Ulysees

GoldieBear

Hi this is my first post here and i'm delighted that I have found a place to discuss the latest books/authors. Sorry for rambling on but has anyone ever read Ulysees? since tomorrow is Bloomsday, i decided to buy a copy and give it a go. For those who have read it, what do you think?

r3nu4l

Haven't read it either but have owned a copy for years. Always intended to read it but never did.

I had also thought of starting it today so perhaps I will. What put it into my head was that oneword radio have been serialising it over the past couple of weeks and when I listened to it I could follow it quite clearly. It's supposed to be quite difficult to follow in parts but what I heard on oneword really was good.

Oneword radio is really quite good*, I'd advise anyone who likes books to listen to it! http://radio.oneword.co.uk:8000/

No, I don't work for them, just love books

theCzar

I feel I should give it a go at some stage, but frankly I don't expect to enjoy it, and I've yet to hear anybody who isn't studying (or indeed lecturing) literature say they liked it.

Tar.Aldarion

Well here's your first my good man, an awesome book. I have loved Ulysses since I was but a lad, but I can see how people might find it dull.

I suggest you read it and make up your own mind, it's famous for a reason.
Imo, it's undoubtably a work of genious, like it or no, it's appalling longueurs take little from that.

theCzar

I will certainly get round to it, and indeed no book is "classic" without reason. But I think people often read a book they wouldn't otherwise because they're classics with the result they don't enjoy them so much. (well, I do anyway and I like to generalise my opinions to apply to the rest of "Right Thinking" people )

r3nu4l

Well, I started reading it on Friday (Bloomsday):D and must admit that the first few pages were a bit strange but I have gotten somewhat used to the style and so far it's a great read, some really good turn of phrase in there already so I'm looking forward to reading through it.

Methinks this will be one of those books where concentration is required!

Verdict so far: Quite Enjoyable!

Don't know when I'll finish it though, I'm reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman at the moment as well.

Tingo

I'd like to read it at some stage but I've got plenty books to keep going for the moment. I'd have to buy it too. If it was lying on my bookshelf I might be more inclined to start but meh effort...

GoldieBear

I'm only on page 24 as i found it hard to get into. i felt it wa helpful to have read The Potrait as then you had more insight into Stephen Dedalus. Having said that the style isnt as difficult as i thought. I'm looking forward to finishing it finally.

r3nu4l

The story of Ulysses...

Pretty funky but I imagine there are one or two things left out

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

http://www.bway.net/~hunger/ch1-ulys.html

Mrs. MacGyver

I picked up a copy too and i find it tough going. Joyce is way too descriptive.

extragon

Great book. But unless you're completely at home in Joyce's world, historical and intellectual - and even then it would be challenging - it might be better to read about it, before reading it. There are many commentaries, including page by page aids to decipher the more difficult bits.
Planning to read Oxen of the Sun without help? Good luck!

kinaldo

My English teacher a few years back used to say it was a book to be studied not enjoyed. It's the one book I really want to read before I die. In the meantime I'll just read anything that's not written by Joyce.

r3nu4l

kinaldo wrote:

...It's the one book I really want to read before I die. In the meantime I'll just read anything that's...

Not being funny or anythhing but none of us know when we are going to die so why not read it sooner rather than later. You don't want your dying words to be "Quick, someone pass me a copy of Ulysees!"

Dave3x

I too, threw myself into Ulysees last summer....

It was fantastic. A really interesting read... for 60 pages....

Then I just didn't have the energy to continue. It's a book which I found I needed at least two hours quiet time to make progress on each time I picked it up (because Joyce's unusual stlye doesn't make it a 5-minute now and then book). And unfortunately I just didn't have that kind of time.

I've read Joyce before (Potrait and Dubliners) but Ulysees is not to be tackled lightly. That said, it's genius.

BossArky

r3nu4l wrote:

Not being funny or anythhing but none of us know when we are going to die so why not read it sooner rather than later. You don't want your dying words to be "Quick, someone pass me a copy of Ulysees!"

That is going to be one long, painful death.

John

I picked this up the other day, as soon as I'm finished what I'm currently reading (a Camus novel and Lord of the Rings), I think I'll throw myself in.

BossArky

John2 wrote:

I picked this up the other day, as soon as I'm finished what I'm currently reading (a Camus novel and Lord of the Rings), I think I'll throw myself in.

Trust me, not long into reading Ulysees you will definetly be looking for something to throw yourself into - a river probably.

toomevara

nollaig wrote:

As far I am concerned, a book that gives you insight understanding, educates you, strecthes your mind etc (allyour points) does entertain you. No????

Yep, you definitely have a point there and it is of course dictionary definition entertainment....but think you're missing my point a little, my fault though didn't put my argument well, lets see if I can put it more clearly...

Right, take Joyce's Ulysses...its an incredibly demanding and difficult book to read (at least i found it to be so)..It actually required alot of discipline on my part to get through it the first time I read it...on one level I'd much rather have been reading Stephen King but it stretched my tiny brain in ways I didnt think possible and some of Joyce's writing is nothing short of sublime, plus as an evocation of turn of the century Dublin...stunning!

Also it's quite difficult to grasp fully the devlopment of 20th century literature if you dont read Ulysees because it such a hugely seminal book. So I struggled with it, I mean really struggled, but eventually I tamed the beast. Was it entertainment in the way that say reading john Grisham is? No sir, but was it well worth the effort, for me absolutely..so thats an instance of what I'm trying to get at, tackling a difficult text for reasons other than strict entertainment.....

Also getting back to my suggestion that you read round Anne frank to get a better understanding of the book, Ulysses a classic case in point for me. During university I read The Odyssey and Dante's inferno, huge influences on Ulysses and upon rereading it whole new insights and deeper understanding were opened up.....

DublinWriter

toomevara wrote:

Right, take Joyce's Ulysses...its an incredibly demanding and difficult book to read (at least i found it to be so)..It actually required alot of discipline on my part to get through it the first time I read it...on one level I'd much rather have been reading Stephen King but it stretched my tiny brain in ways I didnt think possible and some of Joyce's writing is nothing short of sublime, plus as an evocation of turn of the century Dublin...stunning!

It took me six years to read Ulysses and two days to read 'Bravo Two Zero'.

While I initially found B2Z a very entertaining and well-written book, Ulysses actually changed the way I think about, and filter, life.

Deer

Sigh - now I'm going to have to go off and buy Anne Frank and read it again.

And try to read Ulysses again. Will it ever stop?

DublinWriter

Deer wrote:

And try to read Ulysses again. Will it ever stop?

Yes. Once you initially read it 'cover to cover' it's a joy to dip into at random.

toomevara

DublinWriter wrote:

While I initially found B2Z a very entertaining and well-written book, Ulysses actually changed the way I think about, and filter, life.

Now how come it took me 3 paragraphs of inane blanderings (see above) to get that message across? I stand in awe of your mastery of succinct brevity......by the way Deer, re: Ulysses you can do it....you know what might be a plan, an audio cd to ease you in, does such a fabled beast exist? Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind a neuron is feebly trying to make a connection.....

Incidentally and I dont want to increase the pitch of your sufferings, but has anyone braved Finnegan's Wake?

toomevara

Just came across this on the RTE website......


http://www.rte.ie/readingulysses/

The CD set is a bit pricy, but the mp3 thingy might be an option if you've got a player.......might take a punt on this myself.....

DublinWriter

toomevara wrote:

Now how come it took me 3 paragraphs of inane blanderings (see above) to get that message across? I stand in awe of your mastery of succinct brevity......

Why thank you, it was bet into me over several years by sadistic sub-editors and a lesson hard-learnt. I still have the ego-scars to prove it.

Also see Eric Blair's (George Orwell) masterful 1000-word essay on how to write prose. He says you have to review what you write at least three times and remove all unnecessary words or phrases out during each parse; the trick being to get your point across using the least possible words.

toomevara wrote:

by the way Deer, re: Ulysses you can do it....you know what might be a plan, an audio cd to ease you in, does such a fabled beast exist? Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind a neuron is feebly trying to make a connection.....

Two options:

1. The film of Ulysses made in 1967 is an excellent starting point. It was remastered and released on DVD a couple of years ago. Although the plot was transposed into 60's Dublin, probably for reasons of budget, it remains an excellent key into the text, in particular Siobhan McKenna's reading of Molly Bloom's soliloquy and Milo O'Shea's robust and self-conscious portrait of Bloom.

2. RTE released an umpteen CD-set of the 1982 full-unabridged radio dramitisation of Ulysses. Although it's true to the original text, it's let down somewhat by the RTE Radio players of the time (many of the voices you'll recognise as doing ads on the radio) who were not in the same league as Milo O'Shea or Siobhan McKenna.

toomevara wrote:

Incidentally and I don’t want to increase the pitch of your sufferings, but has anyone braved Finnegan's Wake?

This is the argument that has divided Joycians down through the years. Some think it's pure genius and Joyce's Masterwork, others think it's a self-indulgent tome and a waste of 17 years of Joyce's career. I'd be of the latter camp.

To me FW is like some horrific four-dimensional crossword puzzle. As least in Ulysses when you work out the puns they give you some clues about the motiviation of the characters. In FW, you're basically just solving semantic and linguistic puns for the sake of it, and personally I don't think the investment is worth the reward.

toomevara

DublinWriter wrote:

Also see Eric Blair's (George Orwell) masterful 1000-word essay on how to write prose. He says you have to review what you write at least three times and remove all unnecessary words or phrases out during each parse; the trick being to get your point across using the least possible words.

Thanks for the tip, definitely going to hunt that up....didn't hemingway espouse a similar philosophy?

DublinWriter wrote:

This is the argument that has divided Joycians down through the years. Some think it's pure genius and Joyce's Masterwork, others think it's a self-indulgent tome and a waste of 17 years of Joyce's career. I'd be of the latter camp.

I remember having a terrifying, but brief, encounter with it in the UCG library many moons ago.....I remember confusion and disbelief as the predominant emotions...

NADA

Ulysees is just another TYPICAL classic. That is "something everybody wants to say they have read, but also something no body wants to read"

r3nu4l

NADA wrote:

Ulysees is just another TYPICAL classic. That is "something everybody wants to say they have read, but also something no body wants to read"

But until you've actually read it you will never know whether it's any good or not and even then it's totally subjective. Personally, I find plays by Shakespeare to be total rubbish, despite the fact that I KNOW he was a literary genius but there you go.

toomevara

NADA wrote:

Ulysees is just another TYPICAL classic. That is "something everybody wants to say they have read, but also something no body wants to read"

Can I refer you to post no 18 in the current thread, I'm not getting into this one all over again...far too bloody tiresome...:D

muesli_offire

Its a good yarn, but once you get past the first ten chaptrs you do have to wonder "what's the point here?". Also some quotation marks would have been nice.

damienom

Best way to tackle it is to take each chapter as a stand alone, read it, dump the book for a couple of weeks and then read the next one.....

Very enjoyable if you go about it that way!!