Joan Baum discusses, James Joyce's, 'Ulysses,' and its significance on its 100th anniversary

Joan Baum discusses the publishing centennial of one of the English speaking world’s most innovative, formidable and influential literary works - James Joyce’s Ulysses (Paris, 1922). The novel takes place on a date, now known as Bloomsday, June 16th, which Joyce picked as the day his protagonist, Leopold Bloom, wanders around Dublin for 18 hours. The date commemorates Joyce’s sexual relationship with Nora Barnacle, whom he met five days earlier in a pub in 1904 (they married in 1931). This also seems like a good time to celebrate the 1933 decision of The US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York City which affirmed a 2-1 trial court decision by Judge John M. Woolsey that Ulysses was not obscene and could enter this country legally. Brilliant but intimidating (or intimidating but brilliant?), does or should anyone try to read this tome anymore?