Yo /lit/, I'm a spud nigger here and thought it's about time I read the a book which is actually decent and comes from Ireland. I'm thinking about Ulysses and I'm wondering if I should read the Odyssey first. I heard that Joyce makes parallels between his book and the Odyssey. Even if it's not necessary for me to read it first would it be worthwhile just to understand Ulysses more?
>>7786073
to get the most enjoyment you should read
>Odyssey
>Dubliners
>Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
>a lil' bit of Ibsen
>>7786083
I'm reading Dubliners right now?
should I be getting more out of these stories than slight interest or am I just retarded.
'The Sisters' is not what I'd call a great story.
>>7786085
you're missing most of what's going on in the stories then
it's also pretty much straight up realism for the most part with no real writing flourishes sans The Dead.
The rest of his output is not this way.
>>7786085
dubliners are my favorite and pretty much the foundation for how I'd like to write someday. not that I ever will ofc
>>7786093
Maybe I should re-read it and pay more attention.
I'm pretty new to reading literature. Any advice other than be less of an idiot? I really enjoyed The Sound and the Fury but this just seems plain in comparison.
>>7786106
I suggest that you use 4chan less and read more
>>7786109
not everything has to be wordy and wacky and in your face with how abstract it is. if you take your time with it you'll start noticing how musical and pretty the prose in dubliners is despite sounding plain on the surface.
>>7786126
I did really like the opening passage about Paralysis.
I think you're right. I just need to pay closer attention to everything.
>>7786134
it helps to contextualize and understand the trends of writing when the piece was published too
>>7786147
any advice for that?
OP this is for you and all anons wanting to read Ulysses.
Do not worry about reading the Odyssey, Hamlet etc. before reading it, because even having read them you may still miss the parallels between the works.
The work that will help you the most is A Portrait of the Artist and I highly recommend that you read it before Ulysses. Not only is it a good forray into Joyce's style, but it is also an incredible novel in its own right and the best bildungsroman I've read personally.
>>7786150
Most important periods and movements to know:
Antiquity
Medieval
Renaissance
Elizabeth era
Neoclassical
Romanticism
Victorian era and Realism
Modernist
Post-modern
just read up on all those (Wikipedia will do) just to get a baseline understanding of what they were like and authors to knwo about from them.
if you can hunt down an anthology, that'll help lots too.
What i gave you mostly applies to Western authors though, so don't forget about all the great world lit out there
>>7786172
>you may still miss the parallels between the works
I hadn't read the Odyssey for years when I tackled Ulysses, but I caught plenty of the chapter's allusions and was quite pleased at the moves Joyce made, like the Cyclops
>>7786126
dubliners' prose is flat and garbage. such sentimental shit.
>>7786190
whatever you say buddy
>>7786085
It's meant to tell the reader what the fifth act of a man's life might look like.
The 'Simoniac' is so pious that the moment he breaks the chalice, he effectively enters the netherworld.... Then the idea of revisiting the old house is irrelevant, you know...it's the voice of someone who's moved beyond those things.
So the irony its expressing is that the man who speaks of spiritual things is living, yet the man who speaks continually of his childhood is effectively speaking to you from beyond the grave.
Start with Finnegans Wake.
>>7786085
The Sisters is one of the worst stories in Dubliners.
Keep reading it at least until A Painful Case. That's the GOAT short story.
Also follow >>7786172's advice.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is key because the protagonist is also the protagonist of the first 3 chapters of Ulysses (and some of the subsequent ones too). Dedalus is the second most important character in Ulysses so it helps a lot to get his backstory.
