

Blooms & Barnacles
Kelly Bryan
A blog and podcast that discuss James Joyce's Ulysses from a non-academic point of view. Less snooty, more movie references.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 13, 2025 • 52min
AEIOU
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. Conmee, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, form of forms, entelechy, and many, many tangents.Support us on Patreon to access episodes early, bonus content, and a video version of our podcast.On the Blog:Decoding Dedalus: Entelechy, Form of FormsBlooms & Barnacles Social Media:Facebook | Twitter | InstagramSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Aug 6, 2025 • 17min
Bonus Ep. 31 - Hamlet [TEASER]
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

Jul 30, 2025 • 60min
Hamnet
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 his father’s death, Shakespeare as a commercial artist, audience interpretations of Hamlet over the centuries, Freudian analysis of Hamlet, how Æ’s objections predict the New Criticism movements of the 20th century, and how all this talk of Shakespeare is actually about Leopold Bloom.Support us on Patreon to access episodes early, bonus content, and a video version of our podcast.On the Blog:Decoding Dedalus: Hamlet, ou le Absentminded Beggar Blooms & Barnacles Social Media:Facebook | Twitter | InstagramSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Jul 16, 2025 • 1h 6min
The Absentminded Beggar
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 Absentminded Beggar,” the politics of the Boer War in 1904, Shakespeare as propaganda, Khaki Hamlets and the brutality of Shakespeare, the Mitchelstown Massacre, Algernon Swinburne and “On the Death of Colonel Benson,” British use of concentration camps during the Boer War, and further use of British literary icons as propaganda.Support us on Patreon to access episodes early, bonus content, and a video version of our podcast.Blooms & Barnacles Social Media:Facebook | Twitter | InstagramSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Jun 13, 2025 • 44sec
Bloomsday 2025 Live Show!
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/

Jun 4, 2025 • 54min
Horseness is the Whatness of Allhorse
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 thoughts on William Blake, and how to solve an impossible binary.Support us on Patreon to access episodes early, bonus content, and a video version of our podcast.On the Blog:Decoding Dedalus: Horseness is the whatness of allhorse. Blooms & Barnacles Social Media:Facebook | Twitter | InstagramSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Jun 2, 2025 • 17min
Bonus #29 - The Dark Gaunt House on Usher’s Island [TEASER]
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

May 21, 2025 • 1h 14min
On this side idolatry.
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: Horseness is the whatness of allhorse. Blooms & Barnacles Social Media:Facebook | Twitter | InstagramSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

May 7, 2025 • 59min
Folly. Persist.
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 seven, the significance of the number seven, Malacoda’s trumpet, Dante, extended Wicklow imagery, Satanic imagery in the works of Joyce, Stephen’s Luciferian impulses, Diablous in Musica, and Stephen’s ultimate rejection of Satan despite his declaration of “Non serviam.”Support us on Patreon to access episodes early, bonus content, and a video version of our podcast.On the Blog:Decoding Dedalus: Folly. Persist.Blooms & Barnacles Social Media:Facebook | Twitter | InstagramSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Apr 30, 2025 • 16min
Bonus Ep. 28 - Two Stories About Women [TEASER]
Kelly and Dermot discuss the stories of Elizabeth Aldworth, the lady mason, and author P.L. TraversListen to the full episode at patreon.com/barnaclecast


