… coming up.
Crowds are already gathering in Dublin.
I’m glad I’m not there, frankly. Especially because, judging from the quotes in the article, many in attendance have not even read the book. Or they couldn’t get past page 25.
Dilettantes.
You gotta be with true Joyce freaks on that day, and I will be. So I’m glad I’m not in that crowd in Dublin – although someday I’d love to spend Bloomsday there.
I’ve got other plans. Much cooler plans.
Hi Sheila,
I’ve never posted a comment to your site before, but I’ve been a long time reader. I have a Ph.D. in Eng. Lit., and a substantial portion of my dissertation was on Joyce’s “Ulysses”, but I have no plans for Bloomsday. I’d love to know what your plans are.
Hey Bryan. Thanks for reading … and also thanks for commenting!
There is an enormous Bloomsday celebration at a bar in the financial district called, appropriately, Ulysses. I went to the celebration there last year. Everyone who was anyone who was Irish was there. Frank McCourt, etc., which gives you some idea. And all the Irish actors in the city did readings from the book, sang songs from the book – there were Irish tenors and sopranoes … I knew half of the actors who did the readings – Every single person in the pub had their dog-eared copy of ULysses, and read along – sometimes chanting out loud parts we knew by heart (like the very end – with Molly Bloom’s yes yes yes …) – We were like a bunch of lunatics.
This year – I’m doing the same thing. A good friend of mine, an Irish actress, will be reading the ENTIRETY of the Molly Bloom monologue – she’s a wonderful actress – it is going to take her 2 1/2 hours – and I cannot WAIT.
I will give a full report afterwards.
And the entire evening of June 15 and the morning of June 16 – I will devote to Joyce on my blog.
Feel free to comment again!
Dearest: I too, have no interest in attending 100th Bloomsday, but many years ago on a cold May morning I did much of the trek on my own [I recall how worried you all where about my room one street away from Eccles Street]. Pub crawls have alot going for them, but you should not mix your drinks with Joyce. You should read John Banville’s wonderful short essay in yesterday’s NYT Book Review concerning Borges/Bloomsday. If you can find someplace where people are reading aloud Ulysses that would be fun [for a time]. Love, dad
Dad – HA!!
Mixing liquor and Joyce ..,
You and I must have been commenting at the same moment – so you can check out my plans. Aedin’s doing Molly Bloom. Can’t wait.
Need to break out the book again, in preparation.
Hi Sheila,
Sounds like great fun. I wish I could join you. I live in Austin, TX, where, despite the presence of Prof. Thomas F. Staley and the Joyce archives at the University of Texas Harry Ransom Center, there isn’t much interest in things like Bloomsday. I was, if you can believe, Prof. Staley’s one and only grad student when I was at UT.
So I’ll have to imitate you and celebrate merely by posting about Joyce on my blog. Have a Guinness for me at the party, and have a great time!
Dearest: I have abook at home called Kindred [I think] with photographs of somewhat famous Irish relatives [mothers and daughters, brothers, sisters etc.]. One of the photos is of Aedin and her father Paddy. Give her my best. Her father, of course, is a national treasure. love, dad
Dad –
I know. He most definitely is a treasure. They look like identical twins, too, don’t they?
I haven’t seen Aedin in months – so it’ll be fun to have a reunion on Bloomsday.
Welp, I’ll be doing my James Joyce Show here in Chicago Sheila, and can I tell you we are OVER sold for that day? Yikes.
Every time I hear Molly’s last monologue (…….and I said yes. Yes. Yes.) it literally breaks my heart. I really had no idea this play would affect me as much as it has. To watch Bloom go through this day, and meet the torment and the life changing experiences he meets head on, like a car crashing in slow motion, and then to come home to his adulterous, confused, beautiful wife and live in hope, just makes me weepy, weepy, weepy. I never thought I’d fall in love with this language. To me, it was a burden to learn it, a burden to act it, and a burden to keep speaking it. But now, after almost two weeks, I have to say, I’m a changed woman. His words are poetry, and his points are relevant.
I’m excited for Blooms Day. Our director says they’re going to treat us like we were Areosmith. I certainly hope that doesn’t mean I have to jump into the audience with my corsett on, and have them carry me around like the kids do. I might lose a stocking.
Oh and Bryan:
There may be some Joyce freaks in Austin who feel the same way you do … like little secret cults …
Maybe you should organize a Bloomsday celebration next year – and see who comes out of the woodwork??
Maybe I should at that. Now that I think of it, Prof. Staley did hold a celebration one year that some people attended. It was a fairly stodgy affair; the main feature of it was that he made me read a selection from “Finnegans Wake” aloud to the quiet and attentive group. I must have repressed that memory.
Bryan: HAHAHA No wonder you would repress that!! Jeez!
No, you need something a bit more raucous and less precious. Maybe just advertise in the paper, book space at an Irish pub, and see who the heck shows up. :)