Could some one please explain to me how to fucking read Ulysses I can’t make it through the first couple chapters Joyce always seems boring to me but I figure I am a boor and don’t know what the hell I’m talking about so anyway if a non-pretentious person would be so kind as to oblige me with a brief explanation of how to appreciate Jaymes Joyce I will be forever indebted especially if I can make it through that really really really long sentence at the end of the novel that people can never get through.
The way to truly appreciate Ulysses is to close it and use it as a door-stop.
What, you want to read it? Poke yourself in the eye with a sharp stick; you’ll get the same feeling in half the time.
What, you still want to read it? Go get the Cliff’s Notes. Seriously. Cliff’s Notes or a good explicatory companion volume are the only way to get through it. Personally, I fail to see the value in reading a book incomprehensible sentence by incomprehensible sentence, turning repeatedly to your resource source to learn “what he’s really saying here is . . .” but more power to you.
– Jodi, who, yes, has read it herself and loathed it.
Well, I would never approach it cold. Read some of Joyce’s more approachable stuff first (i.e., anything but Finnegan’s Wake.
Then find a good critical summary of the book, intended for college students, that will give you some of the literary, cultural, and historical background for the book. If you don’t know anything about Irish history or language or the classical references, of course it will be difficult.
Two Words: Cliff Notes.
No, seriously, there are the equivalent of biblical commentaries available for Joyce. IIRC, there is even an authorized annotated version of Ulysses. I guess it depends on how badly you want to read it.
I have only poked around in Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake. The only things I know are that Ulysses is constructed in imitation of Homer’s work of similar title, and that Joyce was familiar with a lot of European languages and used them in inventing words which he merrily inserted wherever he went. Some of what I have read has been mildly humorous, frequently lyrical, usually impenetrable and always challenging. Not your typical bedtime fare, which is, unfortunately, my typical reading time.
I would be interested in knowing if other Dopers have waded through these works and did/did not enjoy them.
Forget the Cliff Notes. Just relax your brain and read it. Some of it may seem like gibberish the first time through, but you’ll get most of the general story line, which is, as far as I remember, very earthy, and has much to do with man’s basest nature, his animal appetites and tendencies. Enjoy the language. Then, you can break out an annotated version and get the details you missed. Really, I think reading a summarized version first spoils the experience.
I read Ulysses in college, of course (English major) and several times later for fun. This thread makes me think it has been too long since the last time. I’ll have to retrieve it from the attic and give it another go.
I have not, however, managed to get through Finnegan’s Wake yet.
As someone who read Ulysses, and loved it (I also read Moby Dick and loved that), I believe you need to have people to share this sort of book with. That’s why studying literature at university was so helpful to me - different people get different things out of the book, and if you put it all together, you get closer to the real meaning. If you search the web for universities world wide studying the book, you might be able to hook up with some students who are reading it and agonising over it this very minute.
The best way in to Ulysses is to keep in mind a couple of things. The book tells the story of a single day in the life of a normal man living in Dublin - Leopold Bloom. Despite the apparent mundaneness of his life, the telling of the story of this day is modelled on the mythological travels of Ulysses/Odysseus, who fought many battles on his way back home to his wife. Leopold also faces challenges on his way, but they are more the sort of problems mere mortals face - yobbos at a pub trying to pick a fight; Molly (his wife) contemplating having an affair; Leopold’s incessant walking around a city that he feel alienated from - a Jew in Ireland being towards the bottom of the heap, particularly at that nationalistic time. Each episode is handled by him with the quiet heroism of humble humanity.
An important part of the book is the impending meeting between Leopold and the young man Stephen Daedalus - it might help to know that this was the name Joyce used for himself in his ‘autobiographical’ novel ‘Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’. As the culmination of Leopold’s wanderings, as well as Stephen’s, this meeting between young and old versions of the same person touches on many common themes in Literature - Experience versus innocence; maturity versus immaturity, etc. Don’t expect too much from the meeting itself, though - it’s the getting there that is important.
Above all, remember that Joyce knew he was being a smart alec, so there’s nothing wrong with not understanding the odd word - probably nobody else in human history could understand all of the allusions in the novel, other than Joyce himself. Joyce, like Melville in Moby Dick, was being encyclopedic with his writing - he packed so much detail in, that a novel long enough to normally cover a war epic only covers one day in one man’s life. Don’t be scared to skim through parts that don’t interest you - you can come back to them when you reread the book (and trust me - if you get to the end, you will want to re-read it). Have fun.
HenrySpencer
Well, it took me 'til grad school to learn this, but … Books are supposed to be fun. If you’re not enjoying it and you’re not getting anything out of it, then don’t read it. Makes no difference if it’s a classic. Makes no difference if other people like it (although this doesn’t make them pretentious, any more than not liking it makes you a boor). It’s as simple as that.
Now I should admit that I’m a complete hypocrite, and I did slog through (most of) Ulysses without enjoying it at all, but I was taking a notoriously difficult Irish Lit class and I was afraid of failing the exam. Oh well. At least I never have to do it again.
Read all of Ezra Pound’s Cantos first. Afterwards, Ulysses will seem like a stroll in the park.
Ahh, that makes me wonder what the hardest book to get through is. I’m still gonna guess that it’s prolly something of Kant’s.