Bloomsday 2014 celebrations bring 'Ulysses' into the age of Twitter
One James Joyce fan is bringing Joyce鈥檚 novel 鈥淯lysses鈥� to the cell phone age.
June 16 is customarily celebrated by Joyce fans as 鈥淏loomsday,鈥� as the date is the day in which the novel 鈥淯lysses鈥� 鈥� centered on protagonist Leopold Bloom 鈥� is set. The celebration takes place internationally, with locales like Dublin (the birthplace of Joyce) and other more far-flung cities (like Washington, D.C.) marking the day with readings of 鈥淯lysses,鈥� period-appropriate costumes, the serving of traditional Irish cuisine, and more.
This year, Joyce fan Steve Cole from Maryland, is encouraging other fans to recreate a line from 鈥淯lysses,鈥� take a picture of the recreation, and tweet the photo with the hashtag #UlyssesPic. Cole鈥檚 example quoted the line 鈥淎stonishing the things people leave behind them in trains and cloak rooms. What do they be thinking about?鈥� with a photo of a copy of 鈥淯lysses鈥� lying on a bench.
鈥淯se the photographic muse to break the novel free of the confines of time (1904) and place (Dublin, Ireland) and show the tale anew,鈥� Cole wrote on the website LiberateUlysses. 鈥淏ring forth something you really like in聽Ulysses聽and be as daring, poetic, joyful and/or silly as you like to express it with photos. We encourage you to emphasize the human in your photos to match the profusion of humanity stuffed into the book."聽
According to , Cole also organized an effort to tweet out sections of 鈥淯lysses鈥� in 2011.
Cole鈥檚 effort has already gained some participants and contributors currently include the Twitter account for Ireland鈥檚 embassy in Berlin, which tweeted a picture of a live reading of 鈥淯lysses鈥� hosted by the German bookstore Curious Fox Books with the line 鈥淚reland I was born here.鈥�
Have you tweeted a #UlyssesPic? Share it with us on Twitter!
