96 Brave & True Needed to Tweet ‘Ulysses’

Would James Joyce, the inventor of quirky new words (remember “quark”?) be elated or aghast at the explosion of his English language brought on by the online industrialization of our culture? Now I, as a government communications professional, use the absurdist “tweet” (both n. and v.) daily with a serious face and no thought of childish cartoons.

And so, I boldly put out the call for 96 tweeps to step forward and volunteer 15 minutes of their time on Thursday, 16 June 2011 (and a bit of he following day) to “twead” (God I hope I’m not spawning another tweep bastard here: tweet + read) Joyce’s Ulysses as best they can.

The concept is simple. Starting around dawn (Dublin time) of the upcoming Bloomsday, Tweep No. 1 uses all the imaginative powers he/she/they can muster to squeeze the essence of the first half dozen pages or so of Ulysses into the Twitter account @11ysses. Fifteen minutes later No. 1 ceases tweeting and Tweep No. 2 picks up the thread. This ineluctable flow continues for 24 hours until the early hours of 17 June and “yes I will Yes.”

Why 96? Again, simple: there are four 15-minute periods in each hour and 24 hours in a day, hence 24 x 4 = 96 tweaders. (Someone please check my math.)

TWEADER REQUIREMENTS: Resident of Planet Earth with the latest online tools at your fingertips, familiar with Twitter (if not in love with it), in love with Ulysses (if not a scholar of it), and sufficiently disciplined to arrive on time online at an assigned time.

Interested? Let’s twalk.