[Hamlet on the Web]

[with considerable dread i'm exploring the web resources for hamlet, in the hope of discovering a simple system for annotating ulysses' hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of allusions.
editions, annotations, paraphrases... i'd like a sort of GoogleMyShakespeare where the ulysses allusions-to are listed in ulysses order, interlinked with the hamlet allusions-from in hamlet order.
...so far things seem so primitive i'm encouraged to do a whole new hyperhamlet...]


hyperhamlet: I.i I.ii I.iii I.iv I.v II.i II.ii III.i IIII.ii III.iii III.iv IV.i IV.ii IV.iii IV.iv IV.v IV.vi IV.vii V.i V.ii




eNotes: one scene per page with paraphrase and hypernotes (lines not indexed)

1899 Furness Variorum: [archv]


ShakespeareOnline: one scene per page, with footnotes by linenumber (lines not indexed)



OpenSourceShakespeare: one scene per page, no notes, indexed lines


HamletWorks: 100s of notes per line?!?!?




misc:
quartos
documents

links



videos: [1920-14pts] [1921-2hr] [1955-italian 2pt] [p brook 2hr] [BLC 2013 2hr]

[mst3k-90min]

[Moore's law, due diligence, and literary pixels]

Only a few years ago, 'due diligence' in reading Ulysses or Finnegans Wake boiled down to reading the single volumes of Gifford's or McHugh's annotations, in parallel. To dig any further you needed a serious local library, or a serious investment in book-collecting. (Resumes could be readily padded by publishing emendations drawn from more obscure sources.)

But the progress of Moore's law has dramatically dated this approach. Vast numbers of pictures, videos, etexts, reference works and databases are now freely available via simple Google searches... contributed almost entirely by non-Joyceans! 'Due diligence' now requires exhausting all the obvious resources for a given query, which requires an evolving skill set, as new resources are added daily.

Fweet.org has made a heroic start, but is underfunded and badly needs to add links and genetic layering.

This blog has unexpectedly grown into the only game in town for Ulysses. Its preliminary 'new model' of due diligence includes 'literary pixels' like the signatures of real people from the 1901 census, YouTubes of songs, mp3s of readings and potential mispronunciations, links to mentioned ebooks, contemporary photos, local maps and which side of the street things are on, and of course Wikipedia articles.

[Greeting to new visitors, 16 Sept 2014]

This blog is an experiment using Google's free blogging tools to compile a new hypermedia edition of James Joyce's Ulysses using only free online resources, but aiming to link as many such resources as possible.

Unlike the parallel Finnegans Wake, this edition isn't trying to keep up a breakneck one-page-a-day schedule, but we expect to move a little faster than Frank Delaney's very leisurely page-a-month podcasts (which we'll continue to embed in our text). (He had a 3-year's headstart and is currently nearing the end of episode 5 (Lotus-eaters) as we're starting to work through episode 8 (Lestrygonians).)

The Blogger toolkit insists that all pages be arranged in reverse chronological order, with limited 'cheating' permitted, so if you want to start at the beginning (preliminaries, general themes, ch1 overview, page 3) the navigation is regrettably clumsy and takes getting used to.

The searchbox in the upper left is a quick way to find all pages with a particular searchpattern. Another navigation aid is via Blogger's tags, called 'Labels': Telemachus, Nestor, Proteus, Calypso, Lotus-eaters, Hades, Eolus, episodes, motifs, riddles, characters, Joyce, reference, editing, blogging

If instead you want to browse, you can try this 'special pages index' (mostly Finnegans-Wake stuff now) or the 'Blog Archive' in the upper right margin of each page. The page-pages have widely varying quantities of images, videos, links, maps and annotations. Four audiobook editions are also embedded at the bottom of each page, with time-indexes. (You can suggest additions or report broken links in the comments.)

Popular recent 'special' Ulysses pages have discussed a possible boardgame and/or VR game. And theme park.

If you want to help, there are some mostly-FW-related special projects suggested here.

(We'll assume that you know how to do your own one-click Google searches by highlighting phrases and right-clicking them, then selecting 'search' from the popup menu. This is a necessary basic skill.)

[Future pix]

I need a place to stash pix I come across that won't be useful until future episodes...


Amiens

Nighttown: pic

Ithaca: Sinbad


Chapelizod: pic

Leeson street gate: pic

Hole in the Wall: pic

Phoenix park races: pic

Strawberry Beds: pic



Jeyes fluids (FW)

[From photographs to historical VRs]

before photography
location data included
paintings and drawings
verbal descriptions (diaries, journalism, novels)
government data (tax records, building records)
maps


so any vr that tries to recreate any part
of the world before photography
will inevitably be mostly guesses
and semirandom algorithmic variations
on plausible basic rules


but with photography
unreliable depictions of places
were gradually supplemented
by much more detailed and trustworthy and convenient and numerous
captures of moments in spacetime

that enforce severe local constraints
on those algorithms
(especially building facades)

with 'tourist attractions' documented best at first
while building interiors (and backsides)
were rarely documented at all

so Ulysses is set in a time
of painfully finite photographic documentation


most Dublin streets remained unimaged
maybe even until StreetView

and the first step towards a Ulysses VR
must be cataloguing all known photos
and refining the algorithmic simplification
of known architectural styles
to plausibly fill in gaps

---

is there already a way to grow a simcity on a dublin streetmap (and then descend into a streetview for exploration)?

from simcity 3000 in the year 2000 i find a free 271k 'Real-City Terrain'

and from 2012 a 3.76Mb SimTropolis terrain ("requires SC4TerraFormer")

Zynga's CityVille is free but my googling for 'Dublin' is flooded with discussion of that company's real customer service center in that city

it would be nice if you could say 'grow a city on this empty dublin streetmap' and watch it gradually populate the streets with residential and business neighborhoods, as property values fluctuate...

[Ulysses on the Deep Web]

'Deep Web' is a melodramatic name for sites that aren't indexed by Google.  I'll use it more generally here to mean sites that deserve special attention when searching for Ulysses-related resources, especially images.

The Hathi Trust beats the pants off GoogleBooks or archive.org for breadth and usability.

The National Library has over 1000 historic pix on Flickr (searchable via a popup menu)

A Twitter account called PhotosOfDublin has posted 1000s of pix in the last year

Barger's "Internet Ulysses" (apparently once termed "a watershed in Web culture" by the Irish Times) is at archive.org (not searchable, I don't think)

Scarily detailed Irish census info for 1901 and 1911 is a little tricky to search (advanced search options include religion, and street)


EB11:
v1     A-Androp
v2     Andros-Austria
v3     AustriaL-Bise
v4     Bish-Calg
v5     Calh-Chatela
v6     Chatele-Constantine
v7     ConstantineP-Demid
v8     Demij-Edward
v9     Edwarde-EvangelicalA
v10     EvangelicalC-Francis
v11     Francisc-Gib
v12     Gic-Harmoni
v13     Harmony-Hur
v14     Hus-Itali
v15     Italy-Ky
v16     L-LordA
v17     LordC-Mec
v18     Med-Mum
v19     Mun-Odd
v20     Ode-Paym
v21     Payn-Polk
v22     Poll-Ree
v23     Ref-SainteB
v24     SainteC-Shut
v25     Shuv-Subl
v26     Subm-Tom
v27     Ton-Ves
v28     Vet-Z
v29     Index

[Proteus VR mockup]

(Stick your face up close and hit play)

[annotations]

I must acknowledge some envy for Eoghan Kidney's genius for PR, though I'm skeptical whether his project will do any tiny thing for Ulysses readership, but I found this image of his highly suggestive:

ANNOUNCING

Paddy Dignam's Wake

or Ulysses-Proteus and ZOMBIES

In an alternate universe, Paddy Dignam rises up from his funeral at 11:00am on Thursday June 16, 1904, and proceeds to infect all the mourners present as ZOMBIES, who lurch down to the beach where only Stephen Dedalus, armed with Haines' hunting rifle and his trusty ashplant, stands between civilisation and CHAOS.

Wave upon wave, sequential tides of zombie mourners, zombie schoolboys in uniform, zombie medical students, zombie Celtic revivalists, zombie prostitutes, zombie priests, and finally zombie-Dedalus-family-members led by their Boss, Zombie 'May' Dedalus herself, must be mown down ruthlessly: "Shoot them to bloody bits with a bang shotgun, bits man spattered walls all brass buttons. Bits all khrrrrklak in place clack back..."

Coming soon to an imagination near you...


 

[Ulysses: the board game... or text adventure?]

‏BobRBogle  16 July 2014 asks "So why doesn't someone: #Ulysses: the Board Game?"

[revised april 2015]


there's a million different ways to approach this, all sharing the common 'mechanic' of moving from place to place in 1904 Dublin.

many of these approaches can be created and hosted free at existing dedicated websites, if anyone is willing to invest the time.

at minimum you'll want 18 'places', one per episode. (but if you want to retrace characters' paths, you'll have to include hundreds of separate places.)  you'll need a text description of each place that's vague enough to allow anyone to visit it at any point in the game.

(writing these vague descriptions is a good exercise, and making them freely available will allow them to be refined by others, or ported to other game formats. as we add images, this database could gradually evolve towards a VR 1904-dublin wiki.)

Second Life could be very cool but would charge $100s/month rent as I understand it.

There are free Minecraft clones but it seems like a huge amount of work for a very blocky sim.

Do any SimCity-types allow real city street grids? Can you explore them in 'streetview' mode?

ideally we need a platform optimized to make worldbuilding simple, where you can draw streets and paste buildings with a few clicks. it should allow multiple builders with a wiki-like undo.

most of the buildings can be empty/featureless, but a few need detailed rooms. the 1909 map supplies streetwidths and detailed layout.

choose-your-path text adventures [eg] can force readers to follow the book as closely as the author likes, while adding some forward momentum for lazy readers.

fixed-map text adventures [eg] allow more exploration via NSEW-mapped exits, but consequently permit much less fixed plot and require much trickier implementation.

d&d-style or 2ndLife-style platforms might even allow online socializing as you explore...?

an oldfashioned monopoly-style boardgame with multiple players competing will require a pretty complete reinvention of the book, but again it's a usefully educational challenge to try to boil things down to an essence:

pieces:
SD: latinquarter hat? ashplant
LB: bowler hat, potato
MB: bed/cat
BB: boner?
BM: coin? key?
Mac: raincoat
Bella: bustier, highheel, whip, dildo?
SiD: pince-nez?
Citizen: biscuit tin/dog/eyeball

places: Tower, school, Eccles, Strand, Nighttown, pubs...

maybe each place comes with a table of possible adventures?

vehicles? postal letters? dogs and cats?

SD & LB build social credit in different ways
alcohol or not, food, orgasms
trading small favors (tobacco)

each pair has changing friendship level?

   SD LB MB BB BM
SD             -5
LB       +9 -9
MB    +4    +3
BB
BM +4   

meeting friends cheers you somewhat, making new friends, meeting strangers

where do we put Church/King/art/freedom/Paris/Martha/Gerty?
each character could be haunted by 'ghosts' they have to face?

SD: mother, church, art, sex, 'nets', BM, Cranly
LB: MB-BB, Rudy, outsiderism

a hexmap can clarify geographic relationships:

GoogleMap

(do SD and LB start at opposite ends and wend symmetrically toward each other?)

[Custom Google Maps for annotating literature]

It's been a bit of a struggle figuring out how to streamline and simplify the "Boston College Guide to Ulysses" on Google Maps. [They've done their own simplification at http://ulysses.bc.edu/ ] Dubliners

They put a ton of work into it, and then left it open for random edits.  It now has so many placemarks that Google automatically broke it into two pages, which to me defeats the purpose of giving an overview.  And I haven't found any way to change the order of the placemarks [hang on-- you can drag the icon in the sidebar!], so I've resigned myself to doing that kind of editing offline in a text editor with the KML files... which is vastly more difficult. [maybe unnecessary?]

GoogleMaps has been switching to a 'new' interface, that doesn't (yet?) allow KML import, so my learning experiments have had to take place entirely within the old interface, which is still available as an alternative (for now?). If you screw up the KML formatting at any point in your hand editing, you'll just get a blind error message when you import, so it'll be up to you to test-modify-repeat until you spot the problem.

But once you've mastered this 'import' command, it's pretty easy to start modifying very simple maps, one tiny step at a time, to learn the basics.

So my plan is to gradually build a map for each episode, getting the sequence right offline, and then when the order is right, edit it in the new interface to add graphic bells and whistles. (I may stoop to leaving extra blank/filler placemarks for future expansion???)

Most episodes show Bloom and/or Stephen following a path that can be precisely mapped as a line, with placemarks along the way for Dublin 'street furniture'. Boston College annotates these with useful "What's There Now" notes, too. (The annotations have html-editing available, but this seems very messy to modify by hand, so I plan to stay with plain text as long as possible.)

But as the characters walk, they also think of places they've been in the past, or have read about, and these can also be included in the sequence of placemarks... though this may prove too messy?

BC tries to use human-outline icons to map people's locations as well, which seems overambitious to me, cluttering the main map, but it could be done in separate maps, tracing important characters' paths through the book.

GoogleMaps' KML doesn't mind if imported files use the same 'style' for multiple placemarks, but it seems to immediately duplicate that style so they'll all have a different style number.

Calypso maybe needs separate 'layers' for the neighborhood, the city, the country, and the world. (I haven't found the 'zoom here' command in the new interface [best workaround: hit the "+" button 6ish times to zoom in first, and then select a placemark from the table to focus.)

[Linkrot in Blogger]

It's heartbreaking to go back over these pages and discover that some links are already broken (eg G&S at Google Books).

Maintaining FW links is comparatively trivial: almost everything's keyed to FW1 pagenumbers. In comparison, Ulysses links have to be handcrafted and so individually stained with the maintainer's blood.

The ways of Google are mysterious and terrifying-- presumably they post generous previews of in-print books until the publisher complains, or makes some new deal. So all we can do is cross our fingers that what's linkable today will still be linkable tomorrow.

I'm concerned that some of my mp3 links have suspicious ID numbers in their urls that hint they're volatile, and I may have to go back and redo them.

Archive.org is also a cross-your-fingers deal, I fear.

Youtube like GoogleBooks is vulnerable to copyright trolling.