Water cooler: Virtual changes don’t ruin the other Bloomsday

In Spokane, if you say the word “Bloomsday,” everyone immediately thinks – quite rightly – of the road race each May (September, this year), in which 50,000 people flood the streets of the city to run, jog and walk. However, in other parts of the world, from Dublin to New York or at any university English department, “Bloomsday” refers to something entirely different.

For many, Bloomsday is the annual celebration of James Joyce’s 1922 modernist novel “Ulysses.” Rather than work up an intense sweat on Doomsday hill, participants in the Bloomsday festivities traditionally dress up in period outfits and – with enunciated Irish r’s – read passages from Joyce’s novel.

Due to the novel coronavirus, this year’s festival is entirely online, and while the festivities have been ramping up over the past few days, the true holiday is upon us: June 16.

This year’s Bloomsday features an all-star cast of actors, artists and other Joyce fans who will be reading chapters of “Ulysses” on bloomsdayfestival.ie and the James Joyce Centre’s YouTube channel. Keep reading for further details on who and what are involved with today’s activities.

But what about this book is worth celebrating? Professor Charles Andrews of Whitworth University, who specializes in 20th century British and Irish literature, summarizes the novel:

“It’s this long novel, and notoriously difficult, that gets into extensive detail about two, maybe three main characters. You learn so much about them, but the whole book is set entirely on a single day: June 16, 1904. It has details about everything you could possibly imagine about what happened.”

The novel takes place in Dublin. In a normal year, Bloomsday celebrations can involve retracing the steps of the book’s characters through Dublin and a series of large street festivals. That isn’t feasible this year.

“It’s about a relatively peaceful moment in Dublin’s historical life, and yet there are all these little flashes of violence that are happening all throughout and as Joyce is writing. He is writing at the start of the first World War, and he’s writing through the time of the Easter Rising as there’s all kinds of incredible hostility in Dublin itself.

“The book is finished just after the formation of the Free State of Ireland, which is incredibly contentious and splits the island into the current north-south configuration. So it’s this book in which you feel like you’re in a regular day, and yet there is this underpinning of violence. … I find that to be so prescient and current.”

Something about the novel still captures the imaginations of people across the globe. Readers for this year’s festival include “Game of Thrones” actor Aidan Gillen, “Outlander” star Caitriona Balfe, National Book Award-winning author Colum McCann and many other notable actors, artists and others.

The festival’s film catalog includes “Lucia Joyce: Full Capacity,” available online, starring Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood from the “Harry Potter” movies). Filmmaker Tommy Creagh will be making available certain Joycean short films for the duration of Bloomsday, also available online with a series of other works.

A set of marathon readings, one broadcast over the radio and another over Zoom, hosted by Sweny’s Pharmacy in Dublin, will be underway through the end of Bloomsday.

There are many other artworks, from films and readings to theatrical renditions and visual pieces, available online at bloomsdayfestival.ie. This year brings many great opportunities to enjoy art from afar, and the Bloomsday festival organizers have assembled a diverse and wonderful collection.