Bloomsday

These days, nearly everybody is thinking about going somewhere exciting or interesting for their next holiday. What about you? Well, I can't even think about it. However, what I can do is to travel from the comfort of my sofa with the help of Leopold Bloom. Do you know who he is? Let me tell you. He is the main character in a famous literary work, James Joyce's masterpiece Ulysses.

You should know by now that today people in Ireland celebrate Bloomsday, a celebration which has been named after the main character in Ulysses, Leopold Bloom. The action takes places in Dublin, on June 16th, 1904 (It is said that James Joyce chose this date because he had his first date with Nora Barnacle, his later wife, on this day). 

James Joyce

 

It narrates a day in the life of this man, who stops at different places and makes us think about what life is and the things that can happen on a single day. Today people in Ireland even dress as Leopold Bloom and other characters in the book and they stroll along the places Leopold Bloom visits on June, 16th. They stop and read some passages from the novel. They visit the house where Leopold and his wife, Molly lived, the pub where he used to hoist some pints of beer, ... There are a lot of activities to commemorate this. You can check them on the official website.

Leopold and Molly's house

Unfortunately, Ulysses is not a book I would recommend you to read at this stage since it is a thick book, about one thousand pages, narrated using the so-called interior monologue. That means, that the author narrates the events as they happen in the mind of the main character, without stops and using a complex network of symbolic parallels taken from the mythology, history and literature. James Joyce even created a unique language, he invented words and puns. 

Despite being very difficult to follow, Ulysses is an outstanding worth-knowing story. So, if one day, you find it on top of a market stall in Dublin, on a shelf of a library or in a bookshop and you feel like spending some good hours reading it, don't hesitate to do it. You probably won't be deceived.

The Queen's speech

After this pause on the blog, let's have a look at the celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee.

As you have probably heard on the news, Queen Elizabeth was crowned in 1952 after her father had reigned for a really short period of time. It wasn't the first time a woman would reign but it is the first time that she does for so long. Queen Elizabeth II is the only queen most Britons have met. In spite of being on the spot, she is loved and criticized, worshipped and blamed for some of the faults made in the past, including when she did not know -or maybe did not want- to handle the situation after Princess Diana's death.

Nowadays, her public image has considerably improved and we can see her showing her feelings in public. She seems to be enjoying all these celebrations. She smiles, claps, shakes hands with her people, ... she even jokes (as you have heard before) and definitely she has proved herself to be that loving old Lady English people adore.

If you want to find out more about the celebrations this year, Queen Elizabeth's life and history, and other pieces of information, click on the official website link.

The history of England has been depicted in many good films. Some of the latest ones are these two:

The Queen (2006) where Hellen Mirren performs a magnificient role as Her Royal Majesty on her most difficult days ever after Princess Diana's death.And The King's Speech (2010) where Colin Firth displays all his talent to portray King George VI's effort to overcome his stammering with the help of a speech therapist.Both films are worth seeing!!!

And finally, listen to God Save the Queen, performed by Brian May (Queen) on top of the roof of Buckingham Palace in 2002, Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee.