Arts: Literary Arts Calendar: Bloom's Day is on its way, June 16, says James Joyce

NewYorkTimes (June5,2k11)

I've celebrated many Bloomsdays here in Toronto.  I recall some still today, recall the joyous del+t of the English language in the hands of a master, if whacky, wordsmith summa cum laude.  And we drank a lot, in the Irish pubs around town that were putting on the dog that year.

-- Owlb

May 25, 2011, 12:53 PM

Joyce Meets Twitter: Boiling Down ‘Ulysses’

By JULIE BLOOM

“Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.” Seventeen characters left to complete a tweet. It just might work. What would James Joyce think of Twitter? More important, what would his handle be? It’s impossible not to imagine the inherent fun the great English-language experimentalist would find in translating his voluminous ideas onto the 140-character template, or at least the irresistible challenge.

On June 16, Bloomsday for those not in the know, lovers of Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom (no relation) and Molly will have the opportunity to dip into the mind of Joyce and try to tweet his thoughts. Ulysses Meets Twitter 2011, a project created by one “Stephen from Baltimore,” invites devotees of the approximately 265,000-word work to recast the novel through tweets from start to finish within the 24-hour period that the novel’s odyssey through Dublin (on June 16, 1904) takes place.

“Would it be horrific? Beatific? Hence this experiment,” Stephen asks. We’ll find out, but for now the call is out for a global-volunteer army to tweet “Ulysses” on the @11ysses account. All volunteers need to do is choose a section, or several, from the 18 episodes, structured loosely on Homer’s epic, “then thoughtfully, soulfully, fancifully compose a series of 4-6 tweets to represent that section.” You have until May 30. More information is available at 11ysses.wordpress.com. Circe is taken.