read Ulysses

I’ve got to read this for college. Got it out of the library today. Its due back on the 15th of September. It looks tricky but I suppose anything worthwhile is going to require an effort.

A few nights ago, I was describing to my girlfriend how boring it was to slog through Ulysses. “Why are you reading it then?” I said “well it’s not all bad…you know there’s this good passage..” and I read it to her, and then “and here’s another… and another…” And so I bored her with my recollections and recitations.

And in spite of that, I wish I had the two years of my life back! In the time it took me to read Ulysses, who knows what avenues of education I could have traveled.

I’m reminded of my feelings of finishing War and Peace, a similarly great book with vast tracts of boredom. I remembered thinking how nice it would have been if someone told me to skim the “war” and concentrate on “peace”. Sadly, such a simple recipe for abridging Ulysses is impossible. Each paragraph needs to be deciphered, considered, and judged. I think the book needs, more than anything, a surgeon to separate the necrotic tendons binding the pink pulsing organs. If someday someone makes a useful abridgment, I’ll be first in line to reread the book.

There are so many classic novels I want to read and this is the challenging one on my list so wish me luck.

Not bad. Easy to read. Very well organized!

I like the way the first bits of text in all three sections of the book parallel each other. Other than that, my overriding thoughts in reading are of boredom and desire to get on with my otherwise enjoyable life.

Got to page 53 before giveing up

ahhh what a great book, I am still making my way slowly through it, finished the first section, and enjoying the slow read…....

The script episode was kind of an explosion of symbols and emotions associated with the two main characters, in the midst of which they finally manage to directly interact with each other. It would seem that a lot of clues to the book’s riddles are in this episode, but whatever easter eggs there may be, they’re obscured by too much toolaroom toolaroom.

That all said, I was actually moved by the end of the chapter. Two aesthetes, poetic and imaginative, stuck on the banal island. Maybe this really is all going somewhere. I’m as surprised as anyone.

I start each episode with this great excitement. This will be interesting! This will be new! Within pages, the old ennui sets in. With little exception, each new chapter is like receiving a kaleidoscopic Easter Egg which, peeled back, reveals nothing more than rubbery white innards.

I’m starting to skim the text a little faster now.

I have a lot of thoughts about this episode:

• I really, really liked the first half of this, even with all the work involved. The latinate first paragraphs are amazing. With a little work they can be made to be intelligible and even relevant to the story! The Pilgrim’s Progress section was also another favorite part. Though for the most part I’m still not emotionally involved while reading, and though I still think Joyce could have used an editor with a sharper axe, I am in awe of his dexterity and homework, and I even loled a couple times.

• I really, really hated the second half of this, and stopped doing as much research as I went along. It seems clear that the episode is kind of a “birthing” of the English language, and the first trimester or so flows well along this line. But by halfway, it appears that the Joyce is in the 1800s or so. Since language hasn’t changed that much between 1800 and 1900, it stops being evolutionary and becomes simply a parody of a mish-mash of styles. Moreover, it appears that it’s parody of writers most of whom I don’t know.

• The final blustery paragraphs seem to be simultaneously the postpartum crying baby, the most contemporary vernacular, and Joyce doing a parody of himself. It was tedious and very uninformative reading, and yet I still admire how many levels Joyce put into this.

• If I spent more time in this section, I could really build up my vocabulary!!

• In the time it took me to read this and the previous episode, I managed to almost finish “Anna Karenina”. Anna Karenina is a work of great insight into the human condition, one that astounds with its clarity and its penetration into human behavior. Offhand, I can think of no better contrast than these two to show the extremes of what purpose literature is meant to pursue. I learned so much about life from Anna Karenina. What am I learning from Ulysses, other than vocabulary??