rocks episode. Honest. Thank you very much. Should you wish to acquire this awful collection, surely destined for the library in Alexandria, there's a link to do so. It...

Russell is supposed to be on holiday but he just cant keep away. Can't escape his ego at any rate. To keep pace with our discussion of the first twelve Wandering Rocks vignettes, Russell reads his so-called poems, one per vignette. Even the glorious countryside cannot entirely offset the awful poetry. But hey, art is all about the striving. Right? Should you wish to acquire this awful collecti...

This is the reading of vignettes #13-19 of Wandering Rocks. #13 features Stephen, #16 Buck Mulligan and it concludes with #19, one of Russell's favourite passages in the book. Penguin Classic: p. 310 Gabler (can't believe I said Gifford again!): p. 198 Project Guttenberg: Stephen Dedalus watched The Fine Trousers of Almidano Artifoni and Other Poems: A Rhyming Romp Through Joyce's Wand...

Russell, on location at the seaside, considers vignettes 2-12. Highlights include meeting Blazes Boylan in #5, #6 is largely in Italian, Bloom makes an appearance in #10 and Russell even makes a bold claim for some original thought in #7. Hang on to your hats. Penguin Classic: p. 288 Gabler: p. 184 Project Guttenberg: Corny Kelleher closed The Fine Trousers of Almidano Artifoni and Other Poems: A...

Our tenth episode, Wandering Rocks is like no other in Ulysses. Following nebeneinander (space) as opposed to nacheinander (time), words we learned in episode 3, it follows 19 scenes in various places across Dublin at broadly the same time, around 3.15 in the afternoon. Stephen and Bloom fall back among a cast of many, as the city itself becomes the central character. At the pub and/or in the last...

Our tenth episode, Wandering Rocks is like no other in Ulysses. Following nebeneinander (space) as opposed to nacheinander (time), as we learned in episode 3, it follows 19 scenes in various places across Dublin at broadly the same time, around 3.15 in the afternoon. Stephen and Bloom fall back among a cast of many, as the city itself becomes the central character. Here we read the first 12 scenes...