Berlin: Germany was in no doubt what day it was yesterday after the Tageszeitung (TAZ) newspaper threw out its regular editorial content and devoted all of its June 16th edition to Bloomsday.
Rather than just commission another Joyce scholar to write another clever Ulysses essay, the editors decided to "do what Joyce demanded and participate in the work".
The newspaper asked journalists, all unfamiliar with Ulysses and Joyce, to select a chapter of the book and rewrite it as they pleased. The only pre-condition, the editors were quick to point out, was that they did not infringe the copyright. The journalists and editors spent the last three months working on their labour of love and their efforts appeared yesterday in a 24-page supplement entitled "All Ulysses", which even dispensed with the paper's regular red masthead in favour of the blue of the German edition of Joyce's work.
"We wanted to do something radical and unconventional, because it's a radical, unconventional book," said Mr Dirk Knipphals, culture editor of the TAZ.
The radical move did not go down well with readers however, with negative feedback outweighing positive feedback by two to one by yesterday evening.
"We reckoned that we would get into trouble, no news, 24 pages of text without a single picture, but you have to be able to do this once a year," said Mr Knipphals. Markus Waitschies, a disgruntled TAZ reader in a Berlin café said: "I am not unfamiliar with Ulysses, and the anniversary is worth marking, but to completely ignore politics and world affairs for a day is a bit much."
Each chapter in the TAZ makes for a startlingly different read - some set in Dublin of the past, others in Berlin of the present. The last chapter is as punctuation-free as in the original Ulysses.
The TAZ Ulysses edition was certainly the most unusual, but by no means the only commemoration of Bloomsday in Germany yesterday.
Literary houses around the country organised readings from the book, while the Actor's Cut theatre group put on a special Bloomsday performance in Tacheles, a ruin-turned-arts centre in central Berlin. The actors are all Ulysses fans and gather every month to read from the work. After three years they still have quite a way to go.
"I always thought Joyce was impenetrable, but the first time I heard it read was a revelation," said Ms Anna Zimmer, the director of yesterday's Bloomsday performance in Tacheles.
"We aren't putting on a traditional production, but an experience to make Ulysses accessible and alive for people."
The performance, based on the Bordello scene, brought together 15 actors as well as musicians and singers, and rehearsals lasted three weeks.
Asked if they sought permission from the Joyce Estate for he performance, Ms Zimmer gave a smile and said: "Why, it's just a little reading among friends."
