The deadline for abstracts for the 2004 International
James Joyce Symposium has been extended to Dec
31st, 2003. Go here for more information.

The Oregonian recently wrote a review or a
new book by J.M. Coetzee about Elisabeth Costello
who I have mentioned before in this blog.

"Elizabeth Costello is an elderly Australian author,
sort of a one-hit-wonder famous for her fourth
novel starring Molly Bloom, a character plucked from
James Joyce's "Ulysses." Despite her age, she still
has somewhat of a following; she continues to win
awards and garner invitations to speak. "Elizabeth
Costello" is structured in eight "lessons" - each
chapter organized around a formal address, each
an examination of what happens to this writer when
she must venture out into the world."

I haven't been able to locate Costello's book anywhere.
Anyone out there know of it?

The Christian Science Monitor had a story
yesterday on the difficulties with creating a
democracy in Iraq. The story quotes Ms. Siham
Hittab "who teaches James Joyce at Baghdad
University" !

".... developing the skills to make democracy
work will take time. She compares the process
to working with students on Joyce's famously
impenetrable texts. 'We need time. This is a new
life, and every day we're learning something new.
Frankly, it's easier teaching "Portrait of the Artist"
than getting everyone to understand what we're
doing.'

This past Bloomsday our local men's choir
(The Celtic Knights of the Sea Mens Choir)
sang Toot Toot Tootsie, written by Gus Kahn
in 1922. Toot, toot tootsie has only a quick
reference in FW - a mere stutter, but what
a great song to perform. Here are the lyrics
as they were originally written:

Toot-toot-tootsie goodbye
Little Momma, don't cry
That choo-choo train that takes me
Away from you
Ah woman, no words can make me
Kiss her for me, tootsie, and then
I wished you’d do it again,

Watch for the mail
I ain’t gonna fail
If you don't get a letter
Then you'll know I'm in jail
Tootsie, tootsie goodbye
Honey, Momma, don't cry
Take it, son!
I’m singin’, tootsie, tootsie, goodbye
Honey, please don’t cry
That old choo-choo train that takes me
Away from you, no words can ever make me
Kiss me, tootsie, and then
I wish you’d do it over again

Watch for the mail
Killer won’t gonna fail
If you don't get a letter
Then you'll know I'm in jail
Tootsie, tootsie goodbye
Honey, Baby, don't cry
You better watch for the mail
Jerry Lee won’t fail
Tootsie, tootsie goodbye
Good-lookin’ woman, don't cry
Play your accordion, killer!

About five years ago, we had an interesting
professor from China speak at our local
Bloomsday event. His name was Ay Ping
(pardon my spelling) and he talked about the
difficulties that arose when Ulysses was
translated into Chinese. There were a few
words that the Chinese just didn't have a
translation for; one of these was the word
come - as in to have an orgasm.

Since then I've wondered how the Chinese
discuss things like coming. If anyone knows,
send me an email.

Off to my second week of working 40 hours a week.
All part of my make-enough-money-to-go-to-
Bloomsday100-in-Dublin campaign. In case you
missed my post of a few weeks ago, I have been
asked to present at the conference (Yippee!) .
So I'll be making my posts in the evening from now
on, California time. Wish me luck and perseverence.

Reading up a little on Lucia. I've been wondering
about her dancing career and what to make of
the descriptions I've read most of which make her
sound like a unique dancer, but no one comes
right out and calls her good or bad. There's "vigne
sauvage" (wild vine) and "prétesse primitive"
(primitive something) so I imagine she was creative
and uninhibited. Hope to find out more when I
purchase the new book on Lucia (see sidebar).

I wonder which is worse: having a mentally ill child
or having a drug-abusing child, which makes him
act like he's mentally ill...

Here's a great site for learning more about Lucia
with a biographical timeline.

British Public Shuns James Joyce

The British public recently voted on the greatest works
ever written and apparently, James Joyce isn't up to
snuff.

According to the London Telegraph, "The list of favourite
titles includes works by Charles Dickens, George Orwell
and Charlotte and Emily Bronte, as well as contemporary
authors such as J. K. Rowling and Philip Pullman. Among
those omitted are literary greats including Thomas Hardy
and James Joyce, and foreign novelists such as Gustave
Flaubert and Victor Hugo, whose masterpieces were also
eligible for the list, having been translated into English."

You can read more about it here.

Davy Byrne's Irish Writing Award, was recently
announced. The competition is for is for stories
of up to 5,000 words and is being is being run
in association with the James Joyce Centre and
The Irish Times newspaper.Total prize money on
offer is €25,000, of which €20,000 will go to the
first prize winner.

"‘Davy Byrnes has always been proud of its
association with the most famous Irish novel of
the 20th century. The Davy Byrnes Irish Writing
Award is, for the centenary of Bloomsday, our way
of encouraging new Irish writing,’ said Redmond
Doran of Davy Byrnes."

Yanks need not apply.

You can find more information here.

James Joyce began attending Clongowes
at an extremely young age. It would be
unthinkable these days to send a child off
to boarding school at six years of age, or
as a young Joyce put it on his first day of
school when asked his age “half past six”.

He got advice from both parents upon leaving.
From his mother : Stay away from the rough
boys. From his father: Never peach (tattle) on
another boy. As the youngest boy at the school,
James Joyce was allowed to live in the infirmary
instead of the dormitory so that the nurse,
Nanny Galvin, could look after him.

There must have been a few months of crying
for his mother at night, but his adjustment
period was apparently over within the first six
months.

Happy Birthday Oscar!!

Here’s an excerpt from Ellman’s Joyce
bio regarding OW, pg 283:

“Joyce had been interested in Wilde for a
long time....”. He saw in Wilde “something
of what he was coming to regard as his
own personality, the miserable man who
sings of joy.”

Other related facts:

Joyce wrote an article about Wilde for the
Piccolo della Sera on March 24, 1909.

Joyce read The Portrait of Dorian Gray (in
Italian) in 1906 and complained that Wilde
had veiled the homosexual aspects of the
book.

In 1918, Joyce started a theatre troupe with
Claud Sykes. They chose The Importance of
Being Earnest for their first play. (The play
featured notorious prig Henry Carr who
caused a fuss after the play’s run was over).
At the intermission of a performance when
Joyce was being publicly congratulated,
followed by audience applause, Joyce yelled,
“Hurrah for Ireland! Poor Wilde was Irish and
so am I!”

I'm trying to dig up information on Joyce and Wilde.
I know Joyce was influenced by Wilde but I want details.
Joyce was in his teens when Oscar Wilde was sentenced
to two years hard labor; how could he not be influenced
by him. So I'm off to find out more and will present what
I find out in tomorrow's post (tomorrow is the anniver-
sary of Oscar Wilde's birth).

For now here's a Wilde quote which I'm sure Joyce
appreciated:

"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral
book. Books are well written or badly written. That
is all".

The cover for the first edition of Ulysses was
printed in blue and white, something Joyce
insisted on. The color is a blue with a slight
greenish tinge and white lettering to suggest
both the ocean and the colors of the Greek
flag. I haven’t seen an actual copy, just a
copy of a copy in a rare books catalog.

Bloom’s Soliloquy

So everyone knows about Molly’s soliloquy.
Especially the ending when she remembers an
important afternoon on Howth Head with Bloom.
That’s as it should be. Not as many people know
that Bloom also has strong memories of that day,
found on page 144 of Ulysses and excerpted
below. I remember being so pleased when I first
read this part of Ulysses, that the afternoon on
Howth would have impacted Bloom as strongly
as it did Molly (maybe more).

“.......Ravished over her I lay, full lips full open,
kissed her mouth. Yum. Softly she gave me in
my mouth the seedcake warm and chewed.
Mawkish pulp her mouth had mumbled
sweetsour of her spittle. Joy: I ate it: joy. Young
life, her lips that gave me pouting. Soft warm
sticky gumjelly lips. Flowers her eyes were, take
me, willing eyes.....Screened under ferns she
laughed warmfolded......Wildly I lay on her,
kissed her: eyes, her lips, her stretched neck
beating, woman’s breasts full in her blouse of
nun’s veiling, fat nipples upright. Hot I tongued
her......She kissed me. I was kissed. All yielding
she tossed my hair. Kisses, she kissed me.”

I'm in a pissy-ass mood. Almost quit my job
this morning. I hate working. I hate that I have
to keep this job to make rent and pay for a car
and damn food for my family and dogs. I have no
time for writing and when I do get a little time, I'm
so overwhelmed by all the things I need to do that
I sometimes just sit and do nothing, not even think.
I haven't published anything for months and haven't
worked on my book for weeks. Disgusting

But I can't quit right now. Bloomsday100 registration
is due next month. (Does one have to pay for registra-
tion if they are presenting? Probably yes) And after I
come up with the money for registration I have to save
for going to the conference in June. I figure 1000 for
air fare and 1000 to get me through the 7-10
days there. So far I have saved zip.zero.zello.

But enough about my bad mood. Here's a Joyce tidbit
for you, put together last night when I was in a much
better mood:

Naxos has taken on the Herculean task of
producing an audio recording of the entire
text of Ulysses. Read about it here or check
out the excerpt below:

"...But help is at hand for those afflicted with
guilt at not ploughing through to the ecstatic
end of Molly Bloom's 65-page soliloquy. If they
cannot get round to reading the book they can
now have someone read it to them. Bargain record
label Naxos has recorded Ulysses on 23 CDs, which
will be issued next year in time for the 100th
anniversary of the original "Bloomsday", June 16,
1904. Listening to the set will take about as long
as Leopold Bloom's day."

Christian Crumlish has a well thought
out article on blogging for non-profits
which might be of interest to some of
you. I work at two non-profits: one radio
station and one social service agency,
both of which could benefit from a blog.
Arts organizations should climb on board
the blogging train too. I'd love it if there
was a blog for Bloomsday 100.

Fireland held a sexiest sentence alive
contest and welcomed submissions. They put
together an interesting formula to judge the
sentences that was proven wrong by the
unsexiness of the winning sentence. One
person entered this Joyce sentence from
the Dead:

"His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow
falling faintly through the universe and faintly
falling, like the descent of their last end, upon
all the living and the dead."

A famous sentence, a beautiful sentence, but
sexy? The possibilities in Ulysses are many,
but even sticking to Dubliners one can find
sexier sentences than the Dead entry.

How about this from Araby:

" I had never spoken to her, except for
a few casual words. and yet her name
was like a summons to all my foolish
blood."

Larry Kirwin of Black 47 has a lovely
song on his solo album Kilroy Was Here.
It's called "Molly" and you can download it
here .

Kirwin is a huge Joyce fan and an all
around good guy. But I wish he'd never
visited Joyce's grave.

He details the experience on Black 47's
latest cd Trouble in the Land:

"I met a girl at the Kon Tiki
She was doin' the Mexican rumba
When I told her what was on my mind
She said 'no big deal, here's my number'
So I sat up on the bar of her bike
As she peddled to the cemetery
We drank Schnapps on James Joyce's grave
The next thing I know, the place is goin' insane
Three weeks later they threw me outta jail
But I got laid on James Joyce's grave
I can still feel the bruises
Lord have mercy on me"

Election day in my state and I find my
thoughts turning to becoming an expatriat.
But where to go? Trieste?
Paris ? Zurich? Would James Joyce have
chosen different cities if he had left
Dublin in 2004 instead of 1904? I never
realized what a risky step it was for him to
leave until I considered it myself today. I
don't see how I can leave. No money. But
he had no money and he left
anyway. Brave man.

James Joyce’s Favorite Comic Strip

Well, I suppose if Joyce were to be fond of
a comic strip Krazy kat would be the one he
would be drawn to. Krazy Kat ran from 1913
to the mid 40s. It is viewed as one
of the more poetic and inventive comic strips
ever to be written and featured a tragic love
triangle: Krazy Kat adores the mean spirited
Ignatz Mouse and Offissa Pupp loves Krazy
Kat. Krazy Kat was also admired by Picasso,
Hemingway and Kerouac.

Here’s a sample of the strip from 1922.