James Joyce and Ulysses
 

Can anyone here say they've picked up Ulysses, read it, and was like "yeah, I get at least 50% of the literary allusions and know wtf is going on in this book?"

This is a bit of a shift from a summer reading Harry Potter 7 and His Dark Materials series.

Re: James Joyce and Ulysses
 

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Can anyone here say they've picked up Ulysses, read it, and was like "yeah, I get at least 50% of the literary allusions and know wtf is going on in this book?"

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No. Half the people who say they finished it are lying, the other half don't have a clue what anything means beyond what they are told by others (this includes university professors).

I got half way through and gave up. When I realized I hated picking it up and that I was only reading it because it's a "classic" I didn't see the point in going any further.

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This is a bit of a shift from a summer reading Harry Potter 7 and His Dark Materials series.

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I'm sure it is - why don't you read something in the middle?

Re: James Joyce and Ulysses
 

So what, I'm pretty sure James Joyce doesn't have 30,000+ posts. Ulysses by a mile.

Re: James Joyce and Ulysses
 

Dubliners>Portrait>Ulysses>Finnegan's Wake

And I've read them all, tho I'm stretching the definition of reading there. My eyes have touched each word.

Re: James Joyce and Ulysses
 

A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man is a book I love. Ulysses is a book that I am proud to have gotten through.

I read it in high school and got 0 out of it. I read it again in college and kind of enjoyed it. I don't plan on reading it again until I'm 70 and retired, but I'm sure I'll appreciate it then.

Re: James Joyce and Ulysses
 

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Dubliners>Portrait>Ulysses>Finnegan's Wake

And I've read them all, tho I'm stretching the definition of reading there. My eyes have touched each word.

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[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Dubliners, though I haven't ever gotten through Ulysses or Finnegan's

Re: James Joyce and Ulysses
 

Lol, try reading this:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...WL._SS500_.jpg

and then gratefully relapse to the pure readability that is Ulysses.

Re: James Joyce and Ulysses
 

I just started reading this about a week or two ago and I am really enjoying it so far. However, it is slow going. I find myself reading a page or two, thinking "Ummmm, what?" and then rereading the page. Usually I get it the second or third time around and after about an hour or two, I start to get really into it.

The problem is that I can't seem to just pick it up from time to time and read for a half-hour or so without feeling lost. It really does demand attention but I love when everything starts clicking and you start understanding the thought process of the characters. Of course, I'm not that far in, so maybe it gets quite a bit more difficult.

Re: James Joyce and Ulysses
 

I got through it and thought it was an enjoyable read, but no, I didn't get any of the allusions or other stuff until I selectively re-read some parts after reading the Wikipedia article on it like 5 years later.

Re: James Joyce and Ulysses
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Dubliners>Portrait>Ulysses>Finnegan's Wake

And I've read them all, tho I'm stretching the definition of reading there. My eyes have touched each word.

[/ QUOTE ]
[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Dubliners, though I haven't ever gotten through Ulysses or Finnegan's

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I'm pretty sure nobody has ever actually read Finnegans Wake.