ULYSSES by James Joyce

Have any of you read this novel?
I just picked it up last night to have a new book for the weekend. Im just at the 2nd episode but I love the style and the story already.

 

no matter what I say, it's gonna be either "strong unaware brah" or "mad gay"


so now that that is out of the way


no, I never even heard of it

 

would it happen to be about Ulysses Grant?

 

Sometimes I get in the mood to torture myself through unreadable stuff like Joyce, Thomas Pynchon, Gaddis, Rabelais or whatever. But it's just an exercise.

The writers I really like are all concise and readable: Kafka, Borges, J.D. Salinger in Nine Stories (not Catcher so much), Knut Hamsun, Chekhov, Brecht, Isaac Babel, Guy de Maupassant, Mishima, Gogol, William Burroughs, Robert Frost.

 

Nah man I just had too much coffee yesterday lol. But strong lol

It's about a man in Ireland, and the entire 700+ page novel details one day of his life. But it's written in a schema with links to The Odyssey by Homer.

 

being Irish, I might find this to be interesting actually

 

What about Dickens?
And I dont know, maybe I just havent read far enough to run into brain meltdowns but so far it's pretty coherent? Other than the numerous cultural referrences which I am strong unaware of

 

Im Irish as well, so that was a big deciding factor on which classic literature to snatch up next

 

Dickens is alright. He's one of them jolly writers. I might be too emo for him. No, I still like complex psychological themes. But I can't bother with verbosity.

 

I've only read A Tale of Two Cities, but Id definitley put it in my top 5 books! I love his style.
Are there any other novels you have read with similar stream of conscious writing to Ulysses? It may be a style for me to get further into

 

But before you suggest anything, keep in mind that I went to a public highschool with over 3000 students, I dropped out, was in the lowest level classes without being special education, and read maybe 2 books between 7th grade and turning 20.
So naturally, my vocabulary is not one of my strong points and nods to other (especially foreign) authors or stories tend to make as much sense to me as programming a universal television remote control on 10 hits of LSD.
I mean I've gathered a decent vocabulary on my own over the years, not quite sure how, but I find myself stumbling over words quite often and left feeling dumb and embarassed.

 

I got that book. Been meaning to read it. If you can get through it without difficulty, check out Finnegans Wake.
Hunger by Knut Hamsun and Notes From The Underground by Dostoevsky are my 2 favorite books.

 

It's the only Dostoevsky book I've read. I don't have patience for the long novels. All that shit's depressing. These days I need literature that is light of feet (humorous). Even Camus' got a bit of humor. But I didn't see it in my attempts to read Dosto.

 

Dostoevsky was arguably the most brilliant writer of all time. You don't have time for reading 400 pages yet you come on here every day?

 

That's funny, I was just thinking about James Joyce yesterday and that maybe I wouldn't mind reading something of his. I know he was a very erotic man irl... I think I heard that he would ask his wife to send him her soiled underwear so he could smell her scent. A little out there.. but still.. erotic as hell.

Not too long ago I read the unabridged version of Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. See, I gotta keep up with my Russian heritage.

 

I fixed it. Patience.

 

Aww, but Crime and Punishment is awesome ! You should give it a try.


I personally find Kafka very depressing. His stuff makes me wanna cry and commit a suicide. He makes everything look so hopeless.

 

I hated it.

 

i got to the 250 or so page, then i had to return it to the owner...
it was a hard but beautiful read.

 

I liked it somewhat, but overall it was too long and drawn out and intellectual.