An article on the commercialization of Bloomsday. Which is so ridiculous.
John Banville is quoted:
‘The version of Joyce that these people are peddling is reprehensible, pernicious even’, argues Banville, who is so embarrassed by the ‘Bloomsday shenanigans’ that he is planning to leave the city for the day. ‘It sets out to popularise a book that was a highly sophisticated, highly intellectualised undertaking. It is not mainstream, nor was it ever meant to be. When people claim Joyce had his eye on posterity, that is true, but it was intellectual posterity he was after, not mass approval.’
John Waters (columnist for the Irish Times, is also quoted, and he speaks to the hypocrisy in the huge Irish Bloomsday celebrations (after all, Joyce basically fled Ireland so that he could live a free and open life – and his books were banned there for years):
“‘He left in disgust, for Christ’s sake. Ulysses was about Ireland but it was not for Ireland. You could even say that it was against Ireland because Joyce was alienated from, and by, Ireland. That seems to have been conveniently overlooked in all the Bloomsday blather.”
I like that: “It was about Ireland but it was not for Ireland.” Not everybody agrees with this, and even Joyce said, before Dubliners came out, something to the effect of: “It’ll be good for Irish people to get a good long look in the mirror.” Something like that. But still – Waters makes an interesting point.
Ireland was the last place where Joyce’s genius was fully acknowledged.
Joyce called Ireland the place of “betrayers”. Yup.
Waters also says:
“The odd, and perhaps unique, aspect of the Bloomsday celebrations, ‘is that so many people have no idea what they’re celebrating. Apart from the academic aspect, which is very much marginalised now, the whole event has nothing whatsoever to do with the meaning of the work. It’s a typical Irish thing, where we can all pat ourselves on the back and say, ‘Yer man, Joyce, wasn’t he a great Irishman’ and that somehow absolves us from actually engaging with his work. It’s a shallow response born of our continuing inability to understand ourselves.”
Ah. I love it. I love literature that is taken so seriously that NOBODY can agree on the proper response. Yeah!
I suppose you could say I am on the side of the curmudgeons, and on the side of the party-poopers. I’m a Joycean snob, and proud of it.
Hi fellow snob ;)
I can kind of picture, though, Joyce taking an ironic pleasure in being lionized by people who did not understand him. For once it would be a case of Shem rather than Shaun receiving the love of the masses, even if for the wrong reasons.
Dearest: most Americans believe George Washington chopped down the cherry tree [probably one of those on the Mall], yet celebrate his bday. Let ’em have fun. Why get worked up about it. love, dad
“The Disneyfication of Ireland’s heritage.”
I LOVE it, not just in regards to Mr. Joyce, but the tendancy to slap a shamrock and phoney accent (flute accompaniment optional) on *anything* and then have the “Irishness” of it implied almost naturally.
*Cough* Puke.
(BTW, I’ve been wondering when you were going to take on Bloomsday!)
Hi Sheila’s dad,
I would assert that the two cases are somewhat different in that Washington was the father of his country whereas Joyce was a rebel and an exile. Washington belongs to the U.S. in a way that Joyce doesn’t belong to Ireland. The celebration has almost the flavor of Christians throwing a party to celebrate Nietzsche’s birthday.
Not that I would mind if Christians threw a party to celebrate Nietzsche’s birthday…
-Bryan
Dad – I will not take away their fun! I have no desire to do such a thing!
And yet … I find it fun to be a snob. On occasion. So it all balances out.
Emily – tomorrow and Wed will be an All-Joyce-all-Ulysses rockin’ time!
I have my bombardment of quotes ready. Heh!!
Blech.
I’m blocked. I’ve got nothing to say about Reagan that hasn’t been written 100 squillion times already in the last week, have no desire to jump on the “Wonkette is such a skank” bandwagon, and definitely do not have anything…
Joyce’s books were NOT banned in Ireland,
contrary to popular myth.
Blech.
I’m blocked. I’ve got nothing to say about Reagan that hasn’t been written 100 squillion times already in the last week, have no desire to jump on the “Wonkette is such a skank” bandwagon, and definitely do not have anything…