Happy Bloomsday!

My copy: divided, yet to conquer.

Good morning, everyone! So, today is the day: it's Bloomsday, and one hundred and eight years ago almost to the hour, the events in Ulysses take place. Joyce fans celebrate it often by reading or re-reading it, so it won't be just a few of us settling down at 8 o' clock to tackle one of the greatest novels ever written. There'll be radio programmes, live readings, plays, and no doubt one or two drinking binges as well! 16th June is a fun day for fans of Joyce and literature! 

You'll remember, of course, I posted suggesting a few of us read some or all of Ulysses today, and I'm very happy to be joined by a few of you. If you like, perhaps if you post about what you're reading today you could leave me a comment and link to whatever you have written. I plan on updating this post, perhaps sharing a few quotes on my Tumblr, checking in on Twitter now and again, and updating on Goodreads. I don't have a plan on how often I'll update, but I'll try to be fairly frequent: every few hours or something. I do want to focus on Ulysses, but it would be nice to socialise a bit as well! My breakdown of the novel, that is, the outline of episodes etc, is here. I think that's all the preamble I need, so without further ado....

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Telemachus (almost) 7.29am: Cold, grey, misty day. I had a reasonably early night (midnight), and woke up half six (excited). Had my coffee, and eager to start! The first few episodes are short, and go back and forth a bit - we start at 8am, work to 11am, then fall back to 8am with Calypso, and then on again, so I'm aiming to get to Hades, the 6th episode, before I update again. Catch you all soon....

Hades (11am): It's just after 10am and I've finished Hades, so I'm a little ahead. I'm reading very slowly for me, so I think I should enjoy this moment! So far? At times, I'm excited because I feel I have a grasp on what I'm reading, other times I'm shaking my head at what I've just read, at a loss. I am enjoying it, and as a second read, I feel I know what I'm reading far more than I did six years ago, however I'm too conscious of getting lost so easily. It's a struggle. But yes, I'm enjoying it. Now, I'm going to get another cup of coffee and a croissant (Damn my Paris fads!), and start Aeolus, the seventh episode.

Scylla and Cherybdis (1pm) - 1pm here, and I've finished Scylla and Cherybdis, so only slightly ahead now. Given I'm making a Sunday dinner in a few hours, I need to focus (I did pause to play with Trotwood for ten mins). So, according to Goodreads I'm 30% through, which is cool. So far, Lestrygonians is one of my favourite parts, and if only I loved Shakespeare I would have enjoyed it even more! Hope everyone else is enjoying their Bloomsday, I'm going to try and get back a little more of my lead, update, and then make the biggest Sunday dinner known to man (Lestrygonians has that kind of effect!).

Nausicaa (8pm) - Twenty to four and I'm just over half way through! I had a bit of a lull, but my enthusiasm's kindled once more with the last episode I read, Nausicaa. About to share some quotes on Tumblr, really loved it. Don't remember it at all from my first read for some reason. After that, Big C should be home and I'm going to make our (exceptionally late) lunch, then return to start Oxen of the Sun.

Here's the passages I liked:

Should a girl tell? No, a thousand times no. That was their secret, only theirs, alone in the hiding twilight and there was none to know or tell save the little bat that flew so softly through the evening to and fro and little bats don’t tell.

and

The summer evening had begun to fold the world in its myseterious embrace. Far away in the west the sun was setting and the last glow of all too fleeting day lingered lovingly on the sea and strand, on the proud promontory of dear old Howth guarding as ever the waters of the bay, on the weedgrown rocks along Sandymout shore, and, last but not least, on the quiet church whence there streamed forth at times upon the stillness the voice of prayer to her who is in her pure radiance a beacon ever to the storm-tossed heart of man, Mary, star of the sea.

Circe (12am) - Half eight. Guys, I have no idea what I have just read. Circe is... Intense (and intensely confusing). I'm at an absolute loss, and I'm hoping, even if it's just for a while, things get marginally more readable. I'm all for losing myself, but that was just too much. So, I'm going to have a long, hot bath, in which I will read Eumaeus. I'm on Part III now, three quarters of the way through, read for over twelve hours with breaks (God, with breaks, I wonder that if I hadn't had breaks I'd be having a breakdown), and I am desperate for Molly Bloom's sililoquy, not because it's the last part, far from it actually, just really looking forward to it. Jillian has a YouTube clip on her blog, so do look.

Eumaeus (1am) - I'm no longer flagging, 'tis my second wind kicking in! That episode was tough, and confusing, but that I think was the point (I hope at least), not sure who was saying what. As I say, that might be reflective of the exhaustion of the characters, or my own tired-but-not-quite-exhausted-yet state. I'm happy I'm doing this, this was worthwhile, hard going as it has been. I've loved being a part of something like Bloomsday, even if I am quite obviously far from being Joyce's fan girl.

So, wrongly, I feel like I'm on the last leg. I'm not, though - I have two episodes, but I'm so looking forward to Penelope, Molly Bloom's sililoquy, that I feel that this is close to being over. And I've been thinking - after this update, I'm going to read Ithica, the seventeenth episode, then I'm going to have a break and aim to start Penelope no earlier than midnight, later if I can manage it. Dennis O'Donnell tweeted me before and put the idea in my head, saying try to finish Molly's sililoquy at 2am. I said I didn't think I'd still be awake, but I'm going to give it a shot. Reading Telemachus at 8am when it was set added something to the whole experience, and I wonder if I should have aimed to stick to the time scale all the way through (no regrets, though!). My brain's a little fuddled, so I can't quite be clear, so I'll just say - it did add something to the experience, it made what I was reading a lot more real. I'd like to repeat the experience for the last episode, so yes, I'll read Ithica then take a break, update, check in with the others, read some of the thousands of Bloomsday tweets etc.

Ithica (2am) - 11.30pm, penultimate episode, so penultimate update. 93% through, brain is mush. Worth it? Can I answer that before I finished? yes I can, and yes it was (I said). I've talked about connections numerous times: not just connections with text, with the characters and times, landscapes, circumstances, but connections with other readers, the thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions who have read x before we got to it. Today I've felt a connection in the shared purpose with the others who have given reading Ulysses in one day a shot, and those who are reading sections. We're all doing the same thing for the same reason, because it's Bloomsday so why the hell not. Yes, this is worth it. And time is going backwards, because I looked at my clock and it's 11:29 now. Huh. I don't think I can wait 'til 2am for Penelope, so I'm going to get ready for bed, faff on a bit, and start when I've finished faffing. half an hour or so, maybe. Ithica was marvellous, and here's the opening, which sums it all up:

Of what did the duumvirate deliberate during their itinerary?
Music, literature, Ireland, Dublin, Paris, friendship, woman, prostitution, diet, the influence of gaslight or the light of arc and glow-lamps on the growth of paraheliotropic trees, exposed corporation emergency dustbuckets, the Roman catholic church, ecclesiastical celibacy, the Irish nation, jesuit education, careers, the study of medicine, the past day, the maleficient influence of the presabbath, Stephen's collapse.

Penelope - 1am, yes I finished, yes. I read Ulysses on Bloomsday. And honestly, I'm so tired, I have nothing remotely insightful or intelligent to say, so I will bid you goodnight. It's been a pleasure, yes.