You're a big James Joyce buff. Is running for president more like Ulysses or Finnegans Wake?
Definitely more like Ulysses than it is like Portrait. Finnegans Wake is dream speak. Ulysses is consciousness meeting reality. But here's why I think Ulysses is extremely relevant. People believe Ulysses is this complex, difficult, inscrutable text full of references. And it is a difficult text, but its subject matter couldn't be more democratic. It's about a guy going about his day for one day. That's the plot of Ulysses. And, to me, that's what makes it very touching. You're in this guy's head, and you're kind of seeing life through his eyes, and at the end through his wife's eyes.
I'm so sick of these candidates pandering to the basest cultural instincts of American voters. You think we're too stupid to understand truly intellectual literary references? Enough. As a candidate for president myself, I want to end this brain-shaming, for I am not afraid to talk up to my fellow citizens. When Esquire chooses to interview me:
If one must compare a presidential campaign to civilization's finest written works, I suggest it is more Behind the Bell by Dustin Diamond than Snooki's A Shore Thing. Snooki's description of a co-star farting is an apt metaphor for debating Joe Biden, but a true understanding of seeking office is best summed up in Diamond's description of Tiffani Amber-Thiessen: "'Saved By the Bell''s set whore and Hollywood's pass-around girl."
And everyone is so impressed that Buttigieg learned Norwegian so he could enjoy an author whose works hadn't been translated into English. Big deal. I read William Shatner's Live Long and...:What I Learned Along the Way and no one cares that I taught myself Canadian to do it.
