4 ms·

Talking about his season being spring - I note JJ was born in February, is this some horoscope-adjacent belief?

MereInterest 4y ago
I'd see it more as a cultural reference to spring as the season of new growth and more frenetic activity. Where in the preceding winter, food would be stored and activity minimized, spring means a comparative abundance of food. (Tangent: I'd love to see whether the decreased use of seasonal metaphors is correlated with the prevalence of refrigeration. Spring is less culturally relevant now, with refrigeration reducing the fear of starving in the winter and increasing availability of seasonal produce.) For a humorous comparison, see "The Lusty Month of May", from the 1960 musical "Camelot". (Link to a good performance: https://youtube.com/watch?v=t--e0S5kelY https://youtube.com/watch?v=t--e0S5kelY ). It's basically an entire song about how great it is that spring is here, because spring is a wonderful time for sex.
- mgdlbp 4y ago
  You just sent me on one of the oddest paths to gathering research on something I've ever taken. :P The song reminded me of a much more recent one, Jonathan Coulton's "First of May", which I decided to look up the inspiration of. From https://wiki.jonathancoulton.com/First_of_May https://wiki.jonathancoulton.com/First_of_May: > * The chorus is a variation on an old folk/schoolyard rhyme, "Hooray, Hooray, the first of May! Outdoor fucking starts today!" In an April 10, 2007 blog post, JoCo credited John Hodgman with the idea for the song, and mentions that the modern dirty rhyme derives from an older, traditional dirty rhyme. Commenters Mike and Bry tracked the reference down to a poem in Another Almanac of Words at Play by Willard R. Espy. > * The poem which Espy cites, in turn, derives from ancient Pagan customs celebrating fertility on the eve of Beltane, the Celtic name for the month of May. So, there's the exact cultural reference? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltane Incidentally, May is also International Masturbation Month for entirely unrelated reasons.
rendall 4y ago
I think the judge was referring to artistic choices made in Ulysses; that JJ's choice of season was spring and choice of locale was "Celtic", just as "his setting", in Ulysses, was Dublin. "His season was spring" is a shorthand was of saying "his chosen season was spring".

I'd see it more as a cultural reference to spring as the season of new growth and more frenetic activity. Where in the preceding winter, food would be stored and activity minimized, spring means a comparative abundance of food. (Tangent: I'd love to see whether the decreased use of seasonal metaphors is correlated with the prevalence of refrigeration. Spring is less culturally relevant now, with refrigeration reducing the fear of starving in the winter and increasing availability of seasonal produce.) For a humorous comparison, see "The Lusty Month of May", from the 1960 musical "Camelot". (Link to a good performance: https://youtube.com/watch?v=t--e0S5kelY https://youtube.com/watch?v=t--e0S5kelY ). It's basically an entire song about how great it is that spring is here, because spring is a wonderful time for sex.

mgdlbp 4y ago
You just sent me on one of the oddest paths to gathering research on something I've ever taken. :P The song reminded me of a much more recent one, Jonathan Coulton's "First of May", which I decided to look up the inspiration of. From https://wiki.jonathancoulton.com/First_of_May https://wiki.jonathancoulton.com/First_of_May: > * The chorus is a variation on an old folk/schoolyard rhyme, "Hooray, Hooray, the first of May! Outdoor fucking starts today!" In an April 10, 2007 blog post, JoCo credited John Hodgman with the idea for the song, and mentions that the modern dirty rhyme derives from an older, traditional dirty rhyme. Commenters Mike and Bry tracked the reference down to a poem in Another Almanac of Words at Play by Willard R. Espy. > * The poem which Espy cites, in turn, derives from ancient Pagan customs celebrating fertility on the eve of Beltane, the Celtic name for the month of May. So, there's the exact cultural reference? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltane Incidentally, May is also International Masturbation Month for entirely unrelated reasons.

rendall 4y ago

I think the judge was referring to artistic choices made in Ulysses; that JJ's choice of season was spring and choice of locale was "Celtic", just as "his setting", in Ulysses, was Dublin. "His season was spring" is a shorthand was of saying "his chosen season was spring".