Before you start celebrating today, take a minute to consider James Joyce's intent with Ulysses:

Another way to read this novel is as a story about Dedalus searching for a father. Or as a story about Bloom searching for his home. But these readings, as with the one by the founder of the run Spokane, are in essence positive. Searching for the father, searching for home, finding mythic meaning in your ordinary life--not only are these the sorts of things you'd find in self-help books, they avoid the destructive and dark side of Ulysses, which happens not at the level of the story but at the level of words, sentences, syntax. It is here that Ulysses reveals what it is really about--a massive attack on an institution that oppressed the Irish for centuries: the English language.

That explains a lot, actually. It certainly explains Finnegans Wake--not as a practical joke, as some have contended, but as a sneering Fuck you to the English and their language.

In any case, tip back a pint of Guinness and re-Joyce. Happy Bloomsday.

Comments

[Christopher Gorton]

I think this could be spot on.

[Brandon]

I think so, too, though I'd never considered it this way.