James Joyce and Ulysses

[XXXNoahXXX]

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.

[Triumph36]

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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).

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I haven't read Ulysses, but this type of attitude always strikes me as more elitist than those who claim to understand Ulysses. It's basically saying, "If I don't understand it, no one else possibly can!"

Try Portrait... which I enjoyed a great deal.

[Spanaway Vin]

I'm in the second section of the book and it's gotten a little easier to follow.

I'm kind of thinking about getting the Cliff's Notes for Ulysses, reading a chapter of Ulysses, reading the accompanying chapters in the Notes, ruminating on that for a bit, and then moving on.

[mosdef]

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I haven't read Ulysses, but this type of attitude always strikes me as more elitist than those who claim to understand Ulysses. It's basically saying, "If I don't understand it, no one else possibly can!"

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Not so - I'm not saying it's too dense to understand because I don't understand it, it's because when I've had a "learned" person try to explain it to me they basically just give a list of references to other sources that list sources of people who list sources regarding the content of the book. No one I have ever talked to has had an independent thought about Ulysses including my English professors. They all know whatever they know from having "learned" it from somewhere else.

I'm sure there's a small number of Irish literature experts out there that can critically evaluate Ulysses independently, but that's about it.

[Astyanax]

I presume you have read the Odyssey to compare? I have to say I have only skimmed James Joyce's Ulysses although I have read and studied the Odyssey many times..

Funnily enough I know someone who is pretty damn good on James Joyce's Ulysses. Shall I get in contact wid him and help you out? What exactly do you need it for?

[Constable]

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I haven't read Ulysses, but this type of attitude always strikes me as more elitist than those who claim to understand Ulysses. It's basically saying, "If I don't understand it, no one else possibly can!"

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Not so - I'm not saying it's too dense to understand because I don't understand it, it's because when I've had a "learned" person try to explain it to me they basically just give a list of references to other sources that list sources of people who list sources regarding the content of the book. No one I have ever talked to has had an independent thought about Ulysses including my English professors. They all know whatever they know from having "learned" it from somewhere else.

I'm sure there's a small number of Irish literature experts out there that can critically evaluate Ulysses independently, but that's about it.

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This is exactly what you're saying.

[nath]

I love Ulysses.
No, I never finished it.
No, I don't get all the references.
Yes, what I do get makes a lot of sense to me and I understand what he was doing, even if I don't understand all of the details.

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It's more of a virtuoso work than a readable one, IMO.

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is a good way to put it.

When I'm in the mood for curling up with one of those complete-human-existence-in-as-little-time-and-space-as-possible works, though, I usually pick "The Waste Land".

[mosdef]

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I haven't read Ulysses, but this type of attitude always strikes me as more elitist than those who claim to understand Ulysses. It's basically saying, "If I don't understand it, no one else possibly can!"

[/ QUOTE ]

Not so - I'm not saying it's too dense to understand because I don't understand it, it's because when I've had a "learned" person try to explain it to me they basically just give a list of references to other sources that list sources of people who list sources regarding the content of the book. No one I have ever talked to has had an independent thought about Ulysses including my English professors. They all know whatever they know from having "learned" it from somewhere else.

I'm sure there's a small number of Irish literature experts out there that can critically evaluate Ulysses independently, but that's about it.

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This is exactly what you're saying.

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Did you even read what I wrote. My experience with lots of people including English professors is that they don't really understand it - they can only point to references of other people that say something about it that they take to be true. I've never met anyone who can actually explain it without having had it explained to them first. This is not the same as me picking it up, not understanding it, putting it down and saying "no one understands it".

[Triumph36]

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I haven't read Ulysses, but this type of attitude always strikes me as more elitist than those who claim to understand Ulysses. It's basically saying, "If I don't understand it, no one else possibly can!"

[/ QUOTE ]

Not so - I'm not saying it's too dense to understand because I don't understand it, it's because when I've had a "learned" person try to explain it to me they basically just give a list of references to other sources that list sources of people who list sources regarding the content of the book. No one I have ever talked to has had an independent thought about Ulysses including my English professors. They all know whatever they know from having "learned" it from somewhere else.

I'm sure there's a small number of Irish literature experts out there that can critically evaluate Ulysses independently, but that's about it.

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you do see how this is impossible, right? someone somewhere must've had an original thought regarding this work.

[Nate.]

Dubliners is amazing. "The Dead" is the greatest short story I've ever read. I reread it often.

It's just untrue that few people have original thoughts about Ulysses. I took a Joyce/Ibsen seminar in which people expressed all sorts of non-parroted stuff about it. Hell, even I had some things to say.

--Nate