Those of you lovely people who join us here at the Free For All, as well as you lovely people who have come into the Library recently will have heard about our Super Terrific Groundbreaking and Marvelous Marathon Reading of The Iliad. And we really want you to be involved! Come by the Library from 2-4pm today to meet with our sensational director, Liz, and try your hand at reading some of Homer’s immortal words.
In staging this marathon reading of The Iliad, we are joining the ranks of some pretty illustrious institutions and some pretty memorable events. You have all heard me blather on about the performance of The Iliad at the British Museum and Almeida Theater last summer, which inspired our own production. But there are a number of other, long-standing marathon readings that have become a sort of literary pilgrimage for many over the years. Today, I thought it might be fun to think about some of those other readings–perhaps they will give you a suggestion for your next bookish vacation. Perhaps they will inspire you to come down to The Library today to take part in our Iliad!
Moby Dick at the New Bedford Whaling Museum
For the past 20 years, people have gathered in increasing numbers at the New Bedford Whaling Museum to take part in a 25-hour marathon reading of Herman Melville’s transcendent classic. This year, in honor of the platinum anniversary, the Museum hosted Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the Sea (a book about the ship that inspired Melville to write his own work) to star as Ishmael. This event is enormous, with lectures, food, singing, and a beautifully inclusive atmosphere where all are truly welcome. Sections of Moby Dick are reading Japanese, Italian, Danish, Spanish, Hebrew, Russian, French, and even Braille (followed by the English), so that visitors from around the world can take part in this truly momentous event. You can watch the events from 2014 on the Museum’s Vimeo account, and be sure to check out all the fascinating programs going on around the reading, as well!
Ulysses in Dublin, Ireland…and around the world…
James Joyce’s classic novel of Leopold Bloom takes place over the course of a single day: June 16, 1904. As a result, the day has come to be known as “Bloomsday” amongst Joyce aficionados, and marathon readings take place around the globe in celebration of what many consider to be the greatest novel ever written. From New Orleans to Washington, D.C., from Hungary to Japan, there are any number of opportunities to get into the Bloomsday Festivities. But there is no Bloomsday like Bloomsday in Dublin. The first Bloomsday was celebrated in 1954, and just gets bigger (and better) every year. The celebration lasts for a week, and is as much as celebration of the city as of Joyce himself, with readers following Bloom’s footsteps around the city, reading from Ulysses (often in costume), and reveling in the moveable feast of a party. For those who aren’t able to make it in time for Bloomsday, you can still following Bloom’s trials, thanks to plaques and statues set around the city of Dublin, marking each significant locale in the novel.
Dante’s Divine Comedy in Florence…and around the world…
Though arguably the shortest of these marathons, clocking around 6 hours, the marathon readings of Dante’s Divine Comedy is fast becoming a world-wide sensation. The original production in Florence (Dante’s hometown) features readers in colored jerseys moving from the outskirts of the city (Hell) to the steps of the Duomo (Heaven). From Florence, Dante has spread around the world, with marathon readings taking place from Ireland to Illinois–where readings took place in more than fifteen languages.
…What is it about marathon readings? There are a number of people who are nearly spraining a muscle in the act of eye-rolling over the rise of these productions, calling them nothing more than a production of the social-media internet-savvy age: “The social experience that a marathon reading offers…is as close as anything in real life gets to hanging out online. You’re not sure who you’re with, but you’re all staring at the same thing” says the New Republic. In part, I think they’re right…these events are a product of an age where we are increasingly encouraged to use language in an effort not to communicate directly. But what they are missing is the way that stories can bring us together, and unite us, even in our own silence. We are a story-telling species, and there is a part of our brain that, no matter how much we might rely on texts, updates, headlines, and click-bait, cannot resist hearing a story being told–not by a computer, but by another human voice. There is something magical about watching a story unfold in person…not on a screen or a monitor…and feeling united with others–often total strangers–in a journey of the imagination.
Don’t believe me? Well, you’ll just have to turn out for our own production the The Iliad and see for yourself!