Bloomsday Quotes Quiz: Which Lynch?

According to what I put in GoodReads records, it took me four months to read James Joyce’s Ulysses. Knowing me, I probably started it by reading a chapter or two long before and then let it sit for a few months before seriously picking it up, so it may have spanned closer to eight or ten months easy. In the interval, I was truly dizzied with the flashes of different writing styles, techniques, content, and dialogue.

Among the mélange of random diatribes or sections formatted like a play or some ancient wordy style, I came across this character of the student Lynch who reminded me, both individually and in his interactions with Stephen Dedalus, at times of a different Lynch: Ronan Lynch from The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater.

Besides both Lynches being Irish, there are definite similarities in manner and personality. In fact, so much of Lynch’s interaction with Stephen in Ulysses could have been Ronan with Gansey that I have always wanted to do a bit of a side-by-side comparison of their conversations, but I have yet to come upon the right way to demonstrate the parallel.

So for now I just put together a little 20 question quiz combining quotes from and about the two Lynches to see if people can tell which is which. Some of them will probably be pretty obvious, either because of language or context, but are still fun to imagine in reference to the other Lynch. Others I think will be a bit tricky, or at least have you second guessing your initial instinct.

Which Lynch?

Can you tell if the quote relates to Stephen Dedalus’ friend V. Lynch from Ulysses or Ronan Lynch from one of the four books of The Raven Cycle?

Even if you’ve never read one or the other of the works involved, give the quiz a try for fun and let me know which quotes intrigue you or make you wonder about the character and context.

How did you do? Were there any that surprised you? Let me know in the comments below!

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Happy Bloomsday!