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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
I appreciate the layers upon every word in this book: Joyce’s intellect is on a different plane. I also can’t help but think this book is a giant ‘suck it’ to anyone reading it.
It’s easy to see the massive influence this had on many of today’s modernist authors. Wallace is a pale imitation of Joyce. Pynchon fell too in love with his side bars, tangents, and pop cultural references. Ulysses, while I did not enjoy reading the book, does transcend its time and place.
It’s also too cute by half and the humor, to me, doesn’t hold up. Yes, I most likely missed 2/3rds of the jokes and I’m not the biggest fan of mean humor. Still, I do see how ‘gravity’s rainbow’ and ‘infinite jest’ truly are love letters toJoyce.
I did not enjoy reading this book from section three onward. There were a few good chapters, like Hades, but then there was Circe and Oxen. While I appreciate Oxen, and I’m amazed by the skill, it was overly crafted and just not worth my time.
I hear repeated readings make one love this book more. I’ll leave that exercise to others. This book is ground break, I see that. It’s also, like Seinfeld, a book about nothing that tries way to hard.
It’s easy to see the massive influence this had on many of today’s modernist authors. Wallace is a pale imitation of Joyce. Pynchon fell too in love with his side bars, tangents, and pop cultural references. Ulysses, while I did not enjoy reading the book, does transcend its time and place.
It’s also too cute by half and the humor, to me, doesn’t hold up. Yes, I most likely missed 2/3rds of the jokes and I’m not the biggest fan of mean humor. Still, I do see how ‘gravity’s rainbow’ and ‘infinite jest’ truly are love letters toJoyce.
I did not enjoy reading this book from section three onward. There were a few good chapters, like Hades, but then there was Circe and Oxen. While I appreciate Oxen, and I’m amazed by the skill, it was overly crafted and just not worth my time.
I hear repeated readings make one love this book more. I’ll leave that exercise to others. This book is ground break, I see that. It’s also, like Seinfeld, a book about nothing that tries way to hard.
I tend not to rate books but this has a 3.something average so here we are.
Ulysses would be worthless if it wasn’t also imbued with ‘fun’. It imitates the historic epic like a child imitates a giant via standing on tables. At times, reading Ulysses can feel like rearing this rebellious but ebullient child, and attempting to follow their every winding stream of conscious. But deny them and rob yourself the rare pleasure of elucidation from some improbable syntax of tree, light and scale. Joyce intends to communicate with every cryptic syllable the joy of deciphering some impossible sentence in some old tomb, like uncovering rocks in the stream (of conciseness). Essentially, a bibliophile simulation video game that places the reader as Odysseus. You must use all of your wit to make it through these traps and trials only to find yourself at home kissing the rump of an adulteress who shuns punctuation; the final boss of modernity (pure unadulterated feminism?)
My sense is that Joyce made a series of increasingly complex mistakes in approaching consciousness as he grew older.
adventurous
challenging
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
FINISHED!!!
This was my 4th attempt to read ULYSSES over the course of about 10 years, and finally progressed through the whole work. I'd read for 50 or so pages, put it to the side while I read something else, then came back to it and picked up where I left off. Not that the book didn't hold my attention, because it did, but that the density and complexity of the text I could only handle in those smaller segments. Hence taking 10 months from fresh start to last page.
I know this is on several "Top-100" novels lists (http://www.nytimes.com/library/books/072098best-novels-list.html) and I can see why. The depth, the breadth, the complex vocabulary and sentence structure, and the inventiveness of Joyce's narrative over the course of the day in the live of his central character.
I found that I needed to read quietly, audibly, to myself over many of the passages in order to really perceive the cadence and rhythm of the content. This was particularly true in the ending chapter/sentence... Molly Bloom's soliloquy. That took me several days to read.
My favorite section was the one just prior to that... the Question and Answer session between the 'narrator' and the principle character that the narrator is questioning... I don't remember if that was Leopold Bloom or Stephen Dedalus.
This was my 4th attempt to read ULYSSES over the course of about 10 years, and finally progressed through the whole work. I'd read for 50 or so pages, put it to the side while I read something else, then came back to it and picked up where I left off. Not that the book didn't hold my attention, because it did, but that the density and complexity of the text I could only handle in those smaller segments. Hence taking 10 months from fresh start to last page.
I know this is on several "Top-100" novels lists (http://www.nytimes.com/library/books/072098best-novels-list.html) and I can see why. The depth, the breadth, the complex vocabulary and sentence structure, and the inventiveness of Joyce's narrative over the course of the day in the live of his central character.
I found that I needed to read quietly, audibly, to myself over many of the passages in order to really perceive the cadence and rhythm of the content. This was particularly true in the ending chapter/sentence... Molly Bloom's soliloquy. That took me several days to read.
My favorite section was the one just prior to that... the Question and Answer session between the 'narrator' and the principle character that the narrator is questioning... I don't remember if that was Leopold Bloom or Stephen Dedalus.
In all honesty, I've been "currently reading" this book for about 8 months, and have owned it for about 7 years. Parts of it are so funny I laughed out loud on the train. I've gotten through almost 2/3 of it by telling myself when I get lost that if I keep going I'll figure out what's happening sooner or later.... But can somebody give me a pep talk about finishing??
Няма да поставям оценка на книгата, защото не съм я прочел. След стотина страници, смятам, се запознах достатъчно с нея, за да ми стане ясно, че няма да ми е интересна.
Какво е толкова гениалното в нея не видях, освен ако хилядите явни и прикрити референции не се броят. Какво е референция? Ами примерно в разговор за това, колко е поскъпнал животът, да кажеш "А помня времето, когато джойнтът беше левче." и другия да се сети, че това е от песен на Ъпсурт и да се подсмихне.
Одисей е пълна с (и поради тях почти нечитаема) огромно количество такива (според мен) на моменти напълно излишни и насилени референции към неща, които са били популярни през 1912 г. когато Джойс е писал - загатнати неприлични вицове, песни, персонажи от древногръцката митология (това особено често) и т.н. заради които половината книга е всъщност бележки под линия, обясняващи тия референции.
А да, и за стотината страници двамата герои едва успяха да станат от масата. Тва ако не е задъхано действие не знам кое е...
Какво е толкова гениалното в нея не видях, освен ако хилядите явни и прикрити референции не се броят. Какво е референция? Ами примерно в разговор за това, колко е поскъпнал животът, да кажеш "А помня времето, когато джойнтът беше левче." и другия да се сети, че това е от песен на Ъпсурт и да се подсмихне.
Одисей е пълна с (и поради тях почти нечитаема) огромно количество такива (според мен) на моменти напълно излишни и насилени референции към неща, които са били популярни през 1912 г. когато Джойс е писал - загатнати неприлични вицове, песни, персонажи от древногръцката митология (това особено често) и т.н. заради които половината книга е всъщност бележки под линия, обясняващи тия референции.
А да, и за стотината страници двамата герои едва успяха да станат от масата. Тва ако не е задъхано действие не знам кое е...
I did it! It took me 2 months, but I finished Ulysses. I found a lecture on YouTube, that I listened in advance of each chapter. I would NEVER have understood what I was reading otherwise. It's a hard book to read. The very hardest book I've ever read. I'm not one of those people who will read it over and over again.
Ultimately, the story is about the metempsychosis of a person. The change in Bloom takes place in a single day - 6/16/1904. He goes through all the emotions of imaturity and arrogance, being "of the body" with his defication and hunger; his growth into maturity includes a psychadelic "trip" that reminds him of his guilt, and brings him to self forgiveness until he is a new man who reconciles with his adulterous wife Molly.
Ultimately, the story is about the metempsychosis of a person. The change in Bloom takes place in a single day - 6/16/1904. He goes through all the emotions of imaturity and arrogance, being "of the body" with his defication and hunger; his growth into maturity includes a psychadelic "trip" that reminds him of his guilt, and brings him to self forgiveness until he is a new man who reconciles with his adulterous wife Molly.
Dnf-d on page 290. I tried, but I don't find myself picking it up voluntarily and I think that maybe now it's not the time. So see you in the future, I guess.