Happy Bloomsday

[joyfulgirl]

I work for wonderful-crazy-Irish Americans who take their James Joyce seriously and we are even given a day off in honor of Bloomsday. So who among you has actually read "Ulysses"? I read it in college and am halfway through it again to refresh my memory, and this time I am using an annotated study guide so I can actually get all the references this time around.

So yeah, that's what I'm doing this weekend.

 

[joyfulgirl]

None of you Irish-obsessed people cares about Bloomsday?

 

[scatteroflight]

I read it very recently. It took me quite a while--maybe six-seven weeks? I allowed myself to read other stuff at the same time too, though, which may not have been a good idea but it helped save my sanity! I was glad to have finally read it. I'm going to Dublin in a month, no, not to stalk to U2, but to find out if Europe is a place where I really do want to live, or if I just think it is. So I'm glad to have read the great Dublin classic. I dunno...I really liked parts of it, and others were just boring, frustrating or annoying. I think I liked the earlier sections better. In the later sections I sometimes felt like he was really toying with the reader, just trying out the craziest possible ties to see how far he could go. But some of it was most evocative and really brought you into the mind of the characters. However, I think I enjoyed Portrait of the Artist and Dubliners more. Haven't read Finnegans Wake, probably never will! I do sort of wish I had read more about the structure of Ulysses before I plunged in, because apparently it is very carefully structured and I think I missed a lot of that! I'm glad, though, that I waited till after going through university to read it, because I think I understood a whole lot more of the references.

That's pretty funny that your employers would give you a day off for Bloomsday!

 

[zooropamanda]

Happy Bloomsday!

I forgot all about it this year! I will get to Dublin on the day if it kills me!
Yes, I adore the book and have been to Bloomsday readings on other years.
Joyfulgirl, I wanna work where you work!
I'm such a dork I got all excited seeing Davy Byrne's in Dub last year.

 

[jkayet]

Yay! I read Ulysses in college and loved it. It was difficult to understand though - I don't know if I would have liked it as much if I had read it on my own.
I had forgotten about Bloomsday as well!

 

[joyfulgirl]

I do sort of wish I had read more about the structure of Ulysses before I plunged in, because apparently it is very carefully structured and I think I missed a lot of that! I'm glad, though, that I waited till after going through university to read it, because I think I understood a whole lot more of the references.

That's pretty funny that your employers would give you a day off for Bloomsday!

It helps a lot to read about Ulysses before actually reading it because as you know it is loaded with historical and literary references, along with the slang and politics of the day, that makes it nearly impossible to understand without a context for the references. I find myself reading just a paragraph and then having to refer to the annotated guidebook to really get it. So it's not a book one reads so much as studies.

And, I actually understood a U2 lyric better as a result of reading Ulysses. There's a reference to "just past kissing time" which, according to the guidebook says it's a playful answer to kids' repetitive questions of "what time is it?" "just past kissing time" so I was thinking about that yesterday in relation to "Dirty Day" and "it won't last kissing time..." Maybe everyone already knew that but I didn't!

The pages and pages of the characters' stream-of-consciousness subjective dialogues is tiresome sometimes yet fascinating at the same time. Just imagine how radical it was for the times--we see these characters masturbating, defacating, urinating, copulating, and to think that they are all supposed to be the reincarnation of the characters from Homer's Odyssey is just fantastic. Truly a masterpiece.

It is also said that Joyce so perfectly captured Dublin that if Dublin had burned to the ground they could have used Ulysses to rebuild it.

 

[joyfulgirl]

Happy Bloomsday!

I forgot all about it this year! I will get to Dublin on the day if it kills me!
Yes, I adore the book and have been to Bloomsday readings on other years.
Joyfulgirl, I wanna work where you work!
I'm such a dork I got all excited seeing Davy Byrne's in Dub last year.

I do have an enviable job, I must say! We did all get together and do some Bloomsday readings with a really great recording of it. I work in the literary arts so it's kind of my job to be well-read and to schmooz with writers. So when we are given a day off for Bloomsday, we're kind of expected to be brushing up on our Ulysses! A crazy job I have. I thank the Powers That Be everyday.