Marginalia: Odysseys & Oddities - Stately, Plump, and Already Late

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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 1 (Telemachus)

Characters to Remember:

✨ Stephen Dedalus (moody, intellectual protagonist) - young writer / philosopher / teacher burdened by guilt, grief (loss of his mother), and artistic ambition.

✨ Buck Mulligan (loud, witty?, flamboyant) - med student, Stephen's roomie (ahem freeloader)

✨ Haines (staying with these 2) - annoying imperialist friend who wants to ""understand your culture""; had a gun-related hallucination the night before and freaked out S.D. (is this important??)

✨ The ... Milk Woman? - I guess she's supposed to be representative of... tradition and the working poor, but I don't have a good grasp on that interaction. Maybe I'm not smart enough for that one.

What's Going On:

Honestly, I have no idea - we've got a mock mass... a brooding, resentful protagonist... and a walk to the sea, ending with Broody McBroodington refusing to go home..."


The Odyssey: Book 1

✔️ Zeus delivering the first spicy call-out: "Perverse mankind! whose wills, created free, Charge all their woes on absolute degree; All to the dooming gods their guilt translate, And follies are miscall'd the crimes of fate." -or- Humans blame the gods for everything, but they bring disaster on themselves.

Why is this giving me Shakespeare / Romeo & Juliet vibes? Is it just the prose? Am I crazy? Is it the gummy worms I'm eating?

⏪ Ok, so a recap, in short, the depressed telephone guy is looking for his dad, and there's a party, and they say yeah dude - go forth and look. - in long, Odysseus is MIA, and Athena goes to Zeus and is like, Are we gonna let this dude go home, or what? and Zeus is like... Humans are idiots (see quote above). I guess that's a no? So Athena disguises herself as Mentes and visits Telemachus, the depressed son, and he's living with a bunch of bros who eat is food and hit on his mom (Penelope). Athena says, man up, bitch, kick these mother fuckers out and go find your dad. Tele says, I mean, yeah, ok.... "

The Odyssey: Book 2

So, not a ton to say about this part, pretty self-explanatory - Telemachus is off to find his father, with the help of Athena's meddling.

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