Wednesday, June 16, 2004

Happy 100th Bloomsday! I first read Ulysses in high school.  In fact, this was the only time I read it straight through from start to finish, although I've read most sections of it several times (except for the birth section, as I don't like the literary conceit employed in that chapter one bit).  There's been a lot of commentary about the book in the press over the past week, which can be generally divided into two camps: 1.  It's good!  Read it! 2.  It's bad!  Don't waste your time reading it! Well, I fall firmly into camp number one.  This column by Michael Dirda probably best expresses my view (only much more eloquently, of course).  He touches on the qualities of the book that critics always tend to overlook, so eager they seem to define its place in literary history, etc.  Ulysses is funny, moving, and beautiful, and literally everything happens within its pages.  Yes, there is an absolute wealth of subtext, puns, allusion, etc., but I think that's for later.  Read it once, skip the parts you don't like at first, and don't worry about what it all means, or what you might be missing  If you decide to go back later and sort through all the rest, that's fine too, and absolute fun as well (although of a different sort).  Stuart Gilbert's James Joyce's Ulysses is a great guide for that endeavor.  But reading it, that first time, like you would any old novel will really open up the beauty of the language, and the overwhelming humanity of the book's themes.  All right, readers.  I'm off to quaff a Guinness or two in honor of Mr Leopold Bloom.  Good night! 5:32:18 PM