Happy Bloomsday!

"It soared, a bird, it held its flight, a swift pure cry, soar silver orb it leaped serene, speeding, sustained, to come, don't spin it out too long long breath he breath long life, soaring high, high resplendent, aflame, crowned, high in the effulgence symbolistic, high, of the ethereal bosom, high, of the high vast irradiation everywhere all soaring all around about the all, the endlessnessnessness..."

James Joyce
Ulysses
Episode 11, Sirens (naturally)

(This is a picture of Joyce in 1904 looking very Stephen Dedalus.)

I will admit that I'm a power geek and I took a semester-long James Joyce seminar in college and would have taken more, if able. (I also studied Spanish, in part, to read Marquez in his native language -- I have issues!)

Anyway, if you've read Ulysses, then you know today is Bloomsday. What, why and wherefore? All of the action in Ulysses occurs on June 16, 1904 as Leopold Bloom (protagonist,hero, and 20th C. Odysseus) travels around Dublin in Joyceian literary style that, in my opinion is at it's best in this book. (Okay -- confession-- I am unable to get past page 3 of Finnegan's Wake at this juncture, although, I don't know, that could mean that I get it...)

So strolling around Dublin the literary bastards traipse the roughewn streets for Treiste, but alas only scrounge up Erin and memory and they do bend the elbow in succession to lovely lonely Leopold Bloom and read passages from the Joyceian colossus opus in parks and shoreside and back to the pub for another round for it is June 16th.

(That was me, doing a bad imitation. Here comes a real quote.)

"What qualifying considerations allayed his perturbations?The difficulties of interpretation since the significance of any event followed its occurrence as variably as the acoustic report followed the electrical discharge and of counterestimating against an actual loss by failure to interpret the total sum of possible losses proceeding originally from a successful interpretation. " from Episode 17: Ithaca

You can find all of Ulysses online here, in case you're interested and/ or have issues too...or maybe you just feel like celebrating Bloomsday like they do in Dublin.

Dublin...