Thursday, June 16, 2011

Happy Bloomsday, Everyone.

UlyssesIt's been a good, long while since I've posted a word here at The Literate Man.  My thanks to Aaron for picking up the slack.  The break wasn't intentional, but evolved out of (1) my misguided First Reading Challenge: The Aubrey/Maturin Series by Patrick O'Brian (I'm currently on book 13 of 21 and can read nothing else), and (2) final edits to on my own novel, The Last Will and Testament of Lemuel Higgins, which is in the final stages of editing and design prior to publication.

But I couldn't let Bloomsday pass without recycling TLM's reviews of Ulysses from late last year.  There were two: one relating reflections at the halfway point and one presenting a final review.  June 16, 1904, was the date that Joyce chose for Ulysses' protagonist, Leopold Bloom, to go rambling about Dublin and provide us with some of the most colorful scenes in all of English literature.  It also happens to be the day that James Joyce had his first date with his eventual wife, Nora Barnacle.  In any case, the date is celebrated worldwide (and particularly in Dublin) as Bloomsday in honor and recognition of Joyce's epic work and enduring genius. 

So raise a pint to Ulysses, number seven on TLM's Top Eight Novels for Men, and to James Joyce, one of the most honored (and divisive) authors in literary history.      

2 comments:

  1. Congrats on the novel & in the spirit of the post

    Nightpiece

    Gaunt in gloom
    The pale stars their torches,
    Enshrouded wave.
    Ghostfires from heaven's far verges faint illume,
    Arches on soaring arches,
    Night's sindark nave.

    Seraphim,
    The lost hosts awaken
    To service till
    In moonless gloom each lapses muted, dim,
    Raised when she has and shaken
    Her thurible.

    And long ans loud,
    To night's nave upsoaring,
    A starknell tolls
    As the bleak incense surges, cloud on cloud,
    Voidward from the adoring
    Waste of souls.
    .......

    A glass raised gentlemen.Parrish.

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  2. Thanks, Parrish. My hope is that, now that the novel is more or less out the door, I can begin to post more regularly. Thanks for posting Nightpiece - what a wonderful piece. I've been making my way slowly through JoyceChoyce - were you the one that recommended it to me? Be well.

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