Yes, Saturday is June 16, “Bloomsday,” the day on which the action of James Joyce’s Ulysses takes place. Also, yes, I’m using this opportunity to mention (again) that I read Ulysses while in college, carefully arranging my schedule to take the class that would force me to do so, knowing I would never read the book unless under threat of a grade. (Though I have no memory of writing a paper about the book—?? I guess my insights were that insightful….)
Anyway, if you would like to celebrate Bloomsday, head over to Politics and Prose on Saturday, where the first three chapters of the novel will be read aloud, starting at 10 AM. Details here. After the reading, the moveable feast continues on to an Irish bar at Dupont Circle.
And just because, yes, yes, it, yes, IS that amazing, here’s the conclusion of the book, Molly Bloom's famous soliloquy:
O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and the pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.
What the hell…here’s a link to the book itself (through Project Gutenberg) if you’re feeling motivated.
