Saturday Rave: Ulysses by James Joyce.

Today is Bloomsday. Or, as some in Ireland call it, Lá Bloom.

Against all appearances, Bloomsday is nothing to do with flowers, but commemorates the adventures of Leopold Bloom, the main hero of a book called Ulysses written by James Joyce.

It's quite a long book, and at times I must admit it seems even longer than it is because Joyce wasn't too bothered about making it plain what was going on, either in the plot or in the minds of the various characters.

Mind you, this is largely because the characters aren't too clear about what's going on in the plot or their own minds, either. But then, who is?

Ulysses is based on Homer's story of Odysseus's journey home from the Siege of Troy (Ulysses is another form of the name Odysseus). Now, Odysseus's journey took ten years and involved rather a lot of fighting, kings, gods and enchantments, so when I tell you that Ulysses the book takes place on one single day, June 16th 1904, and mostly follows the wanderings of a middle-aged advertising man about the city of Dublin, then you can see that the link between the two stories is fairly loose and limited.

Another obvious difference is that Homer's story is written in verse, and Ulysses, while it at times has a wild, chaotic and surging poetry, is definitely prose. 

And prosaic, too.

So, is it worth bothering to read it? 

Well, that's difficult to say. I loved and understood most of it, and have read some of it twice. A lot of people get bored and give up. 

Today, June 16th, some people will be showing their love and enthusiasm for the book by going to Dublin and taking part in reconstructions of scenes from the story, or by doing a themed pub crawl (though admittedly this may be only a sign of a love of acting and pub crawls).

I'd say the book's well worth a try, though it's probably most fun if you can read it in a Dublin accent.

Word To Use Today: bloom. This word has been around since the 1200s. It's related to the word blow, meaning to blossom, which comes from the Old English blōwan, and is related to the Latin flos, flower.

The date for the novel was chosen because that was the day of James Joyce's first date with Nora Barnacle, who later became his wife.