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bike42 · 7 months ago

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PAWs Old World Wisconsin Ride

Saturday June 1, 2024

We’re no strangers to riding our bikes in the rain, in fact, we did it just two weeks ago on a training ride up north! We set out early this morning to try to get a bit ahead of it. We were riding by 7:30am, with just three other riders. Down the Capital City Trail, over the fantastic Lower Yahara River Bike Trail towards McFarland.

We’re on a 7-day ride put on by PAWs (Pedal Across Wisconsin), run by a family from northern Illinois. We’ve twice ridden their Northwoods Tour (Eagle River WI), as also their San Juan Islands (Washington State) tour. They do a great job with the logistics and we’ve met many like minded riders along the way. This is their Old World Wisconsin tour: starts in Madison, two nights in Whitewater, two nights in New Glarus, and two nights in Spring Green. If you know Southern Wisconsin, you know this is hilly territory!

The rain started as we were leaving McFarland. We had our cycling rain jackets on, tights over our bike shorts, and wool socks on with our bike sandals - so we were mostly ready. Jeff had dug out his booties, arm warmers and full-fingered bike gloves, but left them at home on the laundry room counter (along with his wallet!). It didn’t take long for me to realize that my 20-year old cycling rain jacket was no longer water resistant, and I got soaked through my layers. It was about 65 degrees, so not too cold, and thankfully not windy at all. We’ve had some terrific storms these past few weeks, but this was just steady rain, no thunder or lightning.

We rode through beautiful scenery on really good roads with very little traffic. After 24 miles we got to the food stop at a park in Cambridge. I’d been thinking of coffee shop instead, but the had the table under a shelter and it was actually quite pleasant to hang out there with about a half dozen riders (there are 90 registered riders but most were hanging out at breakfast when we left the hotel, and some were strapping their bikes to their cars having decided to sit today out I guess).

We left the food stop and headed down the Main Street of Cambridge - quiet on this early rainy Saturday morning, but fun to window shop the boutiques there. Doing so, we made our first navigational error of the day. They mark the turns with yellow paint which I can’t see from the back of the tandem. I have a plastic wrapped cue sheet in JT’s pocket so I generally know the name of the road for our next turn. We also have downloaded “Ride With GPS” and have the routes on our phones, but decided we didn’t need the turn by turn instructions. We turned around, and I pulled off my phone and found we were parallel to the route so it was easy to get back on course.

We rode along the shore of Lake Ripley, a beautiful cottage / resort area I didn’t know existed! Then through rolling hills, past pretty farms and into the town of Ft Atkinson. We got to Highway 12 and stopped, and I realized we’d missed another turn. We decided to detour into Downtown to find a cafe. I noticed a bike shop too, and suggested we stop there for a shopping excursion. There we bought a new rain jacket for me (I will get a lot of use out of it this week), a warmer shirt for JT (he thought it was too expensive, but I insisted … his rain jacket is working well, but he just had a short sleeved Jersey under it), and warm gloves for JT. We left our bike chained there and walked to a cafe I’d spied: Scottie’s Eat-Mor. Our kind of dive! There were about 12 stools at the counter, where 10 heads swiveled to stare at us as we walked in out of the rain wearing bike helmets covered with those disposable shower caps that we take from hotels (our secret weapon when riding in the rain!). We peeled off our wet layers and squeezed into the remaining two stools. The waitress, Jackie, was a hoot. A women of few words, and many facial expressions! Randy was the talented, multi-tasking cook. We saw that the portions were huge, so we tried to order a smaller sized meal, but one pancake was still more than I could eat! That was a great stop, and we were able to continue on after a nice break.

While in the diner, I researched how to get us back on course, and saw that the route was a bike trail just the other side of the bike store. We collected our bike, and then began to see a few other cyclists with orange tags identifying them as part of our group. We rode a few miles on the Glacial River Bike Trail, and it was really beautiful! Awesome sculptures and landscaping - raining too hard for photos though, we’ll have to go back!

Back out to country roads, about 10 miles of mostly gentle up and down until we reached the hotel in Whitewater. We’re at a Baymont Inn - not glamorous, but the front desk lady was friendly and helpful, offering old towels for people to wipe down their bikes. We collected our bags and brought them to the room - then back for the bike, carrying it up the stairs to our second floor room. We cleaned it up, and cleaned ourselves up. The hotel has a hot tub, but it’s out of order so I soaked a bit in the tub in our room. Felt fantastic!

We’d arrived at the hotel just before 1pm, so had lots of time to relax! Jeff walked to the hardware store, and when he came back he reported the rain had stopped and the crew was setting up the 4pm Happy Hour at the UHaul van. We went out and grabbed a beer and met a few more people. Just after 5 we were ready for dinner, and I suggested we walk the 1.5 miles down to a brew pub that had a good dinner menu. Along the way, we met Mary-Claire and Roger, and struck up a conversation with them. We walked quickly and were soon at the brew pub, so they joined us for dinner and we continued the conversation. They live in Delaware, and this is their first PAWs ride, although they have friends that have recommended the rides. They were really interesting and have done some awesome adventure, including a 10-Country Self-Supported European tour last year! Dinner was good, and we decided to walk back versus jumping on the shuttle bus they were running. Whitewater has a UW campus, and it seems this is the slow time between Spring and a summer session - town seemed quite, and just a few frat houses seemed occupied - one with kids outside playing Beer Pong. For some reason, it felt like TRAM to me (might have been the school bus shuttle), and I felt nostalgic for those fun times riding across Minnesota and searching for dinner in a small town.

We have a Culver’s just down the road, so JT and I deviated there for a small concrete mixer. We returned to our room for some cribbage before bed time.

51.6 miles, 1843 elevation gain

3 hours, 45 minutes of riding time (5 hours elapsed time)

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theultimatefan · 9 months ago

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'Four Hobbits,’ Trejo, Raimi Q&As Among Top Programming at FAN EXPO Cleveland, Friday through Sunday

From celebrity Q&As to industry, cosplay, gaming, anime and entertaining, informative sessions from all areas of pop culture, FAN EXPO Cleveland presents its collection of nearly 150 programming panels and meetups during the event, Friday through Sunday, April 12-14 at Huntington Convention Center. There’s truly something for every fan and every taste every hour of the show into the evening throughout all three days of the convention, right until Sunday’s 5 p.m. finish.

FAN EXPO Cleveland celebrity guests such the “four hobbits” Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan from in the original The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ringin 2001, Danny Trejo (Machete, From Dusk Till Dawn), legendary director Sam Raimi, “Charmed” star Rose McGowan, Randy Quaid (National Lampoon, Kingpin), “Harry Potter” standout Matthew Lewis, Jason Lee (“My Name is Earl,” The Incredibles), Alan Tudyk (Star Wars, “Firefly”), Brent Spiner (“Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Independence Day), the “Ahsoka” duo of Eman Esfandi and Diana Lee Inosanto, Ethan Suplee (“My Name is Earl,” American History X), Jeff Ward (“One Piece,” “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”) and Butch Hartman (creator, “The Fairly OddParents,” “HobbyKids Adventures”) are among those who will conduct individual and group interactive sessions with fans, headlining the slate.

There are dozens of informative, entertaining panels by superstar creators as well as cosplay, gaming, trivia, film, horror and other pop culture themed sessions. Fans can review the entire event schedule at http://fanexpohq.com/fanexpocleveland/schedule. Most panels are free with event admission. Just a few of the other highlights include:

Friday:

4:15 p.m. - More Marco Diaz! Star vs The Forces of Evil's Adam McArthur, Theater #2

4:30 p.m. - Cartoon Academy with Joe Wos: As Easy as ABC, Cartooning Basics, Programming Workshop Room 20

5 p.m. - Cos-Positivity, Programming Theater B

5:15 p.m. - Heroes of Gaming with Chris Edgerly, Rob Wiethoff, Alejandro Saab, Theater #2

5:45 p.m. - Meet Cousin Eddie! A Family Vacation Panel with Randy Quaid, Main Theater

6 p.m. - Using The Force to Create Great Star Wars Art!, Programming Theater A

6:45 p.m. - The Measure Of A Man: Brent Spiner Q & A, Main Theater

8 p.m. - Comics & Cocktails, Cosplay Lounge

8:30 p.m. - Drink and Draw, Programming Workshop Room

Saturday:

10:30 a.m. - The Magic of 3D Printing with Kent State Robotics Team, Programming Workshop Room 20

11 a.m. - The Siegel and Shuster Society - Superman and Cleveland, Programming Theater A

11 a.m. - Super Hero Yoga, Cosplay HQ

11:45 a.m. - Part Of Your World: Meet Jodi Benson, Main Theater

12:15 p.m. - A Fairly Odd Panel with Butch Hartman, Theater #2

12:45 p.m. - Lightsaber Battle - Jedi Knights, Cosplay HQ

12:45 p.m. - Voices Of Gaming with Rob Clark, Fred Tatasciore and Chris Edgerly, Main Theater

1:00 p.m. - Movies: Cleveland Takes the Leading Role, Programming Theater B

1:15 p.m. - One Piece X Two Buggys! Q+A with Jeff Ward and Mike McFarland, Theater #2

2:00 p.m. - And Now a Word from Our Sponsor: The Top Ten Animated Advertising Icons of All Time, Programming Theater B

2:45 p.m. - My Name Is Earl: A Conversation with Jason Lee and Ethan Suplee, Main Theater

2:45 p.m. - Slime Making with the Cleveland Ghostbusters, Programming Workshop Room 20

3:45 p.m. - A Magical Conversation with Rose McGowan, Main Theater

4:45 p.m. - Into The Spiderverse: Meet Shameik Moore, Main Theater

5 p.m. - Adventures as Ash Ketchum: Q+A with Sarah Natochenny, Anime Events Room 25C

5:15 p.m - FAN EXPO Cleveland Cosplay Craftsmanship Cup, Theater #2

6 p.m. - The Science and Engineering of Ghostbusters (Frozen Empire), Programming Theater B

7:30 p.m. - The Four Hobbits: An Unexpected Reunion with Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan, Main Theater

Sunday:

11 a.m. - Cosplay Guest Panel - Cassandra Cosplay, Programming Theater B

11 a.m. - The Sun, The Moon, Solar Eclipses - And Super-Heroes!, Programming Theater A

11:45 a.m. - The Many Characters of Alan Tudyk, Main Theater

12:15 p.m. - ¡Hóla! Soy Kathleen Herles! The Voice of Dora the Explorer, Theater #2

12:45 p.m. - Master of the Multiverse with Sam Raimi, Main Theater

1 p.m. - Elevenses: An Unofficial Lord of the Rings Food Panel, Programming Theater B

1:45 p.m. - You and Whose Army: Meet Matthew Lewis, Main Theater

2:45 p.m. - Po-Tay-Toes!: Meet Sean Astin!, Main Theater

3 p.m. - Discussing Deku: Q+A with My Hero Academia's Justin Briner, Anime Events Room 25C

3:45 p.m. - The Man, The Myth, The Legend: Spotlight on Danny Trejo, Main Theater

Single-Day Tickets, Three-Day Passes, for FAN EXPO Cleveland are available now; Ultimate Fan Packages and VIP Tickets are Sold Out. Cleveland is the sixth event on the 2024 FAN EXPO HQ calendar; the full schedule is available at fanexpohq.com/home/events/.

#comic con #cleveland

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stevenbasic · 4 years ago

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“Wow Missy...I saw your new insta post. Did you just take it? So hot.”

Josie McFarland could not believe how amazing her friend looked tonight, sitting at the bar next to her. A casual evening out for drinks with some girls from work and Melissa might as well have been a goddess. Effortlessly glam with hair done up, makeup casually flawless, and filling this evening’s little black dress to bursting, she had already drawn the eyes of most guys in the place. Always a self-assured girl with regards to her looks, Melissa’s confidence had recently blossomed, and Josie had to admit it was a thing to behold...

“ooooo thank youuuuu,” Melissa cooed, smiling beatifically at her friend of several years, “I had to post it <giggle!>. I felt cute.”

“It has like a thousand likes already, after just an hour,” Josie said, feeling a strange thrill shiver through her. Expecting the other girls soon, Josie genuinely liked having Melissa to herself for a little bit. She always felt the two of them had a special connection. “I’m still, like, surprised you made your account public. Remember? Last time you did this?”

“MmmHmm…” Melissa purred, mischievous eyes glittering over her cocktail glass as she sipped at her straw. She didn’t want to ruin her lipstick, in case she wanted to send him pictures, later.

“Didn’t things start...y’know?” Josie continued, obviously hinting at an unspoken secret, voice dropping closer to a covert whisper, “Happening? Why you had to shut it down?”

“Haha yeah…” Melissa replied, putting her glass onto the cardboard coaster. She’d ordered a Bahama Mama, her new favorite.

”Aren't you worried? Won’t it...happen again?” Josie asked, tucking a wave of her long, dark brown hair behind one ear. Younger than Melissa by four years at 22, and always considered “the baby” of the group, Josie nonetheless felt concern for her friend. Concern, but also a newly-budded sense of excitement. “Y’know, if you start getting too...popular?”

“Yeah maybe....” Melissa answered, thoughtfully stirring her drink with her straw, “but I’m not worried.” She paused, again in thought. “I’m not going to shut it down this time.”

Josie felt another flash of thrill run through her. ”Omigod...for real?” Her own drink, a pink something-or-other, sat forgotten on the bar, ice just beginning to melt. She loved talking to Melissa about this, she’d found.

“Yeah I decided...at least for now,” Melissa continued, “I’m gonna...flex a little, and see what happens...” She smiled, unconsciously straightening in her seat and again drawing some furtive stares, this time from down the bar. “...maybe fill out a bit more.”

“Oh, shit, Missy…if you get more and more clout...” Josie gaped, unable herself to keep from marveling at her friend’s prodigious chest, much of which was on display above her plunging neckline, “haven’t you already been, like-?” She didn’t quite know the words to use, voice trailing off. She was picturing it - with her figure, what Melissa could do. Every new follower is like another little bit more Melissssy. A hundred. A thousand. A hundred thousand. “You’re already getting so tall…”

“I know, right? <giggle!>”

Josie couldn’t keep the awe from her voice, and spoke softly. “I hope you get ten million followers.”

“Omigod imagine?” Meliss laughed, heartily, hand covering a snort, “haha I’d be…”

Josie waited for her friend to finish, waiting on bated breath to hear it.

“...huge.”

“Yeah…” Josie smiled, wistfully. Looking at her friend, she laughed at herself. Josie knew she was attractive - pretty, even. Nicely curvy. When she dressed up a bit, like tonight, guys looked at her, she got attention. Being around Melissa, though, had a way of making other women, women like Josie, feel like little girls; it was just a natural thing. But she reminded herself, sitting right here at the bar, how only an hour ago she was admiring her own newly-blossoming figure in the mirror. What would The Melissssy Effect do to them all this time? Now that things were...like this, in the office, out in the world? It made her weirdly giddy, imagining the possibilities.

“But, that’s not the kind of success I want, just more of...whatever,” Melissa began anew, after another sip of her drink, “Likes. Followers. Clout. Success because of...all this.” At that, she straightened her posture once again, hands running slowly down the sides of her long, curvy torso. “I want more than success because of the bod, the boobs, the hair. What I want, what I really want…” she explained, but trailing off, wistfully looking down into her drink for the right words.

“I know what you want,” Josie said, her own eyes flashing now, “You want to be the boss.”

“YES haha!” Melissa beamed, catching herself laughing too loudly and biting her lower lip as she felt more eyes from the bar drawn her way. She reached out, resting her hand, for a moment, on her friend’s arm. She took a breath, a long slow one. ”No, for real,” she eventually continued, after settling herself, going back to idly stirring her drink, “I want to be the best Office Manager I can be. I want to be able to take care of everything, be in total control.” Melissa bit her lower lip, picturing it. “I want to be soooo successful, make the office, all of us, grow and grow and grow into new, powerful women. Make us all successful. And have him…”

Melissa lost herself in thought again.

On the edge of her seat, Josie urged her friend on. ”And have him..?” she prompted, hearing the eagerness in her own voice.

”...accept it, I guess,” Melissa answered, finally. “Accept it all, and be happy.”

“Happy that...you’re in charge?”

“mmhm…” Melissa agreed, “I want him to be happy and accept that he’s surrounded by us, by girls, by smart, successful females who can take care of things.” Aside the bar, Melissa re-crossed her long, shapely, well-muscled legs, idly aware of how many eyes just a simple movement like that can draw. “I want to show him that women can do everything, and do it better than he ever could,” she continued, “I want us all to be in charge, and him to…”

Josie, aware that she was weirdly, physically excited, struggled to bridle the emotions making her words quiver. “You want him to..submit,” she said, finishing her friend’s thought.

Melissa’s eyes glittered, in realization, hearing that word. “Well, yes, I guess…” Melissa agreed, smiling more broadly, as if aware of it for the first time. She played with the word, the thought, over again, in her head - you want him to submit.

She looked at her friend. “Can I tell you something?” Melissa asked, “I...I’ve always felt like I can talk to you. Like, differently than I can with Amelia or Randi or everyone else. You get part of me that the others don’t quite yet. You understand, I think, how I’m beginning to feel about him.”

“That you want to…that you want us all to...” Josie began, unable to believe that she was about to actually say the word, “...dominate him?”

“Yessss…” Melissa said, voice dropping, “But, Josie, omigod. It’s not just that. I want him to...to need us. Need me.” With the thought, Melissa felt herself shudder. “Like, to need me so bad he can’t imagine doing it without me.”

“D-doing what?” Josie asked, unsure of what kind of territory she and Melissa were exploring here, “Working? Running the office?” To Josie, the rest of the bar had disappeared; it was just she and Melissa.

“No, I mean like, anything,” Melissa answered, with striking confidence, “I dunno but I want him to feel like he can’t live without me. Can’t operate. Can’t function. Can’t walk or eat or breathe without me.”

Oh goddddd, Josiie trembled, drawing a sharp, deep breath as a bizarre, vivid image, as if from nowhere, flashed through her head. Something small, something pink and naked and helpless. Something curled up into itself, fetal.

“Omigod Missy that’s so hot.”

She was imagining an embryo.

Now it was Melissa’s turn to take a breath, inhale, shudder. “I know, right?” she said, looking into her friend’s eyes, knowing they were thinking the same thing, “And...and I think I can do it, get him there, be that for him. And I want you girls all to help…”

“Jesus Miss, yessss….please…”

“I don’t know what it is but I just want to…”

“What? What Missy?”

“I want to be like his...his…” Melissa began, but was then immediately stopped.

“Oh, there’s everybody!” she called out, suddenly sitting up straight, looking over Josie’s shoulder, “Hi girls!!”

In a moment, the two were circled by a coven of young women, co-workers and conspirators, all of them now smiling and laughing.

Josie’s heart was still racing.

“Okay girls,” Melissa finally said, giving her friend a covert little wink, “let’s plan…”

#Growing Into the Job

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perennialessays · 3 years ago

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Week 2

From Origins to the Future: The Hero and the Epic Quest.

This week and the next we shall engage in one of the traditional approaches to comparative practice, following various re-appearances of a myth / hero / genre through successive literary periods and in different countries. The example we shall use is the figure of Odysseus / Ulysses in epic writing and film from Homer to the turn of the 21st century. We shall consider how this figure has changed, and focus on specific episodes of Homer’s original epic poem.

Homer, The Odyssey (read in particular Book 1 and the episode of the Cyclops (in Book 9);

Dante, Inferno (read canto 26, Ulysses);

James Joyce, Ulysses (read the ‘Cyclops’ episode (the 12th, pp. 280-330 in Johnson))

Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) (Film: Please watch this in advance of the seminar)

Some secondary reading on Homer’s Odyssey & the figure of Odysseus/Ulysses

Boitani, Piero, The Shadow of Ulysses: Figures of a Myth, tr. Anita West (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994). [Has an excellent chapter on Dante's Ulysses]

Doherty, Lillian E., "The Snares of the Odyssey: A Feminist Narratological Reading", in Texts, Ideas, and the Classics: Scholarship, Theory, and Classical Literature, ed. by S. J. Harrison (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 117-133. Foley, John M. (ed.), A Companion to Ancient Epic (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005)

Fowler, Robert (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Homer (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004).

Graziosi, Barbara, end Emily Greenwood (eds.), Homer in the Twentieth-Century: Between World Literature and the Western Canon (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).

Jong, Irene de, A Narratological Commentary on the Odyssey (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2001)

Hall, Edith, The Return of Ulysses: A Cultural History of Homer’s Odyssey (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2008).

Lane Fox, Robin, Travelling Heroes: Greeks and their Myths in the Epic Age of Homer (London: Allen Lane, 2008)

Manguel, Alberto, Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey A Biography (London: Atlantic Books, 2007).

Murnaghan, Sheila, Disguise and Recognition in the Odyssey (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987).

Stanford, W. B. The Ulysses Theme: A Study in the Adaptability of a Traditional Hero (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1963).

Some secondary reading on Kubrick

Bizony, Piers, 2001: Filming the Future (London: Aurum, 1994)

Chion, Michel, Kubrick's Cinema Odyssey. Trans. Claudia Gorbman (London: BFI, 2001)

Ciment, Michel, Kubrick. Trans. Gilbert Adair (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1983)

Cocks, Geoffrey, James Diedrick, and Glenn Perusek (eds.), Depth of Field: Stanley Kubrick, Film and the Uses of History (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006)

Falsetto, Mario, Stanley Kubrick: A Narrative and Stylistic Analysis (Westport, Conn; London: Praeger, 1994)

Falsetto, Mario (ed.), Perspectives on Stanley Kubrick (New York: G.K. Hall; London: Prentice Hall, 1996)

Herr, Michael, Kubrick (New York: Grove Press, 2000)

Kolker, Robert (ed.), Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey: New Essays (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006)

Nelson, Thomas Allen, Kubrick: Inside a Film Artist's Maze (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982)

Naremore, James, On Kubrick (London: British Film Institute, 2007)

Rasmussen, Randy, Stanley Kubrick: Seven Films Analyzed (London: McFarland, 2001)

Wheat, Leonard F., Kubrick's 2001: A Triple Allegory (Lanham, MD, and London: Scarecrow Press, 2000)

Some secondary reading on the epic

Bates, Catherine (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Epic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010)

Beissinger, Margaret, Jane Tylus, and Susanne Wofford (eds.) Epic Traditions in the Contemporary World: The Poetics of Community (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999)

Clarke, M. J., B. G. F. Currie, and R. O. A. M. Lyne (eds.), Epic Interactions: Perspectives on Homer, Virgil, and the Epic Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006)

Danow, David K., Transformation as the Principle of Literary Creation from the Homeric Epic to the Joycean Novel (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2004)

Elley, Derek, The Epic Film: Myth and History (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984)

Foley, John Miles (ed.), A Companion to Ancient Epic (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009)

Hardie, Philip, The Epic Successors of Virgil: A Study in the Dynamics of a Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993)

Hainsworth, J. B., The Idea of Epic (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991)

Hurst, Isobel, Victorian Women Writers and the Classics: The Feminine of Homer (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2006)

King, Katherine Callen, Ancient Epic (Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2009)

Konstan, David and Kurt A. Raaflaub, eds., Epic and History (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010)

Merchant, Paul: The Epic (London: Methuen, 1971)

Miller, Dean A., The Epic Hero (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000)

Johns-Putta, Adeline, The History of the Epic (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)

Newman, John Kevin, The Classical Epic Tradition (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1986)

Quint, David, Epic and Empire: Politics and Generic Form from Virgil to Milton (Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1993).

Roisman, Hanna M., and Joseph Roisman (eds.), Essays on Homeric Epic (Waterville, ME: Colby College, 2002)

Toohey, Peter, Reading Epic: An Introduction to the Ancient Narratives (London : Routledge, 1992)

Tucker, Herbert F., Epic: Britain's Heroic Muse 1790-1910 (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2008)

Winnifrith, Tom, Penelope Murray and K.W. Gransden, eds., Aspects of the Epic (London: Macmillan, 1983)

Some secondary reading on Ulysses

Guidebooks: (These classic ‘guidebooks’ can supplement the annotations in your edition of Ulysses.)

Don Gifford, Ulysses Annotated (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988) Weldon Thornton, Allusions in Ulysses: An Annotated List (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1968) Harry Blamires, The New Bloomsday Book (London: Routledge, 1996)

Some suggested criticism on Ulysses

(This is a small selection of Joycean criticism, from useful collections of essays (Attridge, Latham, Hart and Hayman), to critics who read language and narrative very closely (Kenner, Senn), to works on the Homeric in Ulysses (Flack, Kenner, Seidel), to a few examples of studies which read Joyce through theoretical, historical, comparative, and postcolonial approaches.)

Derek Attridge, ed., The Cambridge Companion to James Joyce (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) — ed., James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’: A Casebook (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) Scarlett Baron, ‘Strandentwining Cable’: Joyce, Flaubert, and Intertextuality (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) Frank Budgen, James Joyce and The Making of ‘Ulysses’ (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1961) Vincent J. Cheng, Joyce, Race and Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) Leah Culligan Flack, Modernism and Homer: The Odysseys of H.D., James Joyce, Osip Mandelstam, and Ezra Pound (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015) Clive Hart and David Hayman, eds., James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’: Critical Essays (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974) Hugh Kenner, Joyce’s Voices (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1978) — ‘Ulysses’ (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1980) Sean Latham, ed., The Cambridge Companion to ‘Ulysses’ (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014) Karen Lawrence, The Odyssey of Style in ‘Ulysses’ (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981) Andrew J. Mitchell and Sam Slote, eds., Derrida and Joyce: Texts and Contexts, ed. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2013) Katherine Mullin, James Joyce, Sexuality and Social Purity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003) Michael Seidel, Epic Geography: James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’ (Princeton and Guilford: Princeton University Press, 1976) Fritz Senn, Inductive Scrutinies: Focus on Joyce, ed. Christine O’Neill (Dublin: Lilliput, 1995) — Joyce’s Dislocutions: Essays on Reading as Translation, ed. John Paul Riquelme (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984)

Online searchable concordance of Ulysses (e.g. if you can’t remember where the renowned Irish hero ‘Napoleon Bonaparte’ is mentioned, type it into a ‘string search’ and untick ‘whole word’) http://joyceconcordance.andreamoro.net/

Ulysses Synopsis

Ulysses: A Synopsis “Telemachia” 1 - “Telemachus” (Oxford World’s Classics, ed. J. Johnson, pp. 3-23 / Penguin, ed. D. Kiberd, pp. 1-28)- The chapter opens with Buck Mulligan celebrating a parodic mass in which Stephen Dedalus becomes an acolyte in spite of himself. Stephen is a melancholy artist obsessed with guilt since the death of his mother; his taciturn nature is contrasted with Mulligan’s clownish joviality. The Englishman Haines, their guest in the Martello Tower, combines seriousness with an enthusiasm for Gaelic culture; the three characters illustrate three possible positions in relation to Ireland, which is symbolised by the old peasant woman who brings in the milk: the dispossessed Son (Stephen), the treacherous usurper (Mulligan); the representant of English imperialism (Haines) who - through his dream of the panther, traditionally a symbol of Christ - is also associated by Stephen with the imperialism of the Roman Catholic Church. Stephen chooses errancy and exile: he gives over his key and will not come back. 2- “Nestor” (OWC 24-36 / Penguin 28-45)- Stephen teaches history and English Literature to a class of well-off schoolchildren who are disconcerted by his caustic humour and riddles. He confronts Mr Deasy (Nestor in Homer’s Odyssey) on Irish history and economics. The old headmaster cherishes his inaccurate reminiscences and promotes thrift, whereas Stephen squanders away the little money he has. Stephen views history as a nightmare. Despite the antagonism, Stephen agrees to help Mr Deasy is his fight against the foot and mouth disease which affects Irish cattle by helping him to publish a letter in the press. 3 - “Proteus” (37-50/45-64)- Stephen’s philosophical and aesthetic meditations lead him to question the reality of the outside world. Through a complex philosophical argument which hesitates between Aristotle and Berkeley, he redefines for himself the nature of visual and auditory perception. His literary recollections blend with the painful evocation of his past, especially the unsuccessful exile in Paris from which a telegram announcing his mother’s death recalled him. The sterility of Stephen’s “creations” in this chapter (which include urinating and depositing a snot on a ledge of rock [cf. Bloom’s own excremental “creation” in “Calypso”]) is pitted against the remarkable metamorphic poetic prose of the narrative and of Stephen’s stream of consciousness. Odyssey 4 - “Calypso” (53-67/64-85)- Leopold Bloom, who will increasingly become the major protagonist, is introduced in his home at 7 Eccles Street and is first seen preparing breakfast for himself and his wife Molly, who is still in bed. He goes out in search of a pork kidney at a Jewish butcher’s, where he picks up a leaflet advertising plantations in Palestine (inaugurating the theme of the lost, promised land, and of the “recall”). He brings Molly her mail, which includes a letter from Boylan, her future lover later in the day, announcing his visit. He explains to Molly the meaning of metempsychosis; the chapter ends with his defecation in the outhouse, mingled with his remarks on cheap literature. 5 - “The Lotus Eaters”(68-83/85-107) - Bloom has left his house for what will become the epic wanderings of an untypical literary hero, on an ordinary Dublin day - 16 June 1904. He first goes to fetch the reply, sent post restante, from his unknown penfriend Martha Clifford, to whom he sends amorous letters signed “Henry Flower”. He runs into several acquaintances on the way, unwittingly “throws away” a tip for the horse races (the source of a later misunderstanding), and eventually goes to the public baths. Throughout the chapter, drugs of all kinds (perfumes, tobacco, medicine, eroticism, religion, etc.) express a voluptuous narcissistic abandonment to the world of the senses. 6 - “Hades” (84-111/107-147)- Bloom goes to Paddy Dignam’s funeral together with Simon Dedalus (Stephen’s father) and other characters already seen in Dubliners. The conversation soon takes on a malevolent anti-Semitic tone which puts Bloom ill at ease. He thinks of death, remembering both his father’s suicide and the death of his son when he was only eleven days old. Bloom catches his first sign of Stephen (who does not see him). 7 - “Aeolus” (112-143/147-189)- Broken down into a series of newspaper articles complete with headings, this episode brings together, in different scenes and locations of the newspaper office, Bloom, Stephen, various “windbags” including Myles Crawford, the king of windy and hollow journalistic rhetoric. The orators outdo one another in eloquence and the parable of the captive Jews provides the Irish with a mythical model. Stephen narrates a story illustrative of the paralysis of his fellow Dubliners which nobody pays attention to, while Bloom the ad canvasser gets severely ticked off by Myles Crawford. 8 - “Lestrygonians” (144-175/190-234)- The “food chapter”: Bloom is obsessed with food (it is between 1pm and 2pm) and alimentary thoughts, and tastes and smells of all kinds percolate through into the language and style of the episode (the rhythm of the chapter is dictated by the “peristaltic” [digestive] movement of the organism). Put off by the monstrous devouring mouths in the restaurant and obsessed by the impending encounter between Molly and Boylan, he finally orders a Gorgonzola sandwich and a glass of Burgundy wine at Davy Byrne’s pub. 9 - “Scylla and Charybdis” (176-209/235-280)- In the National Library, Stephen spins out his Aristotelian theory of artistic creation which boils down to a sublimated autobiography; his paradoxes on Shakespeare’s life and works fail to convince his Platonist audience. In the complex reasoning of the young artist, Shakespeare becomes like a god who begets himself through his works. Bloom puts in an appearance; Mulligan meets up with Stephen and offers a more burlesque conclusion to the philological / theological debate. 10 - “Wandering Rocks” (210-244/280-328)- This chapter is a pause in the narrative of Stephen’s and Bloom’s day, and it has no precise correspondence in Homer’s Odyssey. This central and “pedestrian” chapter is made up of 19 episodes which offer vignettes and snapshots of the various characters and cross-sections of the Irish capital and society, including Church (Father Conmee) and State (the Viceroy’s cavalcade); the chapter breaks down the so far focalised point of view. Stephen and Bloom appear only briefly and are not mentioned among the witnesses of the Viceroy’s cavalcade through the city. 11 - “Sirens” (245-279/328-376)- The language of this chapter aspires to the condition of music and forges linguistic equivalents to trills, staccatos, counterpoints, etc. The venue is the Ormond Bar, run by two flashy barmaids or “sirens”; while the tenors are busy competing against each other in a virile singing contest, Bloom listens and replies to Martha. Having eluded the seductive snares of music, he exits, leaving behind an ironic fart. 12 - “Cyclops” (280-330/376-449)- A satire against the bellicose patriotism and anti-Semitism of the Citizen, the “Cyclops” who eventually attacks Bloom physically, the chapter oscillates between the Citizen’s rhetorical bombast and sarcastic deflations which leave unscathed neither the British Empire nor Irish nationalism, while the anonymous narrator - a sardonic barfly and debt collector - offers a brilliant instance of Dubliners’ garrulity. The narrative is periodically interrupted by parodic asides in other voices and styles. Bloom the wandering Jew, who had come to Barney Kiernan’s pub to arrange to offer some money to Paddy Dignam’s widow, finds himself involved in an argument about nationalism and attempts to expound his conception of humanity, love and homeland. At the end, his escape from the Citizen’s assault is turned into a grandiloquent apotheosis. 13 - “Nausicaa” (331-365/449-499)- Bloom rests on the Sandymount rocks (Stephen in “Proteus” had also walked along Sandymount beach) and gazes at young girls in their bloom. One of them, Gerty MacDowell, teases him into an erection by an increasingly daring exhibitionistic pose; the distant eroticism ends with Bloom’s masturbation, climaxing with fireworks. The narrating voice is that of a writer of the romantic pulp fiction then fed to women - the kind of books read by Gerty, who accordingly sees in Bloom a mysterious “dark stranger”. When the point of view shifts to Bloom, we see Gerty depart limping; Bloom dozes off in postmasturbatory gratitude. The accelerated crescendo of the first “tumescent” part is followed by the exhausted sobriety of the second, “detumescent” half. 14 - “Oxen of the Sun” (366-407/499-561)- Bloom’s and Stephen’s paths cross once more in the lying-in hospital, amidst roistering medics. The chapter takes us through a roughly chronologised pastiche of the different styles of the English language until the turn of the century, deceptively mimicking the evolution of the foetus until its birth. The painful delivery of Mina Purefoy takes on a universal value and, although the talk ominously focuses on sterility and contraception, a thunderclap and a rain shower at the moment of birth symbolise the triumph of fertility. 15 - “Circe” (408-565/561-703)- Blooms monitors from a distance Stephen’s drunken escapade to the red-light district, and follows him into the hallucinatory atmosphere of Bella Cohen’s brothel (Circe’s den in the Homeric parallel). The characters experience metamorphoses in a wild oneiric dramatisation of their fantasies, obsessions and senses of guilt. Stephen gets involved in a broil with two English soldiers and is knocked out cold; Bloom rescues him and transforms him into the ambiguous vision of his dead son Rudy. “Nostos” [=homecoming] 16 - “Eumaeus” (569-618/704-766)- Bloom leads Stephen to the cabman’s shelter, and the shared physical exhaustion (it is past midnight) and the unreliable narrator turn the chapter into an amusing, if often tedious, collection of deliberately jaded linguistic stereotypes, full of misunderstandings and approximations. 17 - “Ithaca” (619-689/766-871)- This impersonal catechism narrates the last actions of the novel: Bloom takes Stephen to 7 Eccles Street and offers him hot chocolate, they exchange views of Irish and Jewish culture, Stephen refuses Bloom’s offer of a bed for the night, they urinate together under the stars, and Stephen finally departs into the night. Bloom, back in the house, finds traces of Molly’s visitor earlier in the day, goes to bed, where he finds other traces of the visitor’s earlier presence, gives Molly an expurgated account of his day, and finally falls asleep, his head to her feet. The dialogic play between questions and answers universalises all the themes, sorts out human knowledge into vast catalogues, and finally transform the couple in bed into astral bodies. 18 - “Penelope” (690-732/871-933)- Molly’s thoughts flow freely along eight unpunctuated, meandering sentences. She begins with a reaction to Bloom’s request that she make breakfast in the morning, continuous with a celebration of her afternoon with Boylan, proceeds to review her marriage, her girlhood on Gibraltar, her infatuations and dreams of future romances, and finally returns to Bloom, seemingly reinstated into her imaginary life; this is one of the meanings of her numerous final “yesses”, also an affirmation of life itself.

Additional suggestions on Joyce's Ulysses/ Odysseus

Some of the texts through which Joyce reads and receives the figure of Odysseus/ Ulysses

Bérard, Victor, Les Phéniciens et l'Odyssée [originally published in 1902-03, there are no English translations that I know of; but you can find a lot about it, and Joyce's use of it in the book by Seidel, listed below; Bérard held the view that the Odyssey was "written" by a Greek poet, but recorded the travels of Phoenician sailors - the Phoenicians were a semitic people, which is relevant when you think that Leopold Bloom (Joyce's Ulysses figure) is a Jew]

Butler, Samuel, The Authoress of the Odyssey: Where and when she wrote, who she was, the use she made of the Iliad, and how the poem grew under her hands [originally published in 1897; Butler also transalted the Iliad and the Odyssey. There are various editions, including a cheap Kindle version; and it is in the library. Butler suggests that the Odyssey takes place in the island of Sicily, around the port city of Trapani, and that it is narrated by princess Nausicaa. The relevance to Joyce's book, which set on an island in and around the port city of Dublin, and whose final words are narrated by a woman, is evident.]

Lamb, Charles, The Adventures of Ulysses [originally published in 1808, there are various editions in print, and a free Kindle version. The book really is about the adventures and was meant as a book for boys, not as a full tranlation or account of the entire Odyssey. Joyce read this as child and wrote an essay at school about it!]