June 16 Bloomsday, the annual celebration of that 1904 day featured in James Joyces novel Ulysses. The holiday is named after Leopold Bloom, the novels protagonist; the book follows his progress through an ordinary day in Dublin. Bloom buys kidneys at the butchers, serves his wife, Molly, breakfast in bed, reads the mail, and visits the outhouse. He attends a morning funeral, runs an errand at the drug store, and inadvertently gives a man a winning tip about a racehorse. He bumps into an old flame, stops off for a sandwich and a glass of wine, helps a blind man cross the road, and ducks into a museum to avoid his wifes lover. He gets into an argument at Barney Kiernans pub, ogles a young woman at the beach, and pays a hospital visit to a woman in the throes of a difficult childbirth. He spends the evening in a red-light district with young Stephen Dedalus, protagonist of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Bloom feels paternal toward the young Dedalus, and sees him home safely. Finally, in the wee hours of June 17, Leopold returns home to Molly, just as Odysseus returned to Penelope. (Writers Almanac) See also: O Oh Brother Where Art Thou, by the Coen Brothers!
Posted on: Mon, 16 Jun 2014 22:17:18 +0000
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