![\"Bloomsday](\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/-aygmsmCE05GPjque3BHm0-CSan6ue6xKss8wMe4eHjgyWNCV5ZRHiRukUnjQOBEayhDAcMImM-4vKugL-wg2nBaA2AEQM0LXzjKHIG0GE9u7yk6uL6NtDuvMDWVaUuKB7Oc_9N8\")
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June 16th can mean only one thing for literary lovers around the world: Bloomsday. This marks the date that James Joyce\u2019s most enigmatic and provocative novel, Ulysses<\/em>, is set. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On this day, academics and professionals mingle and exchange esoteric quips alongside other non-academic fans. This mixture of expertise and fanboyism makes for an anomalous literary gathering. New York City fans usually pull out all the stops: 20th century period-themed festivities and readings from the indelible internal monologue of Molly Bloom as she has an orgasm. As a result of the pandemic, Bloomsday will look quite different this June. However, Ulysses<\/em> lovers can not and will not let this literary holiday and its beloved traditions slip through the cracks this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n James Joyce was an Irish, modernist writer who pioneered ground-breaking writing styles and was known for his genius, complexity, and provocative content. It\u2019s ironic Joyce is celebrated on Bloomsday though he infamously disliked the idea of being memorialized. In addition to Ulysses<\/em>, he published a multitude of works. His most famous include: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Dubliners, <\/em>and Finnegans Wake. <\/em>From a young age, Joyce showed remarkable intelligence alongside a gift for writing and passion for literature. He spent his free time devouring Aquinas, Dante, and Aristotle, and grew up to speak 17 languages including Arabic, Greek, and Sanskrit. Yet, that\u2019s just the tip of the iceberg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1922, his landmark novel Ulysses<\/em> was published. This has been dubbed as one of the most revered texts in the modern literary canon. This modern retelling of Homer\u2019s Odyssey, <\/em>follows the story of three main characters: struggling artist Stephen Dedalus, Jewish advertisement man Leopold Bloom, and his wife Molly Bloom. The story recounts a single day in Dublin set on June 16, 1904, the same day that Joyce and his wife Nora Barnacle had their first date. The three main characters serve as modern versions of Telemachus, Penelope, and Odysseus. The novel is also structured into \u201cepisodes\u201d that correspond with particular events in The Odyssey.<\/em> This work of fiction pegged Joyce as a literary celebrity because of his advanced use of interior monologue and perfected stream-of-consciousness literary technique. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While his prose contributes to the fame of the novel, its notorious controversy helps as well. Ulysses <\/em>was met with approbation by Joyce\u2019s modernist associates such as T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway and Ezra Pound. Simultaneously, it was slapped with anti-obscenity laws, and ridiculed by The United Kingdom and America. Ulysses <\/em>was banned in the U.S. and considered contraband for over a decade until the famous obscenity court case United States v. One Book Called Ulysses <\/em>in 1933 lifted the ban. <\/p>\n\n\n\n