Marginalia: Odysseys & Oddities - Drowning in Wordplay, Not Song

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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 11 – Sirens

Mood: Musical innuendo, brass farts, and Bloom’s repressed libido

Quick Vibe Check: This episode is basically “Leopold Bloom, This Is Your Brain on Lust,” set to a pub piano and filtered through a fever dream of puns, echoes, and rhythm. I actually listened to this episode while working, and felt... kind of icky. Everything is suggestive and nothing is confirmed, except that Bloom absolutely hears sex in the air and just keeps... ordering food.


Odyssey Book 12

Honestly? I’m done with the double standards. This entire book is a masterclass in emotional overreaction... from the men.

Odysseus is out here trying to keep the crew alive, but Eurylochus? Sir Whines-a-Lot. "It’s too hard! We’re hungry! Wahhh!" My guy, you were literally told not to touch the sacred cows, and what do you do the second Dad takes a nap? Throw a barbecue. Unbelievable.

And let’s not forget: sirens, sea monsters, death whirlpools.... Odysseus handles all that, but still can’t get his men to follow basic instructions like "don’t eat the sun god’s livestock." 🙄

Forget femme fatales, it's the fragile egos of sailors that really sink ships.

⚡Bonus Tandem thought: Bloom survives by disengaging. Odysseus survives by strapping himself down. Make of that what you will."

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