Taking 'Ulysses' to Twitter

June 16 is coming up quickly, and you know what that means: It’s Bloomsday!

Yes, for all you Joyce-ian scholars, nerds, obsessors, freaks and weirdos out there, June 16 is a day to celebrate the relentless intellect of James Joyce and his inescapably epic opus, “Ulysses.” Famous for its length, stream-of-consciousness prose, and ability to stump the keenest of professors, “Ulysses” is the tale of one Leopold Bloom and his day-long adventures around the city of Dublin, Ireland set in 1904.

Traditionally, Bloomsday is celebrated in Dublin by the re-enacting of Bloom’s experiences, in which the Irish follow the footsteps of the protagonist around the city as designated by certain stones set in the sidewalks and cobblestone streets of the country’s capital. Really, this is just another excuse for Irish people to day-drink, but it carries quite a heavy significance for many who love the story and its mind-blowing narrative.

This year, those of us who are Joyce fans have another way to celebrate: on Twitter. There are several projects promoted on Twitter having to do with Joyce’s masterpiece, the first of which is titled “Ulysses Meets Twitter 2011” using @11ysses mention. The task is to choose one of the 18 episodes of the novel and compose a series of tweets that comprise the actions taken place in that section. Good luck with that. Joyce is known for his narrative twists and circular prose, which is no doubt less than Twitter-friendly.

Another project, called “Twittering Rocks,” named after the 10th chapter of “Ulysses” titled “Wandering Rocks,” is a venture of two friends to chronicle the happenings of said chapter involving the activities of 19 Dubliners. The two nutjobs have registered 54 of the novel’s key characters with Twitter accounts. One of the founders of the project, Ian Bogost, actually crafted a technology that will program tweets to be issued from the characters in their first-person perspectives throughout the day at appropriate points as dictated by the novel’s sequences.

Some stoic devotees of Joyce have found the use of social media to broadcast Joyce’s notoriously impossible-to-digest novel a mockery of the work bordering blasphemy. Yet others find it a progressive way to shift the narcissistic beginnings of social media toward an educational and cultural route. As a Joyce-lover and current reader of “Ulysses,” this reporter ensures all readers that, no matter the intention, these Twits certainly have a lot of time on their hands.

Juliana Kenny graduated from the University of Connecticut with a double degree in English and French. After managing a small company for two years, she joined TMC (News - Alert) as a Web Editor for TMCnet. Juliana currently focuses on the call center and CRM industries, but she also writes about cloud telephony and network gear including softswitches.

Edited by Tammy Wolf