June 16 is Bloomsday, the date on which the events in James Joyce’s novel “Ulysses” are supposed to have taken place in 1904. Ordinarily, the day is marked by celebrations world-wide, as Joyceans get together to reenact, eat, play music, drink, and of course read.
Naturally, in the time of COVID, few sensible folk are willing to take the risk. To circumvent these unusual circumstances, the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia – which annually cordons off the 2000 block of Delancey Street to accommodate live readings and musical performances from Joyce’s magnum opus – will this year move its celebration online. The virtual edition of the immersive Bloomsday 2020 will be live-streamed today from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. EDT, at https://rosenbach.org/bloomsday/.
If I am allowed a few personal observations, it took me the better part of a year to wade through “Ulysses,” and I probably never would have made it without the Rosenbach’s help. I had twice tried to navigate the imposing text, my first attempt dating back to high school, but it was only thanks to a Rosenbach seminar, led by Joyce scholar Carol Loeb Shloss – a superb guide – that I was able to attain a greater understanding of the work and get myself safely to port. I still find Joyce to be infuriating, at times, though I have to admit my fury is now tempered with respect.
Incidentally, Joyce was a great music-lover, and quotations from opera and popular song infuse his prose in much the same way they do the works of Charles Ives.
Here are a couple of related songs:
Samuel Barber’s “Solitary Hotel,” on a text from “Ulysses”
Joyce’s own “Bid Adieu to Girlish Days”
