Last Chance to Save James Joyce

Regular drinkers in the Temple Bar will be so over-familiar with a mural on the interior of the Unthank Road wall that they will scarcely give it a second glance. New visitors to the pub often ask me "Why have you got a picture of Adolf Hitler on the wall?"

Give 'em no choice, Joyce

As should be obvious, this is clearly a painting of James Joyce - writer of such modernist classics as Ulysses and Finnegans Wake - (I suppose giving him a brown shirt doesn't really help.)

This portrait of the author as a middle-aged man has inspired people to ask the bartender a lot of questions. "Who is he?" must have even overtaken "But what will happen to all the ashtrays?" by now as the most asked question in the pub. A question that often leads to a conversation about the literary merits and inherent limitations of Twentieth Century modernism. (Unless there are chefs in - chefs hate talking about modernist literature and always try to steer the conversation round to quantum physics and black holes). 

But the boss has just ordered that the mural be painted over with blackboard paint so that upcoming sports events can be advertised. Now I'm not saying we should save the whole mural. The weird Thomas the tank-engine faced pint of Guinness can go, along with the bridge and the claddagh ring and the map of Dublin. Joyce needs to stay and it is your last chance to save him.

The Bigger Picture

In my first experiment in clicktivism, I have started a petition at change.org that I would like you all to sign if you would like to see the master of Twentieth Century modernism keep his place in the Temple Bar, Norwich.