Is it possible to go into this book without knowing anything about it and "get it" without reading analysis of it first or afterwards?
>>8284653
What do you mean by "getting it"?
You'd better be acquainted with this:
Easy mode: Dubliners, Portrait, the Odyssey and Hamlet.
Nightmare mode: Easy mode plus the Iliad and the Aeneid, the complete works of Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Shakespeare, Defoe and Ibsen, the catechism of the Catholic Church, The Divine Comedy, The Canterbury Tales, Faust parts I and II, the English Romantic poets, Yeats, Beowulf, Morte d'Arthur, Charles Dickens, Henry James, a working knowledge of Latin, Italian and Irish, in-depth knowledge of Irish mythology, history and popular culture around the turn of the century and way more.
>>8284653
Read this first.
The novel establishes a series of parallels between the poem and the novel.
How come the ones always about to read Ulysses are the severely under-read?So did I. You'll be fine as long as the prose does it for you.
>>8284661
>Nightmare mode: Easy mode plus the Iliad and the Aeneid, the complete works of Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Shakespeare, Defoe and Ibsen, the catechism of the Catholic Church, The Divine Comedy, The Canterbury Tales, Faust parts I and II, the English Romantic poets, Yeats, Beowulf, Morte d'Arthur, Charles Dickens, Henry James, a working knowledge of Latin, Italian and Irish, in-depth knowledge of Irish mythology, history and popular culture around the turn of the century and way more.
If the story can't stand on it's own without all this, doesn't it kind of suck?
>>8284653
you can probably read the first 6 chapters fairly easily though you might miss a few allusions to Irish History and classical literature
around chapter 7, Joyce really starts fucking around with form
I definitely needed help from the Gilbert guide to Ulysses with the Oxen of the Sun chapter
>>8284726
No it just means it's not written for book plebs like you.
>>8284726
>If the story can't stand on it's own without all this
the story's nothing much
an Irish Jew goes about his day while his wife cucks him but he helps some drunk punk smartass home after a couple redcoats gave the punk kid a beating
What about this one?
>>8284653
Yes
Just disregard the political (what difference do the specifics make? none)
>>8284661
Maimonides too
Joyce knew his Judaism
>>8284726
It's the most complicated book of all time, not the best book of all time.
"get it"? No. Enjoy it? Yes
>>8284737
>getting it
>>8284661
What allusions to the Iliad are there?
Any book can be read without "preparation."
Your trepidation just means you know you're way beyond your intellectual pay grade.
>>8284726
1. it does stand on its own
2. with all this it's even more fantastic
>>8284726
"Prep" for Ulysses has nothing to do with the story.
Listen to re:Joyce podcast by Frank Delaney. It is interesting and you will have fun reading the book along. He's currently on chapter 9, I believe, so you will have to be on your own after that, as he only does one episode per week and will take years and years to finish the book.
>>8284777
>>8284794
Nice Nestor references.
>>8284737
Pynchon uses his references and intertexuality in much the opposite way Joyce does. Where Joyce's uses of these factors transform his work, Pynchon's uses serve as mere embellishments over an already established framework. Gravity's Rainbow can be appreciated without "getting" all of the references, while the genius of Ulysses is largely lost without such an understanding.
>>8286395
Thank you, that was exactly the sort of reply I was looking for.
>>8287825
I read the first few sentences of the book, I like the feel of the writing style a lot. I think that's a lot of what matters, right?
>>8287829
yeah, i find it very pleasing, i don't understand how people can abandon the book, his writing style is hypnotizing, you should read Portrait though, he changes the writing style a lot in Ulysses, not to mention the Oxen of the Sun episode, he goes through the entire history of English language and parodies dozens of writers, some which are obscure as fuck
>>8284737
Pynchons my fav writer for sure because my fav thing in books is goofs, gags, jokes and rambunctious behavior, and his books are full to the brim of it. Every novel is like one of those novelty snake cans, you open the book & POP you get a face fulla snakes and you fall back cackling. The mad mind, the crack genius, to do it! and then you think hmmm whats he gonna do next, this trickster, and you pick the book back up and BZZZZZZZZZZ you get a shock and Hahahahahah you've been pranked again by the old pynchmeister, that card. "Did that Pynch?" he says, laughing yukyukyukyuk. Watch him as he shoves a pair of plastic buck teeth right up into his mouth and displays em for you- left, right, center- "you like dese? Do i look handsome???" Pulls out a mirror. "Ah!" Hand to naughty mouth. And you're on your ass again laughing as he snaps his suspenders, exits stage right, and appears again hauling a huge golden gong.
