{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.030694668820678513, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 5.458333333333333, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
A Bloom without a Flower, or How to Read "Lotus Eaters"

"Lotus Eaters" has consistently been read as a clear example of the correspondence between Ulysses and The Odyssey. By historicizing Joyce's use of the Victorian "language of flowers," however, I show that the overdetermined floral symbolism in "Lotus Eaters" actually undermines the various correspondence-driven reading practices it purports to indicate. This suspicion of reading by correspondence is depicted most strongly in Bantam Lyons's misreading of Bloom's comments about the discarded newspaper, a failure of reading that resounds throughout the text.