Blooms & Barnacles

**If you’re unfamiliar with the peeing Calvin decal (or if you are), here’s the story.The divine and the profane live side by side in Ulysses. In this episode, we discuss what the heck Cock Lake is, why Stephen pees on the strand at the end of “Proteus”, the themes of generation and corruption in “Proteus”, the artistic merits of excrement, urination as an expression of freedom and creativity, Mother Grogan and her teapot, endowing waves with speech and animating the natural world, onomatopoeia, the rolling tide, St. Ambrose and the groaning of Creation, Ariel’s Song and The Tempest, and Dermot’s anti-Shakespeare propaganda.Sweny's Patreon helps keep this marvelous Dublin landmark alive. Please subscribe!Social Media:Facebook|TwitterSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:Apple Podcasts| Google Play Music| Stitcher

Kelly helps Dermot remember why he drew James Joyce wearing red, killer heels. Topics include subtle Homeric correspondences, Dermot’s allegiance to Mr. Kipling’s cakes, Stéphane Mallarmé’s ‘L'après-midi d'un faune’ (The afternoon of a faun), more ire directed at that mocker Buck Mulligan, Stephen’s tiny feet, Stephen’s erstwhile friendship with Cranly, Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, John Francis Byrne, Cranly’s feelings for Stephen, Wilde’s love that dare not speak its name, themes of masculinity and male friendships, Senator David Norris on gay themes in Ulysses and Dedalus/Mulligan slash fiction.On the Blog:Decoding Dedalus: A Dedalus Never Pays His DebtsThe Love That Dare Not Speak Its NameSocial Media:Facebook|TwitterSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:Apple Podcasts| Google Play Music| Stitcher

Kelly and Dermot take on a deceptively simple passage in “Proteus” as they attempt to answer that ultimate question - what is the word known to all men?Topics covered in this episode include Stephen’s loneliness and why Joyce felt it was necessary for him to be totally alone, a mysterious discrepancy in Ulysses’ various editions, the 1984 Gabler edition of Ulysses, the universal Truth of a mother’s love, the universal Truth of death, how to escape from a troublesome duality, Rawhead and Bloodybones, the connection between love and death, and crab people.No Berkelyan idealism, we promise!**A note from the Department of Corrections: Kelly remarks that her 1990 edition of Ulysses contains the text as it was corrected and reset in 1963. That year should have been 1961. The responsible parties have been flogged.Sweny's Patreon helps keep this marvelous Dublin landmark alive. Please subscribe!On the Blog:The Word Known to All MenSocial Media:Facebook|TwitterSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:Apple Podcasts| Google Play Music| Stitcher

Dermot and Kelly carry on discussing “Proteus” in their flutiest voices!Topics in this episode include: yet more discussion of the philosophy of the good bishop of Cloyne, George Berkeley, shovel hats, the fluttering of the veil between the material world and the metaphysical world, Dermot’s grudge against Bertrand Russell, how language obscures one’s perception of the material world, the heraldic system of hatching, Stephen playing with his stereoscopic vision, Stephen’s ideal woman, Hodges Figgis,  and how Stephen has trouble handling rejection, even if it’s in his own mind. Sweny's Patreon helps keep this marvelous Dublin landmark alive. Please subscribe!On the Blog:Decoding Dedalus: Signs on a White FieldSocial Media:Facebook|TwitterSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:Apple Podcasts| Google Play Music| Stitcher

Form of my form! Who watches me here?Kelly and Dermot wade into the final pages of “Proteus” to spend some time with old faves like Aristotle, Bishop Berkeley and Giordano Bruno. We dig deeper into Stephen Dedalus’ internal monologue while discussing Stephen’s concern for his future legacy, Stephen’s shadow, darkness shining in the brightness, the squid people of Procyon 5, the Delta of Cassiopeia, Roman augury, Giordano Bruno’s belief that the constellations were morally corrupt, and the written word as a Berkeleyan abstraction. Sweny's Patreon helps keep this marvelous Dublin landmark alive. Please subscribe!On the Blog:Decoding Dedalus: Signs on a White FieldForm of FormsSocial Media:Facebook|TwitterSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:Apple Podcasts| Google Play Music| Stitcher

We're taking a week off! See you in October!

Kelly and Dermot discuss one of the most metal passages in all of Ulysses! You can find it at the end of “Proteus” beginning with “A side eye at my Hamlet hat.” Topics include Hamlet (so much Hamlet), Stephen’s creative spark, more resent for Buck Mulligan, more grief for Stephen’s mother, the shifting protean nature of language and tides, various Biblical allusions, Stephen’s poem, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Hellas, Dermot’s grudge against Galileo, the philology of colors, did the sea really look like wine in ancient Greece?, the Annunciation and Mary’s connection to the sea, the requiem Mass death, vampires, ghouls, anti-semitism and homophobia in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Joyce’s (possible) dig at Douglas Hyde’s Love Songs of Connacht, the music of the spheres and how libraries used to work.Sweny's Patreon helps keep this marvelous Dublin landmark alive. Please subscribe!On the Blog:Decoding Dedalus: Pale VampireSocial Media:Facebook|TwitterSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:Apple Podcasts| Google Play Music| Stitcher

We welcome Phil Holden to the podcast to talk about the early publishing of history of Ulysses. Phil is a collector of early Ulysses editions, so he shares his collection while telling the arduous tale of getting a book like Ulysses published in the first place, the role played by Sylvia Beach and Shakespeare and Company in publishing Ulysses, concerns about obscenity, pirate editions of Ulysses, books as art objects, the complications caused by Joyce’s early manuscripts, and who should play James Joyce in a movie version of this epic tale! This episode has a strong visual component, so consider watching the video version available below and on our YouTube channel.Sweny's Patreon helps keep this marvelous Dublin landmark alive. Please subscribe!Social Media:Facebook|TwitterSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:iTunes| Google Play Music| StitcherMedia Mentioned in This Episode:The Most Dangerous Book - Kevin BirminghamJim Norton audio book of Ulysses“The Scandal of Ulysses” - John Kidd

White thy fambles, Red thy gan!Wait, what?Find out what this phrase and much more means in this episode as we continue our discussion of "Proteus," the third episode in James Joyce's Ulysses. Topics covered in this show include: what Stephen means by "red Egyptians," background on the Romani and Irish Travellers, Stephen's class insecurity, Terry Pratchett's Mort, strolling morts more generally, the distinct language of Romani and the Travellers,  The Our Father in Shelta, the secret language of thieves in 17th c. England, strolling morts, The Rogue's Delight, she-fiends, bawd pimps, whores, an example of too-polite annotations, Stephen's morose delectation, Thomas Aquinas' nicknames, and Stephen's realization that all words are his comrades.Sweny's Patreon helps keep this marvelous Dublin landmark alive. Please subscribe!On the Blog:Poetry in Ulysses: White Thy Fambles, Red Thy GanSocial Media:Facebook|TwitterSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:iTunes| Google Play Music| StitcherMedia Mentioned in This Episode:The Canting AcademyRothenburg's translation of the Rogue's DelightStuff You Should Know, How Gypsies WorkFurther Reading & Listening:Ahlstrom, D. (2017, Feb 9). Travellers as ‘genetically different’ from settled Irish as Spanish. The Irish Times. Retrieved from https://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/travellers-as-genetically-different-from-settled-irish-as-spanish-1.2969515Bakker, Peter. (2002). An early vocabulary of British Romani (1616): A linguistic analysis. Romani Studies. 12. 10.3828/rs.2002.4. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20111004125822/http://www.marston.co.uk/RSPP/LUPRSV012P02A00075.pdfBudgen, F. (1972). James Joyce and the making of Ulysses, and other writings. London: Oxford University Press.Gifford, D., & Seidman, R. J. (1988). Ulysses annotated: Notes for James Joyce's Ulysses. Berkeley: University of California Press.Johnson, S. (2011, Nov 14). Gypsy Paradise Lost. Vice. Retrieved from https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/ppqp3z/gypsy-paradise-lost-0000047-v18n11Keefe, A. (2016, Aug 17). Life With the Irish Travellers Reveals a Bygone World. National Geographic. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2016/08/irish-travellers-uphold-the-traditions-of-a-bygone-world/O’Leary, P. (2017, Sep 13). We Travellers must take a stand against racism, for the sake of our children. The Guardian.Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/13/travellers-racism-hate-speech-discrimination-irishReidy, J. (2017, Aug 11). The harmful history of “Gypsy.” Bitch Media. Retrieved from https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/gypsy-slur-netlflixRussell, C. (2017, Feb 9). Study on ancestry of Irish Travellers details genetic connection to settled community. The Journal. Retrieved from https://www.thejournal.ie/traveller-community-study-rcsi-3231070-Feb2017/Van Huygen, M. (2016, Sep 20). Uncovering Thieves’ Cant, the Elizabethan Slang of the Underworld. Mental Floss. Retrieved from http://mentalfloss.com/article/86148/uncovering-thieves-cant-elizabethan-slang-underworld 

Kelly and Dermot take a look at Stephen Dedalus' prophetic dream in "Proteus." Topics discussed include James Joyce's fascination with dream analysis, Stephen's connection to the mysterious Akasic record, Dermot's own experience with slippery time, the location of the "street of harlots" in Dublin, how Leopold Bloom and Haroun al-Raschid are connected, Orientalism, almosting, and prolonged provocative melonsmellonous osculation.You can hear our episode about translating Finnegans Wake into Japanese here. Sweny's Patreon helps keep this marvelous Dublin landmark alive. Please subscribe! On the Blog:Decoding Dedalus: Haroun al-RaschidIn the Jakes with Mr. Bloom Social Media:Facebook|TwitterSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:iTunes| Google Play Music| Stitcher Media Mentioned in this Episode:Orientalism, Edward SaidFurther Reading:Bowen, Z. (1998). All in a Night's Entertainment: The Codology of Haroun al Raschid, the "Thousand and One Nights," Bloomusalem/Baghdad, the Uncreated Conscience of the Irish Race, and Joycean Self-Reflexivity. James Joyce Quarterly,35(2/3), 297-307. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25473907Budgen, F. (1972). James Joyce and the making of Ulysses, and other writings. London: Oxford University Press.Burgess, A. (1968). ReJoyce. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.Carver, C. (1978). James Joyce and the Theory of Magic. James Joyce Quarterly, 15(3), 201-214. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25476132Gifford, D., & Seidman, R. J. (1988). Ulysses annotated: Notes for James Joyce's Ulysses. Berkeley: University of California Press.Gilbert, S. (1955). James Joyce’s Ulysses: a study. New York: Vintage Books.McCarroll, D. (1969). Stephen's Dream---And Bloom's. James Joyce Quarterly, 6(2), 174-176. Retrieved fromhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/25486761Walcott, W. (1971). Notes by a Jungian Analyst on the Dreams in "Ulysses". James Joyce Quarterly, 9(1), 37-48. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25486942 Music: