Saturday, June 16, is the minor literary holiday of
Bloomsday. It is in honor of the day when most of the action in James
Joyce's literary classic Ulysses
takes place. It is named in honor of one of the main characters,
Leopold Bloom, who we follow along on both him and, returning character
from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen
Daedalus. While I have never celebrated this day at my store. Booknotes, before, I still love the idea. However, I am not sure how one would
celebrate beyond talking about the book and its complex themes and
imagery, or perhaps, having a party in the style of early
twentieth-century Dublin. One thing is for sure, I would not be doing
anything the characters do from the book. While most actions are
rather harmless, (e.g. taking a walk on the beach looking at pebbles,
placing a newspaper advertisement), many are somewhat strange (teaching a
class at a Jesuit school, suffering intestinal discomfort after eating
at a pub). Some are just unusual (attending an friend's funeral,
becoming a father figure to a young man). Others are just downright
weird (going out drinking with college buddies and talking about
midwifery, having a formal question-and-answer session with a friend
about third-party events as if you weren't a part of them). Many
actions are immoral (making crude puns to your housekeeper,
contemplating the love of your husband while having an affair with an
actor). Some are illegal, both then and now (performing a lewd act while
ogling a young nanny with her charges on a beach, going to a brothel and
hallucinating about your dead mother). We strongly suggest not doing
any of these things. Maybe we can come up with some better ideas for
next year. In fact, I actually had to read Ulysses
in college and enjoyed it. We were originally only going to read excerpts, but the
professor changed his mind. Fortunately, the library had enough copies
for the seven of us. I still had to skip a few pages near the end to
finish it in time. Unfortunately, I have yet to re-read it.
[Originally post on THW's Booknotes Blog, June 2017]
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