THE LIFTING OF the copyright on James Joyce’s seminal novel Ulysses next year could see celebrations of the book take off around the world.
Currently Stephen Joyce, the author’s grandson who lives in Paris, controls how the text is used reports the Irish Times. He’ll lose this control next year meaning that the restriction on readings only being allowed at the James Joyce Centre in Dublin will be lifted. He’s previously gone to great lengths to prevent unauthorised readings and studies.
Stephen Joyce is notoriously protective and litigious, but in 2009 he authorised the publication of a budget version of Ulysses, meaning that the royalties for the widely available version would come flooding in in advance of the copyright expiration in 2012.
Bloomsday celebrations are held annually on 16 June, and this year’s will be last to operate under the copyright restrictions. Already there is a ‘flash mob’ (lacking the element of surprise perhaps) planned for Dublin next year, which will see each of the 18 chapters of the book performed around the city.
This year will see a man from Baltimore attempting to celebrate Ulysees in a very 21st century manner…via the medium of Twitter. He’s put a call out for volunteers to help him “reimagine” the text with a day-long series of tweets. The Ulysses “tweading” has its own Twitter account and “Bloomsday bursts” will be tweeted from 8am on 16 June for 24 hours.