Marginalia: Odysseys & Oddities - Bloom, Penelope, and the Epic Mic Drop

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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 18 – Penelope

I made it! I crawled through maternity wards, interrogations, and every soap-related trauma Joyce could throw at me, and now here I am, closing the book with Molly Bloom.

And wow. This was such a shift in energy. After all those structured, stylized episodes, we get Molly: unfiltered. It was funny, bitter, sensual, sharp, contradictory, and deeply human.

I can’t decide exactly how I feel about Molly now, but I think I like her a lot. She’s flawed, magnetic, unapologetically herself, and I loved finally hearing her without Bloom’s filter.

And that ending:
"yes I said yes I will Yes"

After more than 800 pages, it feels like a heartbeat. Like life itself.

I wasn’t expecting it, but I’m feeling SUPER emotional right now. Like I just crossed a finish line I didn't know I was reaching for.

YES. I FINISHED. YES!
Would I do it again? …Ask me in a year. Or three


The Odyssey, end

Basically, there's a not of tension, and waiting... and waiting. And then waiting. My notes consisted of requesting that Odysseus "hurry up already", and some unhinged (and probably highly inappropriate) giggling.

And then - BLOODBATH.

And that's it! 

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