Bloomsday to Zoomsday: James Joyce celebration goes online
TODAY IS BLOOMSDAY!
This may not mean much to you but if you read the novel Ulysses you won't forget this date. It's a 700 page long narrative which pretends to be a modern take on the Odyssey, an epic tale by the Greek poet Homer, based on the hero Ulysses and his 12 "labours".
It's ironic of course, as Leopold Bloom , the protagonist is an anti-hero, an everyman. He is in love with Molly Bloom but he is in grief due to the death of their child.
This may not mean much to you but if you read the novel Ulysses you won't forget this date. It's a 700 page long narrative which pretends to be a modern take on the Odyssey, an epic tale by the Greek poet Homer, based on the hero Ulysses and his 12 "labours".
It's ironic of course, as Leopold Bloom , the protagonist is an anti-hero, an everyman. He is in love with Molly Bloom but he is in grief due to the death of their child.
He spends the day of June 16 (1904) wandering around Dublin: going to a funeral, checking in at the office, visiting the National Library, walking on the beach. He’s a deeply human and compassionate character.
Bloom has been educated at the university of life. He enjoys reading and thinking about science and inventions and explaining his knowledge to others. Bloom is compassionate and curious and loves music and the theatre.
Bloom, who is 38 years old in 1904, works selling advertising space for newspapers. He was brought up in Dublin by his Hungarian Jewish father, Rudolph, and his Irish Catholic mother, Ellen.
Bloom married Marion Tweedy (Molly Bloom), they had a son, Rudolph, but he died in infancy. In the eleven years since Rudy’s death, Leopold and Molly have not had sex together. They sleep in the same bed, but with Bloom’s feet by Molly’s head. He is having a flirtatious correspondence with Martha Clifford, and it is clear that he has been with some of the prostitutes in Dublin.
Bloom knows about Molly’s flirtation with Hugh ‘Blazes’ Boylan, and is fully aware that Boylan will be visiting Molly at four o’clock in the afternoon, and that they will have sex.
It is considered as one of the main modernist novels, truly groundbreaking in its use of stream of consciousness ( a narrative technique consisting of reflecting characters' thoughts as they occur in the mind, ie. not retold by a narrator)
Link to Article
It is considered as one of the main modernist novels, truly groundbreaking in its use of stream of consciousness ( a narrative technique consisting of reflecting characters' thoughts as they occur in the mind, ie. not retold by a narrator)
Link to Article
Why read Ulysses?
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