THE ULYSSES CHALLENGE 

Published in Sydney on the centenary of Bloomsday June 16th 2004. Clara Mason's abbreviated version of “Ulysses” was inspired by the public readings of "Ulysses" in Sydney from 1988. ”The Ulysses Challenge” follows James Joyce’s words and language on each of the 933 pages of ‘Ulysses’. All 18 EPISODES June 16th 1904 Dublin.   

a daring and uninhibited paraphrasing that meshes with the original

James Joyce's Ulysses has been a challenge and a fascination for readers since its publication in 1922. The Modern Library listed “Ulysses” as the greatest book of the 20th century.

This short version of “Ulysses” will help all the people who love Bloomsday, own three copies of “Ulysses” and have read none. It will encourage the uninitiated to get in on the act and not give up after the first four episodes.

Ulysses Challenge is a daring and uninhibited paraphrasing that meshes with the original and unlike a conventional guide is a complete entity in itself. An Irish turn of phrase gives colour and energy to the language and a deadpan disclosure of the parody makes much of the writing very funny.

Joyce liberates us from conventional morality to a richer and more creative humanity.

James Joyce was determined to access all of the dimensions of the human condition and the original book was confiscated and burned as obscene. “Ulysses Challenge” does not sanitize the language and the radical thoughts in the book are presented with a clarity that accesses the paradigm shift in values.

“Ulysses Challenge” helps readers stay on track within the immense patterns woven by Joyce and to take their own unique journey into abstraction as memory.

Copyright © Clara Mason James Joyce Press 2004 Sydney

Image above: Brett Whiteley (Australia 1939-1992) Screen as bathroom window 1976 oil on canvas 203.0 x 187.0cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra