(Yes Bloomsday is technically June 16 but linear time is a bourgeois conceit anyway)
Bloomsday is a commemoration and celebration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce, observed annually in Dublin and elsewhere on 16 June, the day his 1922 novel Ulysses takes place in 1904, the date of his first sexual encounter with his wife-to-be, Nora Barnacle, (read Joyce’s extremely NSFW but hilarious letters to his wife here) and named after its protagonist Leopold Bloom.
Ulysses is the quintessential modernist novel, taking place during a single day of two men traveling around Dublin in early 20th century Ireland. Through its stream of consciousness writing and crazy stylistic components, Joyce touches on a number of subjects, including the state of Irish nationalism and the crushed Irish spirit languishing under the English and the Catholic Church, relations between men and women, the cacophony of sounds and sights in an urban environment that seems to encompass the entire world, shitting and then wiping your ass with the newspaper you were just reading, and the total impossibility of escaping from history.
One line I particularly like is “History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake,” which to me sounds very reminiscent of Marx’s famous proclamation that “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.”
Ulysses is a joy to read, and has been (imo) vastly overanalysed by scholars the world over attempted to pry every bit of meaning out of a work that is certainly overstuffed with meaning, but is overall an attempt at fun experimentation in literature. Ulysses is meant to be enjoyed first, analysed second. If the book at all sounds interesting to you, I would recommend giving it a go. Know that you don’t need to understand everything (or even 30%!) to have a good time. It took a few rereads before I really got a lot of what the book was trying to do.
Literature is not supposed to be this big pretentious thing, it’s supposed to be universal and enjoyable and liberatory. Ulysses is the perfect example of that spirit: the book is about Leopold Bloom, who’s just an everyday sort of guy. His wife is fucking other men, he likes talking to people and eating sandwiches, and who doesn’t love a nice masturbation session on the beach? But in making Bloom the main character, and the book taking course over one day, Joyce shows that even the most banal and ordinary of days can be something that is indicative of the human spirit towards life, something extraordinary because life itself is extraordinary. It’s a liberatory novel that celebrates the everyday, the here and now, and it’s totally worth reading.
- Download the full e-book here
- Listen to the RTE radio play of the novel here
- Watch the 1967 movie adaption here
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- 💙Comprehensive list of resources for those in need of an abortion -- reddit link
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Theory:
Carefully explaining to the small Iraqi child that the person who shot his mother in the head had no choice because they wanted free university
It's also the 100th anniversary of the publication of Ulysses!
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Never read Ulysses and the only thing I know about it is how 'challenging' it is to read. Is it entertaining at all? Is it fun?
Yes, it's very entertaining and fun! As long as you approach it as a vibe more than something you have to get it's a great time.
also have not read and have the same questions. like, is this going to be like the time I read Crime and Punishment? Easier, harder?
Crime and Punishment is realist literature so it's much "easier" in the sense of following along. Ulysses has much more stream of consciousness, almost manic writing that initially seems totally unrelated to what the "plot" of the book is. It's much more concerned with the actual thoughts that might run through a mind in a day than anything actually happening.
So I'd say that it's more fun at the least. Ulysses has that great mix of existential pain (Stephen Daedalus is pretty dour) and joy in life (in particular the Blooms).
There's plenty of farts, pissing, shitting, sex, etc. It really is a celebration of life, with everything that entails. However, there is also that sense of the limits of the bourgeois world. After all, the characters never know each other as well as we know them, and you shouldn't lose sight of that irony as you read. For all the good things in life, the novel also recognizes the social poverty of bourgeoisie society.
It's definitely worth your time, and don't be worried if you miss some of the references, especially in the first 3 episodes. Stephen is Mr. :marx-goth:
Woah! 100th anniversary. An extra special belated bloomsday wish to you, comrade.
Happy to see Ulysses celebrated. It's my favorite book. For a long time I had a "bounty" for anyone to read it. I thought that most people would find it way too intimidating to even consider, so I wanted to entice people to give it a try. I figured maybe 1% of people who tried it would actually end up loving it, and I wanted that 1% of people to not miss that chance.
The amount started at $40, then went up to $100 and $250 before anyone actually finished the book and claimed it. It was a friend of a friend who was sorta curious about it and strapped for cash at the time. He ended up really sinking into it.
I'm dating that guy now :) I dunno if I would have gotten as close to him if it wasn't for my stupid Ulysses bounty.
Thanks Joyce!
As for the book itself, it certainly isn't for everyone, but for the right sort of nerdy/romantic/manic/perverse weirdo, almost nothing else in any medium comes close to it. It teaches you to find the deep literary enchantment of everyday life. It isn't naive, it digs deeply into the social complexes of its time, but it celebrates the small joys too. It reminds me that even though we are in hellworld, things are unimaginably layered and complex and detailed within that hellworld, and that there is meaning if you dive into them.
I completely forgot it was Bloomsday today, the Bloomsday 100 years after publication even. Some fan I am! But coincidentally I wore my Ulysses shirt today (I'm insufferable) and had an appropriately varied and moving day (therapy session where I cried a lot, dinner with my mom, then we watched Everything Everywhere All At Once and cried a lot, then witnessed a strange situation with a person who had gotten totally naked in front of a church in the middle of some sort of manic episode on the way to dropping my mom off at the train). But really every day is just as rich.
That's such a lovely story, I'm glad somebody took you up on the bounty and it ended so wonderfully!! Ulysses is such a celebration of life and it sounds like your day on this Bloomsday was as well.
Amazing story!!
Hooray for bloomsday! Hooray for love! Hooray for megathreads!
i have a really good audiobook of ulysses with multiple voice actors and sound effects. It's the only audiobook I have that's like that.
I'm pretty sure my boss was pretty angry at me after I told him I couldn't do a seemingly simple technical task, and called the technical head, the big cheese, to show me how things are done, only for them to realize during a zoom call that he couldn't do it either and that it was actually fairly complicated, as I tried to explain before.
woww im so fucked up and sadistic and narcissistic and evil isnt that funny and quirky
why are the only people i feel close to anonymous shitposters
some trumper dude at work tried to call me a liberal because i was talking shit about boebert. i had to correct him. then he pulled the "name one successful communist country" routine, and i went in depth, until the point where they were just like "get the fuck away from me, don't talk to me, fuck you stop ruinin mah count*ry!" i guess we'll see what happens tomorrow. he's not the only one, and he's got a whole giant clique. should be fun.
See a psychiatrist if you can. Meds have almost completely solved the anxiety for me (doesn't work for everyone though)
Meds help a lot for me, I would be a panicking mess without mine
Same. I think I’m currently about to cancel plans for the day because I’ve been having panic attacks all day
unable to sleep because I spooked myself reading about UFOs and am also having one of those nights mildly panicking about being almost 30 with no degree and zero real work experience :big-cool:
All good things must come to an end. I actually have to do something at work tomorrow. Only took almost 3 weeks.
Is this Brennan “
Laws are threats made by the dominant socioeconomic-ethic group in a given nation. It’s just the promise of violence that’s enacted and police are basically an occupying army. You know what I mean?” Lee Mulligan that you’re talking about?I also hate it when libs conflate labour and capitalism, I understand that frustration
The worst thing college humor ever did was hire him so now I’ll never see how strong female protagonist ends
It took a decade for my college-educated, well-employed partner and myself to save $100k for a down payment for a house. In a year, the house has gone up in value $100k. This system is demonic
Why did you need to save that much? First time homebuyers loans only require like 3% depending on your credit score, right?
Wanted to keep payment low and have a sense of equity early on, plus saving felt safer than dropping it all on maybe a mistake
