I've always had a pretty great interest in the Bloomsbury Group, sparked by reading Virginia Woolf in high school and piqued through several literature courses in undergrad (most notably a phenomenal course on Mary Shelley, Virginia Woolf, and Sylvia Plath).
I had started to move more into Latin American magical realism (I'll give you three guesses which author has featured most prominently) in the last year. In an art history methodology course I prepared a critical bibliography on Roger Fry, and in studying his vast contributions to art history, criticism, and theory (and sneaking in some other works and checking out his painting), I fell back in love with the Bloomsbury spirit of boundless exploration and genuine intellectual curiosity.
This evening I went to the first meeting of a new book club devoted to the Bloomsbury Group. I think we were all similarly surprised to find other people so interested in these writers. Several of the members wrote their theses on Virginia Woolf, so we're starting by reading Mrs Dalloway, progressing through Woolf's works, and continuing with other authors from there.
I am, of course, ridiculously excited.
On a similar lit-nerd note, today was Bloomsday! I caught some of the live stream fromSymphony Space, for Fionnula Flanagan's final monologue (fantastic).
It was interesting that for the first time in decades, they separated the theater performance from the radio broadcast over fears of the FCC deeming Joyce profane. You can read more about it in this NY Times article.
Hmm. I think I should read Ulysses again.
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