Frank Budgen

I don't want to focus on that.

And then Bloom is distracted showing all the stars to his friend, Chris Callanan.

And we discussed that in episode 133.

So.

Given the popularity of flagellation fiction and the rigid social mores of the era, it's no surprise that there was also a decent amount of hand-wringing and pearl-clutching when it came to such literature.

The response to masochistic fiction was informed by cultural fears about Submissive men's attraction to their own mothers, as well as this creeping terror of homosexuality, suggested by men who thrilled at the idea of submitting to a dominant woman.

Joyce wrote to his friend Frank Budgen that readers ought to pick up on an undercurrent of homosexuality in Bloom.

As well as his loneliness as a Jew.