Friday, February 02, 2007

One of My Favorite Things about James Joyce...

is that today, Groundhog Day, is his birthday. I'm not sure why I love this so much. I also love that Ulysses was published on this date. So, the question is, if Joyce didn't see his shadow on Feb. 2nd, what would happen for six more weeks? I'm sure it would be something much more interesting than "winter."

3 comments:

Steve said...

You know what tickles me? Joyce was worried he would die before finishing Finnegans Wake, so he assigned James Stephens to finish it for him in the event, primarily because they had the same birthday to the year.

If he didn't see his shadow...six more weeks of Guinness! And if he did, six more weeks of Harp!

itinerarium said...

the label for posts that defy labels is, categorically speaking, almost as recursively self-consuming as the set of all sets. I enjoy, too, how the posts defy not labeling, but labels themselves - I imagine the posts making rude Italianate gestures at the labels, or leaning against walls with their shoes untied and their hair unkempt, smoking behind the bathrooms, telling the labels they're not the boss of them. You know, _those_ posts.

Kjerstin said...

When I read the headline, I wondered if you were making a parody of the results from this poll, which shows that people think they'll come off as more intelligent if they say they've read books like Ulysses, so they lie about it. On second thought, I guess you are in fact one of the few people who doesn't have to lie.

Anyway, it's nice to know that having read a lot of books is still generally considered to be a good thing.