"The demand that I make of my reader is that he should devote his whole Life to reading my works." —James JoyceThis slideshow, accompanied by Toumani Diabaté on the solo kora, is Runes' tribute to James Joyce on the 105th anniversary of Bloomsday.
Observed annually on June 16th in Dublin and elsewhere, Bloomsday celebrates the life of the Irish writer and his novel Ulysses, whose events occurred over a single day and night in Dublin in 1904. The name derives from Leopold Bloom, the protagonist (some would say "antihero") of Ulysses. The same day in 1904 was also the occasion of Joyce's first romantic encounter with his future spouse, Nora Barnacle, on the beach near the village of Ringsend, outside Dublin.
"Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives." —James Joyce
The following excerpt, from Finnegans Wake, is recited by the master himself:
[Slideshow produced by M.J. O'Brien, 2009.]
