Bloomsday and What does Dreeping in the Rain Mean?
posted by DL Byron on June 16, 2004
Today is the 100th anniversary of Bloomsday, a day when all the action in James Joyce's classic work Ulysses takes place. There's a Bloomsday blog (of course) to follow and this morning a well-timed, Joyce-related email exchange.
"BTW, what the hell does ‘dreeping in the rain’ mean? I've been meaning to ask. Hell of a company slogan, using nonsense words."
– Rick BrunerThat was the tag line from the site when it was more personal, artsy, when we were producing net.art projects. Because the tag line is still cached on google and linked all over the place, I decided to keep it in the title when we redesigned the site and shifted the focus. I also added it to our Q/A:
"Dreeping is a Joycean word found in Chapter 18 of Ulysses and Book 3, Chapter 2 of Finnegan's Wake. It's a fusion of dripping and creeping and if you live in Seattle long enough, under gray skies, you'll feel the dreep."
Explaining our nonsense slogan, with a Joycean response is a perfect way to celebrate Bloomsday. And today, I'll note, it's not dreeping at all. Sunny and bright.
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Comments
Jun 21 | robroy said:
-b- talks of dreeping as being a physical state. I would like to suggest that it is also a state of mind. The light mist and grey skies tend to make ones mood dreep.
Jun 22 | -b- said:
And at times, in our brief summer, I often realize that I love living here. Then, soon enough, the dreep returns.