How to listen to Ulysses

1. Book a flight to Kolkata India, and from Kolkata to Istanbul, for at least four days each, between February and April. Rent a home-stay room on College Street in Kolkata, and in the Balat neighborhood of Istanbul.
2. Get wired over-the-ear headphones, a phone with a headphone jack and long battery life, and walking shoes.
3. Download The Odyssey audiobook, translated by Emily Wilson, read by Claire Danes. Length: 13 hours.
4. Download two different audiobook recordings of Ulysses by James Joyce. Length: 30 hours each.
5. Download a course about Ulysses. Length: 12 hours.
6. On the way to Kolkata, listen to the Odyssey, start to finish.
7. Learn about Kolkata’s Bengali identity, languages, its colonial past as the capital of British India, the Writers’ Building, the Victoria Memorial, Boi Para, and reputation as the literary capital of India.
8. In Kolkata, walk around the city, listening to one recording of Ulysses for ten hours per day, three days in a row, start to finish.
9. Record (write or voice memo) all of your questions and observations. When done, ask everything to an expert or top-tier AI. Save the answers to re-read later.
10. Spend a day on your transfer from Kolkata to Istanbul, via Mumbai or Dubai, listening to the course about Ulysses.
11. Learn about Istanbul’s mixed identities and languages, its juxtaposition of the sacred and commercial.
12. In Istanbul, walk around the vastly different neighborhoods, taking a ferry across the Bosphorus, listening to the other recording of Ulysses for ten hours per day, three days in a row, start to finish. Notice the similarities between its call to prayer and Dublin’s church bells.
13. Record all of your questions and observations. Again, when done, ask everything to an expert or top-tier AI. Re-read the previous answers now, too.
14. Back home, post pictures, videos, thoughts, and the GPS map of where you walked while listening.

(I haven’t done any of this yet, but hope to.)