Marginalia: Odysseys & Oddities - Daydreams and Doomed Snacks

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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 5 – “Lotus Eaters”
(aka: Sex Letters, Soap, and the Stream-of-Consciousness Slip n’ Slide)

We follow Bloom as he:
➡️ Picks up a letter from his not-wife, Martha that's kind of flirty. Kind of sad. Kind of ew. --- seriously, who is Martha?
➡️ Goes to the chemist for Molly’s ladies' items + some suspiciously sensual soap
➡️ Sits in a church (but not for church)
➡️ Daydreams about sex → religion → bodily functions → death → advertisements → back to sex. All while… not really doing anything.

(More) Characters to Remember:
✨ Martha Clifford – the mysterious letter writer. (side note: In Episode 4, I thought she was maybe a sweet young pen pal. Now? That letter is very not-rated-for-daytime.)

At one point during a particularly gruesome inner thought, I had to stop and ask: Wait… is that necromancy? Necrophilia?? The answer: neither. It's just Bloom being fucking weird again.

I feel like I just got trapped inside the damp folds of someone else’s brain. AGAIN.
Is Bloom horny? Guilty? Sentimental? Avoidant? Dissociating?
Yes. All of the above.
Also, there’s still math.

Final Verdict:
I still have no idea what’s going on, but I’m still pretty sure that’s the point.
And also: I need soap now. But like, not his soap. Never his soap.


Odyssey Book 9 (early) – Lotus Eaters
(aka: “Forget Your Problems and Eat the Sad Salad”)

I stopped before the Cyclops section, in the spirit of the Tandem Read, but this was a quick 4 pages.

Lotus Eaters = literally drugged
Lonely Leo = emotionally sedated?

Both scenes ask: "What do we do when life hurts too much? Do we numb ourselves and avoid it, or face it?"

Bloom’s not ready to face it. Neither were Odysseus’s crew. Same soup, different spoons."

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