
A Twitter adaption of “Ulysses” reveals the secret of Bloomsday - samclemens
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/06/everyday-is-bloomsday/487313/?single_page=true
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klenwell
This part made me chuckle:

 _Twitter had published an application programming interface (API) for its
service. Using the API, I wrote some software to automate the posting, such
that everything would be timed correctly. I just had to push a button and
watch. We named the project “Twittering Rocks.”

It ran successfully in 2007, and thanks to the software, it would be easy to
run Twittering Rocks every Bloomsday. Which we did, in 2008, and 2009, and
2010. Then it broke completely and hasn’t worked since._

It broke, surprisingly, not because Twitter arbitrarily decided to screw
developers. It was because of the migration to OAuth, which, if memory serves,
just happened to coincide with the beginning of the period in which Twitter
decided 3rd-party devs were screwable.

The conclusion nonetheless is apt:

 _How many apps on your phone don’t work properly anymore? Software breaks all
the time.

But books don’t._

~~~
orly_bookz
They did that one time in Night Vale...

"Listeners, we are currently fielding numerous reports that books have stopped
working. It seems that all over Night Vale, books have simply ceased
functioning. The scientists are studying one of the broken books to see if
they can understand just what is going on here. The exact problem is currently
unclear, but some of the words being used include ‘sparks,’ ‘meat smell,’
‘biting,’ and ‘lethal gas.’ For your own safety, please do not attempt to open
a book until we have more information on the nature and cause of these
problems. The city council has released only a brief statement, indicating
that their stance on books has not changed, and that, as always, they believe
that books are dangerous and inadvisable, and should not be kept in private
homes."

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marcusgarvey
I am so glad to have come across this article; thank you. Since an aborted
attempt to read it -- with its hundreds of pages of stream-of-consciousness --
I have always wondered why this book was so praised.

~~~
Paul_S
What's your takeaway from it then - if you now think it's worth its praise why
is that?

~~~
marcusgarvey
There's a piece of writing advice I like: "Take pity on your reader." Stream
of consciousness style writing at such length is very painful to read. So I
never understood why an author would do it, but for some kind of self-
gratification that strikes me as pretentious. Now this article has explained
that Joyce had a goal that I often think about in relation to my often humdrum
life, elevating the ordinary. I have a bit more respect for this now. Perhaps
not enough to read the thing again, but still.

~~~
Paul_S
Thanks. How does stream of consciousness elevate the ordinary? Forgive me for
trying to drill down to the nub of the matter but without it the answer is
just pushing the bubble up the wall.

Since you didn't realise this on your own when reading it can I assume that it
didn't succeed in that respect?

~~~
edgarvaldes
Not OP, but I think books like Ulysses are more important for historical
reasons than intrinsic literary value. It's not a bad book (far from it) but
not a Top 100 Book [1] IMHO.

[1][http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100_2.shtml](http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100_2.shtml)

~~~
Paul_S
I happen to agree with you 100%. I read the book this year and found it
fascinating to see how easily relatable people 100 years ago were, especially
since the stream of consciousness gives a better insight into their thoughts
than a regular novel would. I did not however think it was a great book in
itself which is why I'm curious to know what makes it great in other people's
opinion (especially since I didn't find that article very supportive of it).
Most of the time it felt like the author was enjoying himself more when
writing it than I when reading it.

