Marginalia: Odysseys & Oddities - Dead Men Talking, Loud Men Shouting

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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 6 – Hades
(aka: Four Men in a Carriage, Processing Mortality... Kinda)

🧃 Standout Quote:
"Rattle his bones. Over the stones. Only a pauper. Nobody owns."
It’s bleak. It’s bitter. It’s exactly the kind of thing someone thinks when they’re trying not to feel grief too deeply.

✨ My Take:
Honestly? This chapter made more sense than the previous ones.
Either I’m acclimating to Joyce’s crazy-talk, or funerals just hit different.
The men gossip like judgmental aunties, Bloom broods quietly in the corner, and everyone pretends they aren’t terrified of dying.

🧼 Wait… Why is Bloom still carrying that soap?


Odyssey Book 11 – Underworld Vibes

Well. That was... a weird, moody, borderline incestuous parade of the dead. Honestly, it felt like Homer handed Odysseus a VIP pass to the Ancient Greek Trauma Con.

Also: shout-out to Agamemnon, who’s still salty from beyond the grave. And yeah, considering the whole “sacrificed our daughter for war” thing, it's somehow not shocking that Clytemnestra murdered him. 🙃

The whole scene is dripping with guilt, grief, and unresolved family messes. Classic Greek drama.

Connection to Ulysses, Episode 6 (Hades):

Okay, yes, both involve the dead. We’ve got literal ghosts in Homer, and symbolic/psychological ghosts in Ulysses. Death, memory, and grief haunt both scenes. The funeral in Ulysses mirrors the descent into the Underworld, just with less prophecy and more passive-aggressive eulogizing.

But otherwise? It’s kind of vibes-only.


Ulysses Episode 7 – Aeolus
aka 🗞️ THE DUBLIN DAILY BLATHER

🚨 SUDDEN SOAP REALIZATION SHOCKS LOCAL MAN (AGAIN) 🚿
Bloom’s back at it again, surprised to find that yes, the soap is still in his pocket. I swear, the soap is becoming a character in its own right. At this point, I'm half expecting it to deliver a monologue.

📰 HEADLINES, HEADACHES & HECKLERS
I really liked the format of this one! Those shouty newspaper headlines cutting through the narrative were chaotic but fun. They gave me the sense of a very loud, very masculine space where everyone’s talking over each other and trying to one-up each other’s wit.

K.M.R.I.A. EXCLUSIVE
I legit laughed out loud when that came up.

🚫 BLOOM, INTERRUPTED: EXCLUSION IN THE NEWSROOM
There’s this subtle undercurrent of Bloom being just slightly "other" in every space he enters. Like, he’s technically welcome, but never really included. Everyone else seems part of some boisterous boys’ club, and Bloom’s on the outside of the banter. Even when he tries to assert himself (with the letter, or his take on the horse story), it feels like he’s being politely sidelined. Honestly, it’s kind of heartbreaking.


Odyssey Book 10 (first part) – Aeolus and the Winds

Okay, so Odysseus finally gets a break, and his crew still manages to mess it all up. I swear, this man cannot catch a break. He’s asleep for five minutes and they’re already undoing all the progress. Like… why!?

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