Posted on 11/30/2014 3:59:51 PM PST by re_nortex
I'm well into my 70s and checking off an item on my bucket list is finally getting around to reading Ulysses by James Joyce. It was never assigned reading in high school or college (I went to a Christian school, which may be one of the reasons). So, at my advanced age, I'm attempting at long last to tackle this work.
I have a long attention span and am not easily bored nor discouraged. I've read long, involved books and have found most of them gripping, such as The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, Faust by Goethe and Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
But I may have met my match with Joyce's work. I'm only up to page 36 where Deasy and Stephen are conversing and, frankly, it's just not clicking this far and reading seems like a chore in contrast to Mann where I couldn't wait to turn the page.
Given that the smartest people in the world congregate here, are there any suggestions about pressing forward on this book? Was it maybe proclaimed a "classic" by leftists and, in reality, just isn't worth reading? Or am I approaching it wrong? The lack of quoting and Joyce's strange punctuation add to the challenge.
I contrast that with my reading of Mann's The Magic Mountain which I read as a youth, more than 50 years ago. It wasn't an assignment -- it was recommended by a friend and I just started reading it without knowing anything about Thomas Mann or doing any background research. It's a good yarn with three-dimensional characters.
Just a few years ago, I picked it up again and it was like an old friend. With some age (and hopefully some added wisdom), it was even more enjoyable the second time around. I then enthusiastically recommended The Magic Mountain to a colleague who started reading it and then quit after less than 50 pages, pronouncing it boring.
Haven’t read it myself, but my rule of thumb is the most I’ll give a book is 50 pages. If I hasn’t grabbed me by then, the author didn’t do his job.
You can always read a synopsis online.
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/ulysses/
I am not sure an audio would work for Ulysses - Joyce uses neologisms (made-up words) in the book and it might be hard to identify them while listening as opposed to reading.
Difficult to understand, hard to digest, and not following grammatical conventions ISN'T breathtaking intellect... It's dumb.
Some books I won't read because of the fake 'intellectual appeal' that covers bad writing, badly executed.
Good writing, however, stands for centuries, regardless of the language it was originally written in.
/johnny
The best way to go about it is to pick of one of the "cribs," or guidebooks, one by Stuart Gilbert for instance or Don Gifford (I used a good one many years ago but for the life of me can't remember which one).
Mister, your time is your business but there are many, many great and worthwhile books out there to toss happily into your bucket when you are done.
Start at the beginning of Faulkner or Cormac McCarthy (who is actually something of a conservative) or better yet both, and read all their works...maybe you have already read them, I don't mean to patronize.
Or hell, Melville would be great--but maybe you have that t-shirt already too.
Actually my hat is off to you but to lazy me it seems a shame to give a year to Joyce, who in the end will enlighten one precious little.
If you do dig in, however, I would love to hear how it's going...feel free to Freepmail me, if you have time, and forgive me for the comparative dullard's advice herein.
Good luck!
You should at least hang in until stephen’s father, Simon, sings in the bar and then after you can skip to the long bit at the end (being vague to avoid a spoiler although perhaps I’m being over cautious). Both are brilliant but much of the rest is tedious but I’ve only read it once.
Re: The Magic Mountain I read that and was most annoyed that one of the key chapters was entirely in French. I mean, you know, I was reading a translation!
I’m pretty close to finishing my reading of Jonathan Swift’s, “Gulliver Travels.” It’s pretty good satire on human nature and recommend it if you haven’t ever taken the time to read it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulliver%27s_Travels
If you want a long and real downer of a book to read take up the “Black Book of Communism” by by Andrzej Paczkowski, Karel Bartosek, Jean-Louis Margolin, Jean-Louis Panné, Stéphane Courtois, and Nicolas Werth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Book_of_Communism
Joyce is the most eminent example of the literature of the disintegrated mode of thought.Look for:
1) rejection of previous approaches to literature such as plot and character as meaningful artistic conventions
2) rejection of meaning itself as delusory.
3) contempt for telling a story
4) rejection of man in purposeful action as artistically worthless
5) instead of imagining some progression of events,look for an unstructured collage of their own or their characters' mental contents
6) subjectivism
7) disjointed collection of events
8) nihilism and destruction
9) elimination of content in the name of the illogical and the non-objective
10)non story, non-hero, non-grammar, non-language, non-objective, non-representational, non-intelligible, non-rational
11)all of the above for the purpose of destroying man's mind and values
How about Homer’s epic poems the Odyssey and the Iliad?
Here’s a tip for you: Joyce was a drunk. Draw your own conclusions.
We've had some good chats before on wide topics and you know how much I value your thoughts. So, permit me to ramble just a bit, perhaps apropos of nothing.
When it comes to movies, most of those deemed classics actually do click with me. As a case in point, Citizen Kane. I've tangled with quite a few FReepers on this film who have described Kane in terms such as: leftist trash, boring, overrated, hard to follow, too old, plotless, no action and so on. I love that film not because some critics have proclaimed it to be a "timeless classic" or an "essential". To me, it's just a well-told story with well-developed characters and I enjoy it on that level. Although I'm aware of Welles' technical innovations, use of shadow and contrast and such. But I've never watched it to appreciate it as a "serious" work of art. It's just a fine movie, and to me, every bit as enjoyable as Goodfellas, Jaws, Shawshank, Lawrence of Arabia and others that I find enduring.
I cheated, I checked out the entire audio book at the Omaha library, bought Ulysses annotated, and lectures on tape and read along with the audio. There are some interesting passages,including a very moving section in the penultimate chapter before, Molly’s soliloquy, when Joyce examines the content of Bloom’s dresser drawer. It’s certainly different, and would not appeal to most people, but for people like myself, prone towards an interest in symbolism and metaphor, I found it very interesting.
However, I am by and large uneducated, IOW, I do not have a degree, so, take my recommendation with a grain of salt.
I will need to check to be sure, but I always heard that as “so he reads to us ‘bout some guy called Ulysses.” Might still be an allusion to the book. Sherman apparently had another reputation as a sex fiend.
How can one be moved by the contents of a dresser drawer... oh well, it take all kinds to make a world
I eventually concluded that both "novels" were extended critiques of the form.
Read The Dead, and call it a day.
Just one man's opinion.
Read all of Raymond Carver’s short stories instead.
I read them both in high school, back in the 50s. Unlike the aforementioned Mann, I haven't reread either of those since then.
Well, I was drunk when I read it…
hmmm, I see your point.
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