Bloomsday

In case you missed it, Saturday was Bloomsday, a celebration of one day in the life of Leopold Bloom. The day in question was 16th June 1904, the day depicted in the novel 'Ulysses' by James Joyce. By way of tribute BBC Radio 4 devoted the full day to broadcasting James Joyce related stuff including a five and a half hour adaptation of the novel.

Having attempted to read the book when I was in my late teens or early twenties, I wondered why. Personally I found it to be totally incomprehensible. I must confess that I came to the work of Joyce by a rather circuitous route. Somehow I had discovered the works of Dylan Thomas and I was particularly into his prose as opposed to his poetry (perhaps that is a theme for a future blog). One of his collections of short stories is entitled 'Portrait of The Artist as a Young Dog' which at that tender age I thought was a pretty cool title. I then learnt that Thomas had adapted that from 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man', a semi-autobiographical novel by James Joyce. That brought me to 'Ulysses', considered by some to be Joyce's greatest work.

The book takes the reader through one day in the life of Leopold Bloom doing unspectacular things like having kidneys for breakfast, wandering around Dublin, eating a sandwich and being tormented by the unfaithfulness of his wife Molly Bloom. I believe that it was considered revolutionary at the time because of the use of first person monologues. However, it was also banned in Britain for many years as it was considered obscene. The Director of Public Prosecutions at the time declared, 'Many passages are indecent and entirely unsuitable to bring to the attention of either sex'. Nevertheless, that has not stopped academics pouring over the novel seeking the enigmas and puzzles that Joyce claimed to have put into it. He also claimed that academics would spend centuries trying to find them!

The book clearly has many followers and even today Dublin thrives on fans who are intent on following the 'Ulysses' trail around the city. It is also cited in most polls as one of the greatest books of the 20th century. Personally I don't get it, I never got that far through the book but I gather that it ends with a sentence that runs to sixty two pages! See what I mean by incomprehensible?

Anyway if I should have whetted your appetite, the adaptation can be heard on BBC iPlayer.
Good luck.