June 13, 2004

Bloomsday

The hundredth anniversary of Bloomsday is coming up so I thought I should try to read Ulysses before it happens--also so I can understand what Weatherson is always on about. Actually finishing the book by then may be too much for me, but I can try. At least this time I've made it farther than I usually do (each previous attempt, I've blown up around "ineluctable modality of the visible," which may be from St. Augustine).

Insights so far:

Recognizable no-wavish rock lyric allusions in Chapter 1: 2. (Scraping Foetus off the Wheel, "Water Torture," quotes "The snotgreen sea, the scrotumtightening sea; Sonic Youth, "Secret Girl," quotes "I am the boy who can enjoy invisibility"). Recognizable n-wrla's in Chapters 2-7; 0.

My copy of Uri Caine's The Sidewalks of New York lists "Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?" as from 1909, but apparently that's the American version, so it's OK for Bloom to hum it in 1904. (What would I do for useless information if not for the Interweb?)

Posted by Matt Weiner at June 13, 2004 01:25 PM
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