James Joyce
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reaction to james joyce ulyseus
hi what are your reactions to the book of the century - ulyseus by james joyce..
i have not yet met anyone who have read it yet....
at least in the bbc survey the big read lotr won ...hdm was 3rd i think. ulyseus was somewhere in the 100s...
i have not yet met anyone who have read it yet....
at least in the bbc survey the big read lotr won ...hdm was 3rd i think. ulyseus was somewhere in the 100s...
- caguy
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Re: reaction to james joyce ulyseus
It's Ulysses by the way.
It took me four months and it was a bit of a chore. One thing's for certain though - it sticks with you. You remember Ulysses.
I really don't want to get dragged into another cultural argument but the truth is that the Big Read was about 'popular' fiction. When many of the Big Read top 100 are out of print in 100 years, Ulysses will still have readers, and droves of people will wander round Dublin on 16 June every year following the wanderings of Leopold Bloom.
It's not about plot. There isn't one. It's no all-action adventure, nor is it a three-hanky romance (though it may be Romance in its original sense). The characters are frankly unlikeable - especially Stephen Dedalus who is a pedantic prig. It is about the ingenious use of words though - words that are almost orgasmic in their intensity (a couple of times orgasms are described in a way that makes your hair stand on end).
You have now.hi what are your reactions to the book of the century - ulyseus by james joyce..
i have not yet met anyone who have read it yet....
It took me four months and it was a bit of a chore. One thing's for certain though - it sticks with you. You remember Ulysses.
I really don't want to get dragged into another cultural argument but the truth is that the Big Read was about 'popular' fiction. When many of the Big Read top 100 are out of print in 100 years, Ulysses will still have readers, and droves of people will wander round Dublin on 16 June every year following the wanderings of Leopold Bloom.
It's not about plot. There isn't one. It's no all-action adventure, nor is it a three-hanky romance (though it may be Romance in its original sense). The characters are frankly unlikeable - especially Stephen Dedalus who is a pedantic prig. It is about the ingenious use of words though - words that are almost orgasmic in their intensity (a couple of times orgasms are described in a way that makes your hair stand on end).
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by the age of eighteen (Albert Einstein)
The Book of Enitharmon
Currently reading: Vanity Fair by William M Thackeray
The Book of Enitharmon
Currently reading: Vanity Fair by William M Thackeray
- Enitharmon
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I've only read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (which was wonderfully readable, I thought), so I can at least comment on Stephen Dedalus. Isn't he meant to be unlikeable, pretentious and God knows what else? I don't think it's bad writing on the part of Joyce that he is as such.
As for Ulysses itself, I'm planning on leaving that for a while.
(Has anyone here read Finnegans Wake? I've never met anyone who's read that)
As for Ulysses itself, I'm planning on leaving that for a while.
(Has anyone here read Finnegans Wake? I've never met anyone who's read that)
- gullifer
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Oh no, Dedalus was meant to be an insufferable prig and he's constructed very well. He's a self-deprecating portrait of Joyce himself, of course. Nobody in Ulysses is particularly likeable. It's possible to empathise with Bloom but his habits aren't all good.I've only read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (which was wonderfully readable, I thought), so I can at least comment on Stephen Dedalus. Isn't he meant to be unlikeable, pretentious and God knows what else? I don't think it's bad writing on the part of Joyce that he is as such.
You need to be ready for it. You can be free to take your time, though, dip in and out of it while you read other books. Skip bits if they drag too much for you - because there's no plot it doesn't matter. Each section is a parody of a different writing style, including newspaper journalism and the catechism of the Catholic Church, and of course there's the infamous Molly Bloom soliloquy, which you really do need to take in one long breath as it were (sixty pages without a full stop!)As for Ulysses itself, I'm planning on leaving that for a while.
Very few professors of Eng Lit have read it all the way through. FW is as challenging as writing gets - but where it's wonderful is if you pick it up now and then, open it at random and read a short section aloud. Reading it aloud makes it come alive in a rather wonderful way. It's the perfect loo book!(Has anyone here read Finnegans Wake? I've never met anyone who's read that)
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by the age of eighteen (Albert Einstein)
The Book of Enitharmon
Currently reading: Vanity Fair by William M Thackeray
The Book of Enitharmon
Currently reading: Vanity Fair by William M Thackeray
- Enitharmon
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Thanks for the advice. I'm vaguely familiar with the structure (each chapter being an episode based on an episode in the odyssey and in a different writing style, etc.), but nothing more detailed than that. Still, I'm waiting til after A level exams are thoroughly over and done with to start it. Not because I'm doing much A level work at the moment, but because it seems like the psychologically right time to start reading it.
Oh, and on my current knowledge, I would say that The Trial is book of the century. But whatever.
Oh, and on my current knowledge, I would say that The Trial is book of the century. But whatever.
- gullifer
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Have you read Dubliners? The short stories are more mainstream and accesible.Thanks for the advice. I'm vaguely familiar with the structure (each chapter being an episode based on an episode in the odyssey and in a different writing style, etc.), but nothing more detailed than that. Still, I'm waiting til after A level exams are thoroughly over and done with to start it. Not because I'm doing much A level work at the moment, but because it seems like the psychologically right time to start reading it.
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by the age of eighteen (Albert Einstein)
The Book of Enitharmon
Currently reading: Vanity Fair by William M Thackeray
The Book of Enitharmon
Currently reading: Vanity Fair by William M Thackeray
- Enitharmon
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No, I haven't (one of the parallel sets to mine got to do it for coursework at AS, the bastards, I was lumped with Pinter).
I do like other modernism as well, like Eliot and Woolf. Do you have a degree in English or anything like that? People who know their way around Joyce generally tend to do...
I do like other modernism as well, like Eliot and Woolf. Do you have a degree in English or anything like that? People who know their way around Joyce generally tend to do...
- gullifer
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One degree in physics, another in literature and philosophyDo you have a degree in English or anything like that? People who know their way around Joyce generally tend to do...
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by the age of eighteen (Albert Einstein)
The Book of Enitharmon
Currently reading: Vanity Fair by William M Thackeray
The Book of Enitharmon
Currently reading: Vanity Fair by William M Thackeray
- Enitharmon
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Re: reaction to james joyce ulyseus
Hah, Wherever you go in Dublin, you find those blasted signs..and droves of people will wander round Dublin on 16 June every year following the wanderings of Leopold Bloom.
- Jameson
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Dubliners - the set text for my A2 coursework. Which automatically makes it less enjoyable than if I were reading it for pleasure. I've read a couple of the stories and they are kind of depressing, but not dull so far at least. The problem is when they make us analyse it, looking at every little word and phrase. It leeches all the enjoyment away until you'll left with bare, ugly sentences...
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I read the first 'section' this summer, before being distracted by other things; which writing style was that a parody of?Each section is a parody of a different writing style, including newspaper journalism and the catechism of the Catholic Church, ...
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I haven't read it yet, we studied a part of it in English a couple of years back.
Kinda sucks the fun out of it.
Sorry to start this discussion but I disagree. I think studying it in class only sucks the fun out of it with crap teachers.
The Sraffie Formerly Known As hermit
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Soapy - President Lesbian
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Yep, that's sure sucked the fun out of it for me. I'm supposed to be reading one of them for tomorrow... got to do a presentation on it... but I can't remember which short story it is.I haven't read it yet, we studied a part of it in English a couple of years back.
Kinda sucks the fun out of it.
Sorry to start this discussion but I disagree. I think studying it in class only sucks the fun out of it with crap teachers.
- Jez
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Well, I wouldn't have called her a bad teacher, she certainly knew her stuff. It was just that she had no way of showing literature in the artistic way it was created, it became more like Maths, if you know what I mean.I haven't read it yet, we studied a part of it in English a couple of years back.
Kinda sucks the fun out of it.
Sorry to start this discussion but I disagree. I think studying it in class only sucks the fun out of it with crap teachers.
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Ripper - Gallivespian Spy
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Teachers like that SUCK! Where's PP when you need him, eh?Well, I wouldn't have called her a bad teacher, she certainly knew her stuff. It was just that she had no way of showing literature in the artistic way it was created, it became more like Maths, if you know what I mean.I haven't read it yet, we studied a part of it in English a couple of years back.
Kinda sucks the fun out of it.
Sorry to start this discussion but I disagree. I think studying it in class only sucks the fun out of it with crap teachers.
The Sraffie Formerly Known As hermit
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Soapy - President Lesbian
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