Marginalia: Odysseys & Oddities - Bawdy Banquets and Birthing Blues

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This started as a Buddy Read of Ulysses with friends, and devolved into mania. Here are the notes and ramblings...

Ulysses Episode 14 – Oxen of the Sun

Alright, so I had to go and look this up, because while I could feel something wild was happening stylistically, I didn’t quite have the words for it...

Turns out, this chapter doesn’t just take place in the maternity hospital, it is a kind of birth. Joyce is mimicking the gestation and development of the English language itself. From what I found: 

"Joyce mimics the evolution of prose from ancient Latin-style sentences through medieval, Renaissance, 18th-century, Romantic, and Victorian styles—ending in chaotic slang, pub talk, and crude parody."

This is just… brilliant, honestly. The way the form mirrors the content? It might actually be my favorite chapter so far.


The Odyssey: Books 7–8 | “Welcome to the Weird Olympics”

I know these books don’t sync directly with Ulysses in the Tandem Read, but honestly, they are totally worth a spotlight.

💪 Discus. Foot races. Wrestling. It's giving peak bro-energy.
Odysseus: "I will out-athlete all of you while dissociating."

Also, side quest: we pause the plot for a divine Jerry Springer moment where Aphrodite gets caught cheating on Hephaestus with Ares. Cue a pile-on of gods showing up just to laugh and gawk. No notes.

Anyway, then we’re back to music and heartbreak. The bard sings, and Odysseus tries hard not to do a full Greek soap opera confession.

Loved it... Phaeacia is weird, and I’m into it.

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