i know this is the best thing i've ever read, nothing comes close to Joyce in talent and quality, he was truly a genius who squeezed the potential of language and words to the fucking max
however, i would feel like a phony saying this is my favorite book, as i didn't understand what Joyce was trying to say most of the time, i did some preparation before reading it and i knew what was heppening in terms of plot and the whole parallelism with the Odyssey, but the "meaning" of things (if there is such) just went over my head, anyone know this feel?
i don't feel frustrated because Joyce said he filled the book with riddles and shit, so i think i did pretty good on my first read, i will definitely read it again, it was the most rewarding book i've ever read
anyway, Joyce thread i guess. Leopold and Stephen's streams of consciousness were by far my favorite passages to read, the final episode wasn't that great, i also didn't find the book very funny, there were funny bits here and there and the Cyclops episode was hilarious but overall it made me feel sad as fuck, for Bloom mostly
I think it's supposed to be like a humanist manifesto... everyday life, everyday banality as somehow epic, Odysseus' struggle as every man's, and the beauty and scope in even the most boring of days..
I'm about 150 pages in so far and I am certain that I'm missing at least 2/3 of the subtleties inlaid in this book. That being said 1/3 of of them is more content and complexity than you find in your average 10 classics combined.
I'm enjoying Ulysses so far more than I've enjoyed any other book and I'm already looking forward to reading some of the material Joyce repeatedly references and then re-reading Ulysses in a year or so.
>>7814245
>nothing comes close to Joyce in talent and quality
Shakespeare does and goes beyond
>>7814245
>i would feel like a phony saying this is my favorite book, as i didn't understand what Joyce was trying to say most of the time
I think that's okay as long as you enjoyed it enough to even consider it being a favourite. That just means you maybe appreciate beautiful and experimental prose more than the overall themes.
>>7814270
>everyday banality as somehow epic
If there is a main theme, I think it's this.
>spanish as native language
>basic english
I'm guessing I'll never know if Ulysses is anything more than a meme book
>>7816453
whats with the influx of these gross spanish and portuguese speakers on /lit/? Leave and learn english before you post you subhuman mongoloids
>>7816484
Said the monolingual moron.
>>7815876
What are the works he references
>>7816565
The divine comedy, Hamlet, the Bible, Ovid's metamorphosis, the aenid, obscure Irish politics, the odyssey. It also helps to have read a portrait of the artist. And I'm sure there's more but off the top of my head that's what I've got.
All that being said I went into it having only read portrait (since starting I've almost finished the Odyssey on audiobook which has helped immensely) and because of the annotations I'm still getting more out of it than anything else I've read
>>7814245
I'd like to tell you something that will explain how rare are some of the things he wrote.
Samuel Beckett, who was the "learner" of Joyce, was writing what JJ said. Then, a friend of JJ appeared and he said something like "close the door" or anything similar. Then, when JJ read what SBeckett wrote, he saw that "door" was writing and he didn't know why.
Samuel swear that Joyce said that, and Joyce liked it, so it remains there. That's why nobody understands some things of his work, overall Finnegans Wake.
Sorry for my english.
>>7816713
wat?
>>7816744
Learn to read. Joyce was dictating to Beckett who overheard someone else say a word and wrote it down. Joyce later kept the word, even though he didn't intend for it to be included, just because he liked it.
>>7816760
wat?
>>7816633
English sucks ass. The only reason so many people choose to learn it is because of british imperialism leading to english being the language of international commerce. The romance languages are beautiful and if your post isn't b8 (pleease let it be b8), you sound like a bigot
Don't read finnegan's wake. It's a pointless exercise. It'll take weeks to come to the conclusion that the whole thing was Joyce fingering his arsehole and telling himself how clever he is.
>>7816775
English doesn't suck ass, neither does Spanish. Both are beautiful languages, so don't try to be like the other anglo monolingual and say one is better than the other. One may prefer English over Spanish, or the other way around, but that is mere fancy, or masturbation.
>>7816633
Whatever you say, monolingual.
>>7816775
Why are you upset that you're not good at English? You can improve your English, but you can't improve the shit color of your skin.
>>7816775
>you sound like a bigot
All I know is that Molly's soliloquy made me cry.
>>7816879
Me too, anon. Stephen on the beach was very touching too. I loved every bit of Hades.
>>7816879
why
>>7816633
pendejo
