Welcome to another Hypertext Chapbook – the place where we scour the web for all things Ulyssean. This week we have a song, a bicycle ride, a Papal blessing, a lecture, a letter and some dusty old manuscripts. Accept these meagre diversions while we all eagerly await reports of our glorious leader’s performance at the San Diego Comic Convention panel on Comics After Paper. If you can’t wait or didn’t know (?) here’s a preview by panel host Doug Wolk. Obviously the panel itself has already happened but as the SDCC is a notoriously draining experience we may have to wait until Rob is fully recovered to hear what was said. In the meantime read all the good stuff after the break …
A feature article in the Guardian reports of the origins of the song Sweet Molly Malone (Dublin’s unofficial anthem apparently). The article doesn’t bother to explain what link if any, other than the co-incidence of the name Molly, there is with our heroine. Readers might want to clarify for the benefit of this newbie. As always my searching leads me to more questions than answers.
Here are two links to rather long articles that I’ve no time to read myself right now. Skim reading the content means I’ll certainly give them my full attention later on this week. I’m partial to the music of the Dubliners and I saw the Pogues once a long time ago. How they both relate to the text of Ulysses will be interesting I’m sure. The blog posts are to be found on I just read about that… in two parts the first here and the second here.
It seems there’s never a shortage of strange, context-busting mentions of Ulysses scattered about the web every month. An article on Yahoo Sports News charting the progress of riders in the Tour De France notes “Stage 13 prediction: An undulating stage ends in Revel where there has never been sprint finish in the Tour – primarily because of a punchy climb towards the end, the Col de Saint Ferreol. The climb is named after a 6th century bishop who makes an appearance in Episode 12 of James Joyce’s Ulysses.” Is that just wanton naming dropping or what?
The Financial Times book section remarks on a book by John Cornwell entitled Newman’s Unquiet Grave and cites the subject as influence on James Joyce. Newman is perhaps due to be beatified later this year during the visit of the Pope. Joyce has already been beatified by you dear reader.
Short, sweet and obvious is this paragraph begging to be an article and it’s included here only because of the pirate blood coursing through my veins. I’m assuming Joyce had a medical complaint rather than being a stylist, but I could be pleasantly surprised!
Another article from the Guardian lectures on the art of slow reading vs skimming and bluffing. The link to Ulysses is obvious in that a slow reading is all I can manage. It’s taken me six months to get from page 286 to page 287 and you don’t get much slower than that!
I’ll include this link to James Joyce / Harry Crosby – a work in progress. I have no idea what significance it might have or how interesting or irrelevant it may be. But it is a mention of Joyce and that’s what I’m here for. It’s up to you to make sense of it it – and maybe report back for our collective benefit!
If you want to follow another reader attempting both Ulysses and The Odyssey then George’s Memorabilia might be the place to check back on over the next few weeks. Best of luck George!
I’ll end with this little diversion from Letters with Character – Letters written to fictional characters from actual people. Most amusing. Join me again next week when someone somewhere will undoubtedly be mentioning Ulysses and the great man himself James Joyce – it’ll be interesting!!!
