I Read the News Today, Oh Boy!

Every time I see a photo of Scott Walker I think of Mad Magazine, and the image of Alfred E. Neuman: “What, Me Worry?” He reminds me of Neuman!! And then I think of the section, Spy vs. Spy. Heh, heh, heh!

The news is all bad. Why do I bother? Anna Wulf pins to her wall all of the news stories, trying desperately to maintain some sense of sanity, hoping that somehow if she can place the world on her wall in clear view she will gain control over the world. My response lately has been just the opposite: I click open the newspapers on the web but close them up again after looking at the headlines and the lead paragraphs. (And I always check the obits). And though the angst remains, the evidence disappears. And I am free to go on to other matters.
Reading Ulysses still. It is a maddening book—my dear friend terms it an act of aggression. I would not go so far. Reading Cyclops last evening it struck me that the whole universe is contained in this one text, and that one could study only it and never cease to learn about life and worlds. For example, Joyce allows literary style to comment on the actions of his characters, and reading the novel one either knows the styles or has the opportunity to learn them. And then those different styles comment in a highly original and insightful manner on the diurnal life of Dublin, but also the daily life of so many of us. Joyce got so much right about us: our lives and our world.

And there is so much pleasure in the reading. Such an intellectual challenge and so much reward from making sense of it.

Once many years ago I celebrated Bloom’s Day at an all day (yes, all 24 hours of it) reading of Ulysses at Symphony Space in New York City. It was a wonderful time. I must search for a way to appropriately celebrate 16 June this year.