I just finished reading Ulysses for the second time. Here is the definitive ranking of the best to worst episodes. If you disagree with me you are wrong.
1. Sirens
2. Laestrygonians
3. Ithaca
4. Cyclops
5. Circe
6. Nausicaa
7. Calypso
8. Wandering Rocks
9. Nestor
10. Aeolus
11. Hades
12. Penelope
13. Telemachus
14. Lotus Eaters
15. Hades
16. Scylla and Charybdis
17. Proteus
18. Oxen of the Sun
>>8129925
>proteus so low
>is made up for by laestrygonians being so high
Have to say, this is a pretty bad ranking.
cute pic
>>8129930
There's some good stuff in Proteus ("Ineluctable modality of the visible" ofc) but I think structurall overall it was a bad move to put such a hard chapter so early in the book. I have met so many people who I think would like Ulysses but got stuck on Proteus. Otherwise it would be higher. Also Stephen sucks compared to Bloom.
Laestrygonians is so good, I almost made it #1. I had forgotten how many of my favorite bits in the book were from that chapter until I reread it.
>>8129948
post yours and lets have an insanely autistic argument about the relative merits of chapters in the best novel ever written
>Hades and Telemachus that low
>Oxen of the Sun dead last
jeez
calling out everyone who should have noticed that I put "Hades" twice instead of "Eumaeus" which should have been #16
>>8129993
Oxen of the Sun is unreadably bad. Geniuses fuck up sometimes
>>8129925
>Reading Ulysses twice
>Getting Hades twice and forgetting Eumaeus
Right.
Anyway, my ranking would be:
1. Sirens (this really was the best prose I have ever read)
2. Ithaca
3. Penelope
4. Wandering Rocks
5. Nausicaa
6. Cyclops
7. Circe
8. Laestrygonians
9. Aeolus
10. Telemachus
11. Calypso
12. Hades
13. Proteus
14. Nestor
15. Lotus Eaters
16. Oxen of the Sun
17. Scylla and Charybdis
18. Eumaeus (a very mediocre chapter, and including this between Circe and Ithaca only accentuates its mediocrity)
>>8130018
good ranking and I mostly agree and in the post before yours I realized that I had totally forgotten the extremely mediocre (INTENTIONALLY??) Eumaeus
>>8130015
It's really not that bad anon, the first 1/3 or so is rough but after that it gets easier. Besides, the subject matter is literal banter. I found it pretty funny at times
>>8129966
where's the chapter with deaf pat? i always remember him being an information seller, but i read it while high as heck, so i may have hallucinated a bit. also, the blind stripling, do you recall an instance where one of the character mentions the blind stripling knowing their thoughts, that thinking is loud enough for the blind to hear, and that they use their sticks to make them drunk? i've looked for that for a long time. i loved the way Joyce played around with the senses.
>>8130088
i'm gonna be reading through it again soon, It's been nagging at me for quite a while.
any joyce reader who knows what the fuck i'm talking about with the blind stripling?
>>8130197
I don't remember that specifically, but from what I recall the blind stripling is given the most attention in Hades. Though it's been a while so that might not be the episode you're looking for, and there is a chance you might've hallucinated the specific line you're thinking of.
>>8130197
Might've been in Lestrygonians.
>>8130209
>tfw i could have hallucinated Ulysses into a better book
>>8130197
I remember him being in Wandering Rocks and Sirens but I can't remember what you're talking about. Could have been in Circe
>>8129925
>Hades that low
>Circe not number one.
What on earth are you doing?
The Oxen of the Sun is the best episode and you should fuck yourself.
That's real satyre.
It's the episode Ezra Pound called attention to when talking about the greatness of Ulysses.
It's the episode where Joyce showed how to truly absorb literature.
It's the episode where fuckers like you get lost and go cry to mamma.
If you didn't laugh at the description of the bee, you should cut your balls off.
>>8129966
>I have met so many people who I think would like Ulysses but got stuck on Proteus
It was a right move, then. Joyce shouldn't make his book accessible to morons like you.
>Also Stephen sucks compared to Bloom
People like you should never be allowed to get a book in their hands, you little fucking bitch.
Am I the only one who doesn't think of books and specific chapters in competition with each other?
>>8131164
Oh, sure you are. I bet no one else in the world thinks that way. Congratulations, anon, you've been the first.
>>8131169
I didn't mean that literally. I was trying to suggest that it doesn't need to be that way
>>8131179
Did OP hurt your special snowflake feelings by giving your favorite chapter a low rank? fuck off kiddo
>>8130197
The stripling shows up in (I believe) Laestrygonians, Wandering Rocks, and Sirens (he's the piano tuner at the start).
>>8129925
>15. Hades
What the fuck are you doing?
>>8132630
I fucked up, Eumaeus should have been 15 and Hades should be 11. A relatively average chapter in the greatest novel ever written is still really good.
>>8131162
If you don't think Stephen sucks compared to Bloom, or at the very least that Stephen has a lot more to learn from Bloom than Bloom has from Stephen (despite Stephen's greater formal education), then I barely believe you've read the book and I certainly don't believe you understood it.
>>8131164
Yes you're the only one.
>>8131158
It encapsulates most of the problems with Ulysses in general, ie the desire to write an "impressive" piece of work rather than an enjoyable one. Most of Ulysses is extremely enjoyable anyway. Oxen of the Sun is, for the most part, not. There's some good stuff in it though.
I don't really see why everyone is putting Sirens near the top. Definitely the worst chapter for me. The reliance on making phrases and sentences into musical "themes" is really overdone, and the musical "structure" of the chapter that Joyce attempts just doesn't add up to anything. Also, it's just not that interesting of a scene, just characters sitting in a bar and singing. It's not a terrible chapter overall, just an experiment whose execution isn't as interesting as its concept. The ending is funny though.
I'm going to go read Ulysses right now, you guys make it seem like it isn't all that hard.
>>8133500
It's not too bad, anon. If you have trouble with something post about it here and I think there are enough non-asshole genuine fans of the book that we'll try to help you out with it. Or maybe I'm overestimating how helpful /lit/ is, I don't come here that often.
>>8132848
I love the barmaids, especially the one who that horny dude gets to snap her garter. Really all the little character detail in that chapter is so wonderful, even beyond the formal musical structure stuff.
