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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
Listened to like 30 min while running up & down with laundry. Can’t comprehend this, not sure if I ever will be able to with these narrators. Reading the book may be easier? But uh…is it really worth it? Do I care about the literary society of 1900 Dublin? I thought I might, but not this bad. Classic. Hahahaha
challenging
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Much of this book is basically Joyce trolling the literary world (he admits that he wrote it this way because the only way to ensure immortality was to keep the professors arguing, or something to that effect; basically, it's designed to never be fully comprehensible).
The academic bullshit surrounding the book, though, shouldn't affect your perception of it. It's still amazing. The characters are still brilliantly drawn. Joyce pulls off the amazing trick of proving competent or excellent at just about every literary style present at the time. It takes THE classic and totally undermines its epic appeal at every turn, bringing everything down to the totally mundane.
In short, just because a bunch of sad old fucks have decided this is one of those boring old classics of "Great Literature" (read what's in the quotation marks in a stuffy English accent, for greatest effect), doesn't negate the appeal of what's actually in the book. Fuck the lit-crit circle. It's obvious to any non-deluded reader or one too affected by hype and critical regard that this book is not to be taken all too seriously, that it's pretty much not THE classic, but THE anti-classic.
It's packed with body humour, bawdy puns, sexual frustration and anxiety, fucked up incomprehensible bullshit, and insanity. Joyce had the balls to negate the classics of literature- not just the Odyssey, but everything from Celtic folk tales to English drama to the modernist literature of his time. Ulysses is the ultimate fuck-you to reductive English departments, which is why it's so funny that they still fall for it.
Look, it's not that it tricked people into thinking it's good. It is good. Just not for the reasons your 70 year old English professor in his tweed jacket thinks so. This book is ten times more genuinely punk than any punk music I've heard. It's a reclamation of the real world as source material for literature, and not in that boring Naturalist or Realist manner, and a major fuck-you to the establishment. And no, the book has not become part of the establishment. A bunch of hilariously stupid readings of it have.
And because Joyce deals non-reductively and bawdily and frequently makes an utter joke of the Great Serious Issues that Great Literature tackles, I find this book actually profound in how it handles love, racism, loneliness, trust, friendship, etc.
So yeah, it's fucked up and much of it is incomprehensible and bizarre and stupid. Just like life, man.
It's not Great Literature at all. But that's precisely what makes it so fucking brilliant. That Joyce managed to intentionally trick the literary establishment into thinking it was Great Literature is just another point in the book's favour.
The academic bullshit surrounding the book, though, shouldn't affect your perception of it. It's still amazing. The characters are still brilliantly drawn. Joyce pulls off the amazing trick of proving competent or excellent at just about every literary style present at the time. It takes THE classic and totally undermines its epic appeal at every turn, bringing everything down to the totally mundane.
In short, just because a bunch of sad old fucks have decided this is one of those boring old classics of "Great Literature" (read what's in the quotation marks in a stuffy English accent, for greatest effect), doesn't negate the appeal of what's actually in the book. Fuck the lit-crit circle. It's obvious to any non-deluded reader or one too affected by hype and critical regard that this book is not to be taken all too seriously, that it's pretty much not THE classic, but THE anti-classic.
It's packed with body humour, bawdy puns, sexual frustration and anxiety, fucked up incomprehensible bullshit, and insanity. Joyce had the balls to negate the classics of literature- not just the Odyssey, but everything from Celtic folk tales to English drama to the modernist literature of his time. Ulysses is the ultimate fuck-you to reductive English departments, which is why it's so funny that they still fall for it.
Look, it's not that it tricked people into thinking it's good. It is good. Just not for the reasons your 70 year old English professor in his tweed jacket thinks so. This book is ten times more genuinely punk than any punk music I've heard. It's a reclamation of the real world as source material for literature, and not in that boring Naturalist or Realist manner, and a major fuck-you to the establishment. And no, the book has not become part of the establishment. A bunch of hilariously stupid readings of it have.
And because Joyce deals non-reductively and bawdily and frequently makes an utter joke of the Great Serious Issues that Great Literature tackles, I find this book actually profound in how it handles love, racism, loneliness, trust, friendship, etc.
So yeah, it's fucked up and much of it is incomprehensible and bizarre and stupid. Just like life, man.
It's not Great Literature at all. But that's precisely what makes it so fucking brilliant. That Joyce managed to intentionally trick the literary establishment into thinking it was Great Literature is just another point in the book's favour.
Read this many years ago, this time tried it on talking book. The narrator was awesome and I got a new perspective on the language.
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Dear God. I finished it. That was painful. Joyce is an Ahole.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It's frustrating and difficult and funny and breathtaking. It's a lot all of the time and some chapters had me so confused I almost gave up. Was it worth it - yes, to me it was. I was laughing and by the end it had me in tears.
Will I read it again? To speak with Ulysses: "...yes I said yes I will Yes."
Will I read it again? To speak with Ulysses: "...yes I said yes I will Yes."
I don’t know why I liked this so much. It was a love/hate relationship, but ultimately I think I fell on the side of really enjoying the challenge. Just selections this time, but now I’m definitely interested in studying the whole thing someday.