Monday, June 13, 2022

June 16 is Bloomsday

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Joyce_by_Alex_Ehrenzweig,_1915_cropped_(cropped).jpg
James Joyce 1915
June 16 is Bloomsday, a day devoted to James Joyce.  What?  You haven’t heard of this?  Well, neither had I until I wrote this post!

June 16, 1904 is the day depicted in Ulysses by James Joyce.  The name comes from Leopold Bloom, the main character in Ulysses.

Ulysses was banned in the US and UK on publication in 1922 because it was deemed obscene.  It’s also listed, along with another James Joyce book Finnegan’s Wake, on many lists of the most difficult books to read.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/louispeitzman/the-25-most-challenging-books-you-will-ever-read
https://dbrl.bibliocommons.com/list/share/1267394437/1302865007
https://bookriot.com/the-hardest-books-weve-ever-read/
https://earlybirdbooks.com/difficult-books-to-read
https://www.hookedtobooks.com/most-difficult-books-to-read/

Ulysses is the story of a day in the life of Leopold Bloom as he travels Dublin and goes about his business. It's also a satire, written as if it were an epic like The Odyssey. Its length and complexity are legendary.  This is an excellent review.
https://leoacookman.medium.com/whats-the-point-of-reading-ulysses-ff6b5d6249ea

7 ways to celebrate Bloomsday
https://www.eventbrite.ie/blog/7-ways-celebrate-bloomsday-different-year-ds00/

Have you read Ulysses?  What did you think of it?


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