Here's an interesting review of The
Departed which discusses the film's minor Joyce
connection.

An excerpt:


" Second, one of the key secondary characters
in the film, played by Mark Wahlberg, is named
Dignam. As befitting an ironic literary allusion,
Dignam, whose funeral is one of the central plot
points of Joyce’s Ulysses, turns out in The
Departed to essentially be the last man standing..
... Aside from the theme of losing one’s soul (or
the secular equivalent), the only connection
between “The Dead” and The Departed seems to be
that everyone is very Irish. Either Monahan wanted
to re-imagine Finnegans Wake as an American crime
epic, or he mistook James Joyce for James Ellroy."

"I cited the Book of Joshua because
of the grotesque thirst for blood of
our own Old Testament deity--far
uglier than anything in the Koran
(which is simply stream-of-
consciousness nonsense--Mohammed
should sue James Joyce for
plagiarism). 


A Quote from retired Army Lt.
Colonel Ralph Peters in a 911
Symposium that can be found
here, if one wanted to read such
a thing.

Finn's Hotel

Joyce considered "Finn's Hotel" as a
title for Finnegans Wake. Finn's was
the hotel where Nora worked as a
chambermaid when James Joyce first
made her acquaintance. Finn's Hotel
still stands in Dublin. (Photo here thanks
to The Modern Word)

A big day to day in legal history. It’s
the day that the case of United States
vs. One Book Entitled Ulysses by James
Joyce was found not to be obscene by the
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
(Judge Manton dissenting). For those of
you with Westlaw of Lexis access, here’s
the citation: 72 F.2d 705 (1934)

For those of you without, here’s
a bit more information and an excerpt:

But many passages show the trained hand
of an artist, who can at one moment
adapt to perfection the style of an
ancient chronicler,and at another become
a veritable personification of Thomas
Carlyle. In numerous places there are
found originality, beauty, and distinc-
tion. The book as a whole is not porno-
graphic, and,while in not a few spots it
is coarse, blasphemous, and obscene, it
does not, our opinion, tend to promote
lust.

There's an interesting article here
that addresses (AGAIN) the ongoing troubles
with Joyce copyright, particularly as involves
Stephen Joyce. Excerpt below:

In 1994, Stephen learned that Carol Shloss, an
English professor at Stanford, was working on a
biography of James Joyce's mentally ill daughter -
Stephen's aunt Lucia - who died in 1982. Shloss
was exploring the theory that there was a link
between Lucia's madness and the language of
Finnegans Wake - and was also probing possible
unsavoury explanations for Lucia's condition.

Th 20th International James Joyce Symposium
is being held in Hungary this year. In
honor of that event the Ujilpotvarosi
Klub Galeria is having a Joyce exhibit with the
translated title of "James Joyce - Tender Exhibition".
Isn't that lovely?

WHAT TO DO??

My second Bloomsday out of California is coming
up and I'm looking for suggestions as to how
to spend the big day. After ten years as music
director of the Chico Bloomsday, I ended up
going to Portland last year. One of my favorite
people in the world lives there and it ended up
being a good distraction. But this year...what
to do? Can't make it here.


Your input is welcome

Irish Copyright Act foils Stephen Joyce

The Republic of Ireland's Copyright Act was
(hastily) introduced when James Joyce's
grandson, Stephen Joyce, objected to the
Irish Government's intention to display 500
sheets of the famous author's written work -
which they had purchased in 2001 - in the
National Library's Ulysses exhibition, as
the Joyce family still held the copyright
to James's work and that would be in breach.
This 2004 Act now allows the Government to
exhibit James Joyce's work without legal problems.

Read the whole thing here.

The National Library of Ireland acquired
new Joyce papers this month. Among them, the
handwritten beginnings of what would become
Finnegans Wake. Read more here.

After a hiatus of a few months, I tried to post
last month in honor of Joyce's birthday.

I was prevented from doing so by technical
problems with my host server.

So a belated Joyce birthday greetings to
all. Nice to have access again

test

Birthday Alert



Joyce's birthday is coming up this Thursday
(Feb 2). Must think of something special to do
that day to celebrate ... Call in sick perhaps?
Input welcome.

Found this today:

"Joyce to the World - a celebration of
Bloomsday. A documentary celebrating
James Joyce's Ulysses, the greatest
novel of the 20th century that no one's
actually read. This DVD format will
play in all regions worldwide.

Please inquire about discounted pricing
for bookstores and classes, and
screening fees for larger events.
E-mail: screenings@joycetotheworld.com"

I thought the "no one's actually read"
a bit odd.

Did a very short bit of research on Joyce's
family tree, expecting someone had already
covered that topic.

I found surprisingly little. What I did
find is located here.

One new piece of information: The real first
name of Annie Healy, Nora's mother, is
Honoraria.

Joyce gets his first Vietnamese translation.
Read more about it here.

I remember a CSUC Professor speaking at
one of Chico's Bloomsday celebrations about
the difficulties China encountered when
translating Ulysses into Chinese. The "dirty"
words presented a special problem. And
apparently, the Chinese had issues with the
concept of orgasm. (at that time...)

Every once in a while I go to eBay and type in
James Joyce and see what comes up. I've gotten
some interesting items there, a few good books,
a poster from Poland from a Joycean play and
today, the NEW JAMES JOYCE fingerpuppet
fridge Magnet doll.

Off to Portland OR today. Missing my normal
Bloomsday activities but I send best wishes
to all Joyce fans who will be celebrating
today.

The one connection I'll have to Bloomsday
today is that I plan on seeing Irish fiddler
Kevin Burke this evening. Mr. Burke, on his
CD Up Close, does a flawless version of
Stack of Barley, the only tune mentioned
(that I know of) in Ulysses.

Spokane WA is now the closest big city to me.
Here's how they spend Bloomsday. Isn't
this very, very sad?!

I received this announcement via email. Sounds
like a lovely time. If anyone goes I'd love
to hear about it:

"Bloomsday 2005
AN EXTRA-ORDINARY DAY ........To celebrate
that special day known as Bloomsday, the Irish
Community Arts Project will present a reading
by invited literary figures at the graveside of
Lucia Anna Joyce who died in Northampton in
1982. The event will take place at 7pm in
Kingsthorpe Cemetery on Thursday 16th
June 2005.

Further details from Peter Mulligan
Project Co-ordinator, The Irish Community Arts
Project. Northampton Connolly Association
Northampton NN3 2BY / Tel. 01604-715793
e-mail: _pmcelt@aol.com_ (mailto:pmcelt@aol.com)"

I found an interesting discussion board
on the critical Joyce question:

What was Joyce's favorite apple?

The answer:

"James Joyce's favorite apple was
Calville Blanc"