Bloomsday is around the corner. As ever, we at the Wild Geese Players of Seattle are staging a reading from James Joyce's Ulysses, at the Elliott Bay Bookstore, 101 S. Main St, on Sat 14th June 2008 at 4:30pm.

In the Oxen of the Sun, Leopold Bloom visits the Holles Street Maternity Hospital and falls in with Stephen Dedalus and a crowd of drunken medical students, in a chapter that not only recapitulates the forty weeks of pregnancy, it also constitutes a tour through the development of the English language.

I play Stephen Dedalus, the second most important character of the book. In this chapter, it is neither a large nor a small role.

Behind the scenes, I was responsible for turning Joyce's text into a script suitable for a staged reading. A few months ago, I despaired of it. It was a daunting challenge technically, and we didn't have nearly enough readers. I'm happy to say that I found my way through the labyrinth of dramaturgy and a large crop of new goslings joined the Players for this year's reading.

Finally, let me repost a Google Ad that I saw beside one of our internal emails:

Natural Geese Repellent

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Title: Variable Star

Author: Robert A. Heinlein, Spider Robinson

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Publisher: Tor

Copyright: 2006

ISBN: 0765351684

Pages: 339

Keywords: science fiction

Reading period: 30 March-3 April, 2008

Joel Johnston is a budding young musician and the son of a Nobel-winning physicist, who gets engaged to Jinna, a fellow orphan, only to learn that she's the granddaughter of the richest man in the Solar System. Her grandfather, The Conrad, wants him to breed more heirs. In a fit of pique at the deception, Joel goes on a bender then hops on a colony ship to a distant star. Even at relativistic speeds, it's going to be a one-way trip.

Fifty years ago, Robert Heinlein wrote a short outline for this book, then put it aside. A few years ago, Heinlein's estate asked Spider Robinson to complete it.

Robinson has done a great job of writing another Heinlein novel, exploring one of his classic themes, a young man finding himself, and sounding very much like Heinlein himself.

Very enjoyable.

I found an interesting piece on the NPR website about the modern anti-abortion movement:

In the 1980s, in order to solidify their shift from divorce to abortion, the Religious Right constructed an abortion myth, one accepted by most Americans as true. Simply put, the abortion myth is this: Leaders of the Religious Right would have us believe that their movement began in direct response to the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Politically conservative evangelical leaders were so morally outraged by the ruling that they instantly shed their apolitical stupor in order to mobilize politically in defense of the sanctity of life. Most of these leaders did so reluctantly and at great personal sacrifice, risking the obloquy of their congregants and the contempt of liberals and "secular humanists," who were trying their best to ruin America. But these selfless, courageous leaders of the Religious Right, inspired by the opponents of slavery in the nineteenth century, trudged dutifully into battle in order to defend those innocent unborn children, newly endangered by the Supreme Court's misguided Roe decision.

It's a compelling story, no question about it. Except for one thing: It isn't true.

... 

Let's remember, [Paul Weyrich] said animatedly, that the Religious Right did not come together in response to the Roe decision. No, Weyrich insisted, what got us going as a political movement was the attempt on the part of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to rescind the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University because of its racially discriminatory policies.

... 

"What caused the movement to surface," Weyrich reiterated,"was the federal government's moves against Christian schools." The IRS threat against segregated schools, he said, "enraged the Christian community." That, not abortion, according to Weyrich, was what galvanized politically conservative evangelicals into the Religious Right and goaded them into action. "It was not the other things," he said.

Excerpted from Thy Kingdom Come, by Randall Balmer.

I'm indifferent to most fantasy books, but I've been a fan of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, since I read the first book, A Game of Thrones, in 1997. I read the second book A Clash of Kings, in 1999. The third book A Storm of Swords came out five years ago, and I've been awaiting the fourth book, A Feast for Crows, ever since. After several postponements, it's finally out.

It's an epic tale of love, war, and intrigue. Five Kings are fighting for control, by sword, by guile, and sometimes by magic. Strange creatures are rising in the frozen North, beyond the Wall. Dragons are reappearing in the South. The young Starks, separated by fate and a cruel author, strive in vain to reunite. The Lannisters, mad and bad, seek to dominate.

I'm re-reading the series and rediscovering how good it is. The characters are clearly drawn, the plotting first rate, the writing excellent.

George R.R. Martin is on a book tour of the U.S. and appears at the University of Washington Bookstore on Monday, November 21st, at 7pm.

The Wild Geese Players of Seattle strike again. This time, we're counterposing William Butler Yeats against Walt Whitman, the Dueling Poets. We're leading off the evening with some real dueling between fencers from the Academia della Spada.

Fri, Nov 18, 8pm
University of Washington Faculty Club

More details here.

On Saturday, I bought Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at CostCo. On leaving, the checker told me that I had bought the 887th copy at that store. This was 1pm, three hours after opening, so they were selling at the rate of five per minute.

I started reading it last night. After two chapters, when I had seen far too many references to earlier books that I didn't recall, I decided that it was time to re-read the earlier books. I'm a fast reader, but I don't retain material very well.

In the first chapter of the first book, I came across an ironically prophetic statement, made by Professor McGonagall as she and Professor Dumbledore are leaving Baby Moses, er, Harry on the Dursleys's doorstep:

He'll be famous -- a legend -- I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future -- there will be books written about Harry -- every child in our world will know his name!

This of course was written when J.K. Rowling was an unknown, when the thought of her being a millionaire, much less a billionaire, was unthinkable.

I've been a fan of both Bernard Cornwell and Patrick O'Brian for a number of years. Both are known for their historic fiction set in the Napoleonic Wars.

Cornwell has written 20 books about Richard Sharpe, a rough and ready British Army officer, up from the ranks. Cornwell excels at writing battle scenes, capturing the smells and sounds, the noise and confusion, the blood and the gore. Some of them were turned into a TV miniseries in the mid-1990s, with Sean Bean as Sharpe.

O'Brian wrote 20 novels about Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin of the Royal Navy. The Russell Crowe movie Master and Commander was based on a couple of the books.

I recently finished the latest Sharpe book, Sharpe's Escape. Near the end, there's an advertising section, which says

and The Economist proclaimed Bernard Cornwell, "The direct heir to Patrick O'Brian."

Nonsense! They're both fine writers, in their own ways, but O'Brian is a much better novelist than Cornwell.

The Sharpe books are fun, but formulaic. Sharpe makes an enemy, usually an officer on his own side or the other side; Sharpe is bloody-minded and stubborn; Sharpe fights battles; Sharpe gets laid; the enemy (usually) gets his comeuppance. Thomas of Hookton (The Grail Quest series) is just Sharpe with a longbow instead of a rifle. Cornwell is capable of more ambitious work, such as the Arthur books, but most of his writing is simple adventure fiction.

There's plenty of adventure in the Aubrey-Maturin novels too, but O'Brian is a much keener, more philosophical observer, who brings depth to his characters. Patrick O'Brian's naval mastery does a better job of elaborating on this than I can.

(Originally posted to Home at EraBlog on Wed, 11 Jun 2003 03:54:21 GMT)

I have recently become involved with the upcoming local celebration of Bloomsday, on June 16th. James Joyce's Ulysses takes place on June 16th, 1904. In Seattle and elsewhere, fans of the book re-enact portions of the book. In Dublin, Joyce has spawned a whole industry: ironic, when you consider how little recognition he received there during his lifetime. No doubt, the Joycean industry will go into overdrive next year for the centenary.

The Seattle group has been working its way through the book since 1998. This year, we are reading Chapters 8 and 9, "Lestrygonians" and "Scylla and Charybdis". I had been vaguely aware that readings were held every year, but I hadn't been to any of them. Two weeks ago, I saw on the Seattle Irish News mailing list that more readers were needed, so I decided to apply. I am reading Dennis Breen, Dixon, the barman in Burton's restaurant, and Tom Rochford in Chapter 8, and Mr. Best in Chapter 9. The reading will start at 8pm on June 16th, at the Brechemin Auditorium at the School of Music in the University of Washington.

Chapter 8, "Lestrygonians", describes Bloom's peregrination through the center of Dublin. He crosses the Liffey and heads south towards the National Library. Much of the chapter is Bloom's stream of consciousness, as he observes people and places along the way. He runs into a few acquaintances and ends up in Davy Byrne's pub to eat lunch.

Chapter 9, "Scylla and Charybdis", takes place in the National Library. Bloom is briefly observed in the background, but doesn't say anything. Stephen Dedalus, Joyce's young alter ego, is the subject of this chapter. He holds forth in a long discussion of Shakespeare and Hamlet. As usual, he's witty, erudite, and not a little insecure.

As a Dubliner, you might expect that I have an affinity for the book. I first attempted to read Ulysses in 1982, the centenary of Joyce's birth, when I was 17. I gave up after a few chapters, finding it heavy going and obscure. I've tried it again a few times since then, but have never got more than a couple of hundred pages in to the book.

I'm trying once again. This time it's going better. No doubt, because I have a motivation. But also, it makes more sense to me. I've learned two tricks. The first is that if a section doesn't make sense, don't give up. Keep going. It'll get more enjoyable. I don't think it all makes sense to anyone on a first reading. The second is that the sounds are very important. Joyce was a poet. Subvocalize the odder bits and the music will come through.

Someone once said that Ulysses is the most difficult of the entertaining books and the most entertaining of the difficult books.

I'm looking forward to the reading.