Bloomsday

Happy Bloomsday! Er, well almost. Bloomsday is officially June 16th, but seeing as that will be my first day in Europe, I doubt I'll really find an Internet cafe to blog about Ulysses and James Joyce. I'll be gone for five weeks, so don't expect many blog posts during the month of July (I know, you're super upset).

So, what's Bloomsday, anyway? Well, in short, it's a day where the events of the novel, Ulysses, are recreated and the life of the famous Irish writer, James Joyce, is celebrated. It's a pretty big deal in Dublin, but cities around the world celebrate it, too. Everything that takes place in the book happens on one single day - June 16th - in Dublin, 1904, and the main character in the story is Leopold Bloom.

Ta-dah! Bloomsday.



A typical Bloomsday involves different readings and dramatizations of Ulysses, pub crawls, and dressing up in old clothing. Participants retrace Bloom's route around Dublin and people who are really into it have been known to hold epic readings of the entire novel in one day. If you've picked up a copy of the book, you'll know how thick that thing is. And if you've ever thumbed through it, or even read it, you know what a strange and difficult story it is to read.

So this year, on June 16th, why don't you dust off that copy of Ulysses, listen to it on the radio, or watch the movie, and celebrate with a pint (if you're of age, of course).

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Here's a clip from the documentary, Joyce to the World.



And here's the first 8 minutes of the 1960's Ulysses movie. Mind you, it's pretty damn weird.