The first Bloomsday was almost completely amortized. Patrick Kavanagh, Anthony Cronin, Brian O’Nolan (aka Flann O’Brien) and a few others read various episodes and got quite drunk and stumbled upon the place.
Well, it’s a much bigger event and feels like a huge Joyce Ann Cosplay Convention. Earlier this week, Dublin’s Sheridan cheese shop sold out Gorgonzola – the cheese Leopold Bloom chose on its famous June day. In today’s Sandy Mount Strand, the boater is crushed as people follow his path and rapsody on Swenny’s lemon soap.
People often criticized Bloomsday, where all its camps were dressed up and paraded, as a sneaky thing about Joyce’s work. But, as Senator David Norris pointed out, Ulysses Sometimes it’s a very vulgar novel.
Norris said Completely Dublin: “People say I made it vulgar. If you mean vulgar-ordinary people-and if you make it available to them. Keep it only for scholars. I don’t do it. “
I have never read, like most Irish Ulysses, But I always had a deep affection for Bloomsday. For costumes of all ages, it feels to me like a celebration of modern Ireland. There are more paddy days than paddy days themselves.
The day and the book are rooted in Dublin. Around the city, there are signs indicating that this is a side road cut down by Leopold and the pub he drank. It feels more Irish than seeing the endless marching band trampling O’Connell Street.
Moreover, I think it’s easier to spend a day celebrating cheese sandwiches and sex than a day celebrating a Welsh saint floating in Ireland on a rock. Sex and sandwiches are more fun in my book.
My familiarity with Bloomsday deepened when I met my partner across from Grogan’s pub late afternoon on June 16th, 10 years ago.
It was our first date, and we wandered around the city center, stopping at some pubs and then some more. I’m in a hurry when Bloomsday rolls because it’s impossible for Bloomsday to divorce from the excitement of the day. Every year, anniversaries and Bloomsdays become more important as memories overlap in a mess.
Now, not only on the day of my first date, but also in the afternoon heading to the pub for a very powerful G & T, or staying pizza because I was too tired to get pregnant and do anything else. The night I ate, or that day, he asked me to marry him.
Wise Words – Bloomsday is a wonderful day to celebrate your anniversary.
First of all, you never forget it. David Norris is at hand to remind you (very enthusiastically) that it’s approaching. And Bloomsday is essentially a unique and romantic day. There is so much passion and sensuality associated with it. Of course, that was the day Joyce and Nora had their first sexual encounter – a decisive moment in both of their lives.
I love the fact that they were two horny old goats who fancy each other’s absolute pants. Or, as Edna O’Brien described it more succinctly, they had a “fierce boiling desire.” The joy that they embraced each other’s sexuality may be most apparent in Molly’s loneliness, one of the episodes in the book I read.
Like many of Joyce’s novels, everything can be discussed up to n degrees. Some say Molly can be considered a groundbreaking feminist literary writer, while others claim she is a male fantasy and patriarchal creation.
For me, it’s definitely the former. Hearing a woman talk about her rampant sexual desires in such an erotic and delightful way, enjoying her body still feels revolutionary today. The episode of Penelope must have burned people’s heads when it was estimated that women had never thought about sex at the time.
For many of my generation, Molly’s words have taken a step further towards the 2018 Eighth Amendment referendum. Her last words, “Yes, I’m Yes, I’m Yes,” were written on her marching placard. It was a statement and also required women to take control of their bodies. And at such a historic moment, it became clear that Molly Bloom’s words were summoned and her voice was added to the cause.
That is the context in which the spirit behind Bloomsday appeals to me. This is a novel that is said to be almost impossible for us to read over and over again. Still, it somehow goes beyond fiction and seems to touch people who have never opened it.
I may finally start reading all 18 episodes.But after that, Joyce never reads completely Odyssey, The text that his own novel should be based on. Instead, he chose the summary version.
“What he wanted was contours, skeletons,” said David Norris. National Geographic this week. “And he hung his story on it, like a clothes-drying rack to hang his nicker.”
Bloomsday can be it for everyone – a clothes horse, a scaffolding where you can create your own unique and special day.
At the very least, eating sandwiches and strolling along the lovely coastline is a good way to spend a sunny June afternoon. At its best, it can turn out to be one of the most important dates in your life. It was for me.
