Happy Preemptive Bloomsday!
Bloomsday is right around the corner again -- this Saturday, in fact. I plan to observe the greatest literary crypto-holiday on the calendar as I do every year, by uttering, "Huh, it's Bloomsday" to myself sometime around mid-morning and leaving it at that.
I do try to point out the occasion to my friends and family as well, so that they too can mark the day as they see fit. Last year's mention only provoked a small amount of semi-serious back-and-forth about Ulysses' merits and the nature of copyright law -- no fun -- so this time I want to show off the mailing I made three years ago for the centennial Bloomsday. (Centennial because the action in Ulysses took place on June 16th, 1904.)
As it happened, Ronald Reagan had died around that time in June and the office put us on liberal leave in case we wanted to attend the funeral downtown. I decided I should use my optional holiday to finally put together a Bloomsday card or something that I could mail out, since I enjoy putting unnecessary stuff in the mail and have a soft spot for near-meaningless annual observances (see "Huh, it's Bloomsday" above).
While sketching out a couple of ideas I Googled my way to a couple of then-recent Mary Worth Sunday strips, which after a critical creative spark -- an epiphany, if you will, though I suspect you won't -- I decided would mash up nicely with the "Molly Bloom soliloquy" that ends Joyce's landmark novel. So that's what I did, using a little bit of MS Word, a lot of MS Paint, and the sort of weekday time expenditure only afforded by the death of a major political figure.
After finishing it I enthusiastically printed and mailed out several copies. Responses fell into exactly two categories:
1. "Um, that's neat... Did you make that yourself?"
2. Complete, possibly embarrassed, non-acknowledgment.
That's a sample of it right there. The whole is a little hard to read on a computer screen since I designed it to be borderline illegible when printed on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, but you should be able to download it in PDF or PNG format, at least one of which will hopefully work okay with your web browser or document viewer of choice.
So anyway, many happy returns, preemptively.
I do try to point out the occasion to my friends and family as well, so that they too can mark the day as they see fit. Last year's mention only provoked a small amount of semi-serious back-and-forth about Ulysses' merits and the nature of copyright law -- no fun -- so this time I want to show off the mailing I made three years ago for the centennial Bloomsday. (Centennial because the action in Ulysses took place on June 16th, 1904.)
As it happened, Ronald Reagan had died around that time in June and the office put us on liberal leave in case we wanted to attend the funeral downtown. I decided I should use my optional holiday to finally put together a Bloomsday card or something that I could mail out, since I enjoy putting unnecessary stuff in the mail and have a soft spot for near-meaningless annual observances (see "Huh, it's Bloomsday" above).
While sketching out a couple of ideas I Googled my way to a couple of then-recent Mary Worth Sunday strips, which after a critical creative spark -- an epiphany, if you will, though I suspect you won't -- I decided would mash up nicely with the "Molly Bloom soliloquy" that ends Joyce's landmark novel. So that's what I did, using a little bit of MS Word, a lot of MS Paint, and the sort of weekday time expenditure only afforded by the death of a major political figure.
After finishing it I enthusiastically printed and mailed out several copies. Responses fell into exactly two categories:
1. "Um, that's neat... Did you make that yourself?"
2. Complete, possibly embarrassed, non-acknowledgment.
That's a sample of it right there. The whole is a little hard to read on a computer screen since I designed it to be borderline illegible when printed on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, but you should be able to download it in PDF or PNG format, at least one of which will hopefully work okay with your web browser or document viewer of choice.So anyway, many happy returns, preemptively.
2 Comments:
Comment edited for content, May '08
mandy said...
You forgot my reaction, which was to say that it was one of the funniest things I've seen in a while. Of course that wasn't until July or August, when I found it on the floor of Jack's apartment....
Now that it's available in electronic form, I assume I can email it to all my friends?
And yes, I'm reading your blog. Good stuff. Even though none of you are sleeping with me anymore I'm still a fan of the Brothers B--------.
Comment edited for content, May '08.
Nate said...
I don't post anything that I'm not unreasonably proud of. So feel free to email away.
Also, it's always nice to see another friend de-lurk. I suppose it is worth clarifying for everyone: Sleeping with a B-------- is not a prerequisite for blog readership.
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