Happy Bloom’s Day, 16th June. It might be fun to be in Dublin today, drinking Guinness and eating oysters as that seems to be the tradition.
So all this is about the novel Ulysses written by James Joyce. I have only ever read the first part of this tome, similarly with ‘A portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.’ I have however read all of the short stories published as ‘The Dubliners,’ sometime back in college days.
Bloom’s Day is so called, and much revered by the Irish literati, because Joyce set the events of his huge book on one single day: 16th June 1904. The ‘Bloom’ in question is Leopold and his wife is Molly.
I have written before about the importance of background and context and how so often this is missing. I recently watched an excellent Arena programme about Joyce and Ulysses. I so wished I had seen it 50 years ago. All sorts of things suddenly had clarity. I’m not saying I will now read the whole book but I am very glad to have a greater understanding. Ulysses is the Roman version of the Greek name Odysseus and Joyce uses various parallels to the lengthy Ancient Greek myth of the Odyssey. However, in the Irish version, all the troubles and difficulties that Leopold Bloom experiences are condensed into one day.
Joyce pioneered the literary technique of stream of consciousness where the thoughts of the characters tumble out, seemingly without much structure or form. A little later Virginia Woolf became the most famous proponent of this style. I’m thinking particularly of ‘To the Lighthouse,’ and ‘ Mrs Dalloway.’
So, happy Bloom’s Day and if you have read Ulysses then you have my admiration.