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High Brow Reading - Ulysses

49 posts & 31 voices | Started 6 months ago by samuri | Latest reply from Lifer

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samuri - Member

I know during book discussions people often quote this as something that must be read.

So I'm reading it now.

1. Does it get any easier to understand? I've gathered the chap is on a beach on the moment having some thoughts about stuff in general which is why it's so weird, I'm assuming that stops happening after a while and we do some actual story with sex and things.

2. Is it because I'm too thick to understand it and I should just give up and go read some Wilbur Smith?

3. This is one of the hundred best books ever written? Really? Really?

Posted 6 months ago #
no_eyed_deer - Member

Ha!

I persevered for the for the first 10 pages or so, then gave up.

It's simply an odd book. Not completely unreadable, but not exactly enjoyable either. It's too long to suffer through. I think that was my conclusion*.

Ground breaking though.

It's worth reading bits of just to have some idea what all the fuss is about.
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* And the likely conclusion of the previous attempted reader of the book, who had 'bent the spine' only to about page 50

Posted 6 months ago #
samuri - Member

It's my current bog book. One interesting dynamic I've found with bog books is that when bored, other members of the household will pick them up and start reading them. I got my son into Hitch hikers guide in this way.

I can guarantee it's not going to happen with this book.

Posted 6 months ago #
IanMunro - Member

I don't think I've ever got past his shave first thing in the morning.
I tell a lie, I've ~~read~~ attempted to read a few other bits and thought WTF, then put it down.
Strikes me as a bit like an ironman triathlon, and awful lot of dull training for an ultimately uninteresting reward.
Have neither completed an Ironman or Uylsses I could be talking bollocks though.

Posted 6 months ago #
The Southern Yeti - Member

So I've been told by an extremely intelligent ex who got a first in her English literature degree and had to read this as part of the course it is all about being pretentious and really not worth bothering with unless you have to read it for a course or something or because you too are a pretentious fool and want to come across as all high brow whilst quaffing fine reds and discussing literature with your bohemian firends

Posted 6 months ago #
hilldodger - Member

It's a work you don't understand but experience

It helps if you have a working knowledge of Homer's (not the yellow guy but the Ancient Greek dude) Odysseus as the book establishes a series of parallels between characters and events in Homer's poem and Joyce's novel such as Leopold Bloom = Odysseus, Molly Bloom = Penelope, Stephen Dedalus = Telemachus.

It also pioneers the Modernist literature movement in which the author's thought processes are the focus of the work rather than any particular plot device or character development.

On the other hand it could all be a pile of pish from the booze addled mind of a sot.........

Posted 6 months ago #
samuri - Member

It's in my list of books to read so I'll persevere.

http://www.samuri.co.uk/100-best-novels-of-all-time/

Although I've already decided not to read any more Ayn Rand books.

And Catcher in the Rye? I thought some pages had fallen out. Nothing actually happened in it, it made no sense.

Posted 6 months ago #
Lifer - Member

All Ayn Rand's books are based on her ridiculous political philosophy so i wouldn't worry about that. I would worry about a list of the 100 greatest novels that had 4 Rands and 3 Hubbards in the top 10!

Adam Curtis covered Rand's wingnuttery in 'All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace' - well worth a watch.

Posted 6 months ago #
IanMunro - Member

Looking through your list, I've not read most of them

43. HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
That's in the lav at the moment - haven't decided whether as toilet paper yet.

53. THE HANDMAID’S TALE by Margaret Atwood
No idea, but Orx and crake was ok.

79. WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams
Oh dear. Yes I have read this.
BRIGHT EYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES BURRNING LIKE FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRE!
(I still remember being on a school trip to the peak district and the huge cheer in the coach when it got knocked off no1 position)

100. THE SATANIC VERSES by Salman Rushdie
If you love Ulysess, you'll love this too
I think I only managed about 10 pages. Midnight's Children is a lot better imo, I think I managed about 100 pages of that, but might try and finish it one day as it's really beautifully written - just needs loads of concentration though.

Posted 6 months ago #
Lifer - Member

Read 'I, Claudius' brilliant book

Posted 6 months ago #
samuri - Member

Yeah, I appreciate it wouldn't be most people's list but I struggled to find a list that looked even remotely interesting.

Thanks for the reviews Ian, concise as ever.

Posted 6 months ago #
Garry_Lager - Member

It is tough, but certainly worth persevering with if only for the last chapter. F_ck. Ing. Hell. Just jaw-dropping writing. Stephen's voice can be very hard at times, but Bloom's is OK and should be digestible. Its onerous reputation is sort of a shame because it is a truly great book IMHO - it's timeless in a way that a lot of great works of art are. It could have been written yesterday.

Whilst it's a tough read relative to your typical novel, by the standards of ball-breaking literary classics it's not actually that bad. My version has an intro from Anthony Burgess where he makes the point that Ulysses is at heart a very simple book - a book about people. Joyce himself said he wrote it to give the Dubliners one good look at themselves. So it's not like one of these monstrous post-modern novels that are putting out some arcane thesis on the military-industrial complex. It's quite straightforward in that sense.

Posted 6 months ago #
WackoAK - Member

43. HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
That's in the lav at the moment - haven't decided whether as toilet paper yet.

I actually made it all the way through that just out of pure spite, it was
a pile of pish
(c) hilldodger

Posted 6 months ago #
BillMC - Member

It's a challenging but rewarding read made more accessible if you read Richard Ellman's superb biography of Joyce first. Also there's a fantastic 24 hour reading done by the RTE players 20 odd years ago that is on 30 discs and is a snip on Amazon at £70.

Posted 6 months ago #
bigyinn - Member

Adolf Hitler: My part in his downfall - Spike milligan, is one of my faves.
I don't really "get" reading unless its for pleasure or improving one's knowledge of a subject. Going on the authors journey sounds like pish to me.

Posted 6 months ago #
elliptic - Member

one of these monstrous post-modern novels that are putting out some arcane thesis on the military-industrial complex

Giles Goat-Boy comes unavoidably to mind...

Posted 6 months ago #
finbar - Member

If you can't get through Ulysses but want an opinion on Joyce, read Dubliners instead. It's still terribly boring (i know, i'm a philistine), but you should at least be able to finish it.

Posted 6 months ago #
mogrim - Member

Any top 100 list with King and Lovecraft on it can't be all bad, although looking at the top 10 I get the feeling the public voting was perhaps a little biased...

Posted 6 months ago #
Mr Woppit - Member

want to come across as all high brow whilst quaffing fine reds and discussing literature with your bohemian firends

Instead of feeling left out because you're a lager-swilling cretin who'se never read anything that doesn't come tabloid-sized with a red logo on the front...

Posted 6 months ago #
Lifer - Member

Going on the authors journey sounds like pish to me.

Gutted.

Posted 6 months ago #
The Southern Yeti - Member

Instead of feeling left out because you're an organic lager-swilling cretin who's never read anything that doesn't come tabloid-sized with a red logo on the front...

My world changed the day the Grauniad switched to the Berliner format.

Posted 6 months ago #
simonralli2 - Member

I think I once got as far as page 2 then gave up.

I am currently working my way slowly through Roald Dahl's "Matilda"....
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in Portuguese!

Posted 6 months ago #
racefaceec90 - Member

i know this much,i loved the cartoon
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ4c1X5ene8

Posted 6 months ago #
anonymouse - Member

I've not finished it yet, but I keep getting that little bit further. There are some really clear, beautiful episodes in it (the first appearance of Bloom is my favourite, but I also like the cyclops episode) but there's also a fair bit of impenetrable meandering. There's a good summary called The Bloomsday Book which I find helpful in the tricky bits.

Posted 6 months ago #
rogg - Member

I got as far as downloading a free sample for the Kindle, after hearingStephen Fry blathering on about it a couple of weeks ago.
Unfortunately the free sample only includes the introduction, and none of the book at all, so it's still somewhere in the 'one day' pile, and not at the top.

Posted 6 months ago #
mudshark - Member

So I've been told by an extremely intelligent ex who got a first in her English literature degree and had to read this as part of the course it is all about being pretentious and really not worth bothering with unless you have to read it for a course or something or because you too are a pretentious fool and want to come across as all high brow whilst quaffing fine reds and discussing literature with your bohemian firends

Very good.

Posted 6 months ago #
ti_pin_man - Member

samuri - thanks for posting the question, its been in my mind to read this book for a while BUT not any more. Sounds like a bag of poo.

i spend a lot of time on planes and this year began buying books I'd heard of under the classics section in the airport book shops, its been a weird journey and I'm glad a tried a few of them but now grateful not to start this one! i can recommend grapes of wrath and a few other classics BUT my two fav's from this year are "DIRT" the motley crue biography AND "into thin air" by John Krakauer(neither found in the classics section)... I also found Krakauer's book into the wild pretty inspiring. Into think air is a just a jaw dropping account, I couldnt put it down and thats not happened for years with a book.

Sorry getting off topic, nothing high brow lol.

Posted 6 months ago #
Lifer - Member

'Crime and Punishment' is probably my favourite of 'classics' - can't beat a bit of Dostoevsky. 'Brothers Karamazov' is excellent as well.

Posted 6 months ago #
stevomcd - Member

ti_pin_man : Make sure you also read "The Climb" by Anatoli Boukreev to get the other side of the story.

Krakauer's version has some pretty odd views in it once you get away from the story (which is undeniably enthralling and well-written).

Posted 6 months ago #
richmtb - Member

I've got the majority of that 100 list on my Kindle.

I do try and mix up my reading a bit, one pulp novel, one classic novel. I think it will take me a while to get round to Ulysses though. Ender's Game and Slaughterhouse Five were the last on that list I've read. I liked them both but admittedtly not as much as the Bill Bryson and Lee Child books I read too!

Posted 6 months ago #
Mr Woppit - Member

Having read "American Psycho", I feel ready for another impenetrable classic. I understand that one needs to read Joyce's "Dubliners" first though, for some background...

Hope that wasn't too high brow for you.

Nice Bordeaux, this. Good nose and an interesting finish.

Posted 6 months ago #
finbar - Member

'Crime and Punishment' is probably my favourite of 'classics' - can't beat a bit of Dostoevsky. 'Brothers Karamazov' is excellent as well.

I much prefer Tolstoy to Dostoevsky. So much, well, "nicer". Probably why i don't care for Joyce.

Posted 6 months ago #
paul4stones - Member

I got Ulysses on my iPod for a bit of tent reading over the summer (classics are free on many readers, I'd already waded through Three Men in a Boat) and found it quite impenetrable. Stream of consciousness invented right there.

I went to Dublin a few years ago and was amazed at the number of people sitting round reading high brow books. Forgive my prejudice and flame me but I can't imagine many London cabbies reading Ulysses between punters.

Posted 6 months ago #
paul4stones - Member

Into Thin Air - gripping but I read a later version with all the update on the dispute between the author and Boukreev which was obviously of great importance to the pair of them but no-one else!

Posted 6 months ago #
ti_pin_man - Member

stevomcd - I will get to it eventually ;o)

got to finish my current high brow book - terry pratchett - snuff. lol.

Posted 6 months ago #