Podcast
Blooms & Barnacles
Hosted by Kelly Bryan · EN
A blog and podcast that discuss James Joyce's Ulysses from a non-academic point of view. Less snooty, more movie references.
20episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Richard and Gilbert and Edmund and Will
Feb 2500:55:01Tap to summarizeWhat if the Shakespeares were really a bunch of crumb-bums? Topics in this episode include Shakespeare’s brothers Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund, which ones Stephen thinks were bad brothers and which were good brothers, whether Shakespeare turned his brothers into villains in his plays, Anne Hathaway’s relationship to her brothers-in-law, why Shakespeare’s brothers never married, Gilbert and Richard’s criminal records, whether Gilbert traveled to London to see As You Like It, Edmund’s attempt to become an actor, which one was Shakespeare’s favorite brother, wrastlin’, brotherly incest and psychoanalysis, Stephen’s owned disappeared brother Maurice, and justice for Mr. Best. Support us on Patreon to get episodes early, and to access bonus content and a video version of our podcast. On the Blog: Decoding Dedalus: Saint Thomas' New Viennese School — Blooms & Barnacles Blooms & Barnacles Social Media: Facebook | BlueSky | Instagram Subscribe to Blooms & Barnacles: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
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Rutlandbaconsouthamptonshakespeare
Feb 1800:49:33Tap to summarizeIn which, Stephen proves through algebra that Hamlet’s grandson is Shakespeare’s grandfather.Topics in this episode include Puritanism, whether or not Anne Hathaway became a religious fanatic late in life, Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna and her Puritan husband, the squandering of Shakespeare’s estate after his death, “Venus and Adonis,” the mystical estate of paternity, Hamlet and paternity, the Sabellian heresy, the authorship question, possible Shakespeare ghost writers, Buck Mulligan’s roasts, and James Joyce proves through algebra that he is his own father, just like Jesus and Shakespeare.Support us on Patreon to get episodes early, and to access bonus content and a video version of our podcast. Blooms & Barnacles Social Media:Facebook | BlueSky | InstagramSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
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Bonus Ep. 37 - Hamnet [TEASER]
Jan 3100:10:27Tap to summarizeWe review the 2025 Chloe Zhao film, Hamnet.To watch or listen to the full episode, visit patreon.com/barnaclecast
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Pray for us, Saint Thomas
Jan 2801:07:36Tap to summarizeOra pro nobis! Pogue mahone! Acushla machree!Topics in this episode include Thomas Aquinas (but less than you might expect), Aquinas’ views on incest, the meaning on “new Viennese school,” whether or not Joyce had any interest in psychoanalysis (and whether it matters), how Joyce may have encountered psychoanalysis in Zurich, Professor Edward Dowden, the work of psychoanalyst Otto Rank and his view on Hamlet specifically, Hamlet as an Oedipal text or an “incest drama”, the notion of Shakespeare writing Hamlet to process the death of his father, the theme of paternity in Ulysses, Stephen’s recognition of the historic resilience of Jewish communities, Nobodaddy, whether or not Reddit atheists have embraced the poetry of William Blake, and what John Eglinton and the Unabomber have in common.NIGHTTOWN in the Netherlands — tickets here Support us on Patreon to get episodes early, and to access bonus content and a video version of our podcast. On the Blog:Decoding Dedalus: Saint Thomas' New Viennese School — Blooms & BarnaclesBlooms & Barnacles Social Media:Facebook | BlueSky | InstagramSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
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Why Stephen Talks about Shylock
Jan 1401:00:02Tap to summarizeIsn’t Carrotty Bess great?Topics in this episode include why Stephen compares Shakespeare to Shylock, Shakespeare’s father John Shakespeare and his many business ventures, his legal troubles caused by some of those business ventures, Shakespeare’s corn-hoarding during a famine, the irony of Irish Nationalists being devoted to Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s role in providing propaganda for Britain’s colonial project, Mr. Deasy’s thoughts on Shakespeare, Chettle Falstaff, the time Shakespeare sued a guy over some malt, how The Merchant of Venice stoked Elizabethan antisemitism, plays that Shakespeare wrote to please various monarchs, James I and Macbeth, political propaganda found in Shakespeare’s comedies, and why Stephen’s point-of-view as an Irish person alters his interpretation of Shakespeare.Support us on Patreon to get episodes early, and to access bonus content and a video version of our podcast. On the Blog:Decoding Dedalus: He drew Shylock out of his own long pocket.Blooms & Barnacles Social Media:Facebook | BlueSky | InstagramSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
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Secondbest Bed
Dec 301:13:41Tap to summarizeSometimes the secondbest bed is the better bed.Topics in this episode include Griselsa, Antisthenes and Helen, art of surfeit, the Dark Lady of the sonnets, the erotic adventures of Shakespeare and Richard Burbage, how the Dark Lady connects the works of Shakespeare to the world of Ulysses, misogyny in the interpretation of Shakespeare, the binary of Stratford and London, William Davenant, Fetter Lane of Gerard, giglot wantons, Anne Hathaway’s supposed infidelity, Anne’s debt to a shepherd, Shakespeare’s will and the secondbest bed, and why it isn’t as damning as one might assume.Support us on Patreon to get episodes early, and to access bonus content and a video version of our podcast. Blooms & Barnacles Social Media:Facebook | BlueSky | InstagramSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
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Bonus Ep. 35 - The Portrait of Mr. W.H. [TEASER]
Nov 2700:11:45Tap to summarizeWe discuss Shakespeare's sonnets, the identities of the Fair Youth and Dark Lady, and the Oscar Wilde short story "The Portrait of Mr. W.H."To hear the full episode, visit patreon.com/barnaclecast
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Synge
Nov 1901:02:57Tap to summarizeWhy do we always fight most with the people we have the most in common with?Topics in this episode include James Joyce’s fraught relationship with playwright John Millington Synge, the way Synge shows up in Ulysses, in-jokes about Yeats that made it into Ulysses, Synge’s artistic work and why Joyce took issue with it, Synge’s connection to the Aran Islands, Synge’s eccentricities, pampooties, Joyce and Synge in Paris, Oisín and Patrick, Joyce and Synge as the personification of the duality found in “Scylla and Charybdis,” why Synge is not like Aristotle, why Joyce is bourgeois, Joyce’s Italian translation of Riders to the Sea, riots in response to The Playboy of the Western World, and Joyce’s ultimate appreciation of Synge’s work.Support us on Patreon to get episodes early, and to access bonus content and a video version of our podcast.On the Blog:The Chap that Writes like SyngeBlooms & Barnacles Social Media:Facebook | BlueSky | InstagramSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
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Mr. W. H.
Nov 501:22:16Tap to summarize“—Do you think it is only a paradox? the quaker librarian was asking. The mocker is never taken seriously when he is most serious.”Topics in this episode include Oscar Wilde’s “The Portrait of Mr. W.H.,” Shakespeare’s sonnets, the identity of the Fair Youth, the dedication on the folio of Shakespeare’s sonnets, the identity of Mr. W.H., Willie Hughes, homoeroticism in Sonnet 20, camp, the meaning of “ephebe,” Wilde’s connection of same-sex relationships in ancient Greece and the work of Shakespeare, gay coding in “Scylla and Charybdis,” the chilling effect of Oscar Wilde’s trial, Oscar Wilde as a model for Buck Mulligan, Lyster and Eglinton as foils for Mulligan, homophobia in “Scylla and Charybdis,” and Joyce’s thoughts on Oscar Wilde and homosexuality.Support us on Patreon to get episodes early, and to access bonus content and a video version of our podcast.On the Blog:An Intimate Portrait of Mr. W. H.Blooms & Barnacles Social Media:Facebook | BlueSky | InstagramSubscribe to Blooms & Barnacles:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
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Boul' Mich'
Apr 8, 2020Tap to summarizeBon soir, mes amis, et bienvenue a Blooms et Barnacles! Kelly and Dermot discuss Joyce's disastrous sojourn to Paris as a youth and its parallels to Stephen Dedalus' recollections of his time in Paris. Discussion topics include the fin de siècle fashion of French symbolist poets, what exactly mou en civet is, Stephen feeling down and out in a French post office, the mockery of saints in Heaven, Stephen's collection of French pornography, and whether it was Stephen's mother or his nother mentioned in that fateful telegram. Sweny's Patreon helps keep this marvelous Dublin landmark alive. Please subscribe! On the Blog: Decoding Dedalus: Latin Quarter Hat Ulysses CCD: St. Columbanus Social Media: Facebook|Twitter Subscribe to Blooms & Barnacles: iTunes| Google Play Music| Stitcher Further Reading Bowen, Z. (1974). Musical allusions in the works of James Joyce: Early poetry through Ulysses. Albany: State University of New York Press. Earle, D. (2003). "Green Eyes, I See You. Fang, I Feel": The Symbol of Absinthe in "Ulysses". James Joyce Quarterly,40(4), 691-709. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25477989 Ellmann, R. (1959). James Joyce. New York: Oxford University Press. Gifford, 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. Heininger, J. (1986). Stephen Dedalus in Paris: Tracing the Fall of Icarus in "Ulysses". James Joyce Quarterly, 23(4), 435-446. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25476758 Joyce, S. (1958). My brother’s keeper: James Joyce’s early years. New York: The Viking Press. McCourt, J. (2007). Joyce’s Well of Saints. Joyce Studies Annual. 2007, 109-133. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/1818991/Joyces_Well_of_the_Saints Music Noir - S Strong & Boogie Belgique Mat Hanigan's Aunt - Des Keogh
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