Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Happy Bloomsday!

I basically don't listen to radio anymore, but in the past (probably mid 90s) for a few years in a row I would listen to one of the public radio stations out of New York City do an extended reading (4+ hours) of Joyce's Ulysses on June 16.  Now if you poke around there are plenty of similar events, many of which can be listened to on demand (and not just on June 16).  This broadcast from Ireland is a reading of the entire book, though it doesn't appear you can actually skip around in the book, and the podcast cannot apparently be restarted to the beginning, so it isn't quite as enticing as it could be...  But maybe they'll replay it next year...

In any case, I've read Ulysses twice -- once for university (and I admit that it is much easier to understand the book if you have someone to guide you through it!) and then once for fun.  I'd like to think I'll read it a third time, but it certainly isn't at the top of my reading list.  Just a couple of years ago, I saw a staging of Stephen Dietz's Bloomsday, which is basically about an older man (a literature professor) retracing his steps as a young man visiting Dublin and taking a Bloomsday tour and meeting a young woman (the tour guide actually) and falling in love.  Time folds in on itself and the professor actually gives advice to his younger self.  And then at last year's Fringe, I saw a piece that featured four woman portraying different aspects of Molly Bloom, trading off amongst themselves as they read the closing monologue.  Yes! I said Yes!

Speaking of youthful experiences (and prejudices) imprinting themselves on the brain, I still remember that Ulysses: The Corrected Text (published in 1984) was still a bit of a shooting star in the academic world as I was entering university, though there were some whispers that this version (the Gabler edition) didn't quite live up to the billing.  I spent just a bit of time digging into this and decided that I would stick with the Random House/Vintage edition from 1961.  I was fortunate that the professor that was leading the seminar on Joyce allowed us to read either version.  And nothing since then has shaken my original decision.  As this blog argues, despite even more errors having been uncovered, the Gabler is still the version that Joyce scholars use, but the book generally preferred by readers is the Random House/Vintage edition.  And somewhat incredibly it appears that the Gabler edition is out of print, but is still the version that scholars use!

At any point, while it is definitely a bit of a mountain to scale, I would recommend tackling Ulysses at least once in your life.

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