WANNA PLAY A GAME?

Ahead of Bloomsday, I thought it would be fun to create a jigsaw of James Joyce.

Taking a Stanley knife and a cheap €2 blank jigsaw board from Flying Tiger, I printed a black and white picture of Joyce and tried to mark out the shape of the jigsaw pieces over the photo.

I love Flying Tiger's products, especially their stationary goods and probably spend far too much on their stuff, which has included a bag marked, Stuff Me With Your Stuff which I use as a toiletries bag.

I wasn't sure if my jigsaw would work out as well as it did, as you are meant to draw a picture onto the blank cardboard pieces and not glue a picture onto it.

In the words of the scary character Jigsaw from the Saw horror movies, "Wanna play a game?" but Joyce has been playing with people for over a hundred years with references that have kept people guessing about what he meant for a century.

Joyce knew people would be puzzled by his writing and while a, "Good puzzle would be cross Dublin without passing a pub" Joyce boasted that he "put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that's the only way of insuring one's immortality."

Next week in Luxembourg, I'll try introduce some people to James Joyce and Ulysses at the European People's Festival, so let the games begin, and hope we don't puzzle too many.

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UNESCO City of Literature