Just finished reading Ulysses

Holy fucking shit. What a book. Loved it. Can't wait to read it again in a few years to get the rest of the 90% of references.

Rejoyce!

That is a love it or hate it book. Like Brothers Karamazov.

"

Nizhidrhamannit wrote:

Rejoyce!

+1 :)

A good book for those who aren't yung and easily freudened.

I was very fortunate to have spent an entire undergrad semester breaking Ulysses down -- each person in the class was given a chapter to analyse. We were all very envious of the one who got the Fireworks. I think I got the newspaper article chapter, because I remember 'Clever, Very'...

As my literary prof said with an eye roll when I proudly told him I'd managed my way through Ulysses independently a year later, "now go read Finnegans Wake and kiss goodbye to the next 20 years of your life".

(I didn't -- I know an academic troll when I see one, and Joyce admitted at least once that's precisely why he wrote FW. Portrait of an artist as a young man is worth it for context though.)

Related to this: I recently tried to give Gravity's Rainbow a proper crack. According to Kindle, I made it 11% before caving and seeking brain shelter in much easier to understand books. If you want a name-drop macro ubernovel about an entire era, I deeply recommend Delillo's Underworld for his crazy trip through post-WWII America, 50s through to 90s. Who knew the history of a baseball could be so fascinating?

Sometimes I felt Altnaharra was James Joyce's standard bearer for flight-of-ideas prose.

You definitely need to step up your right-brain game to get the full gist of either. Or have a couple drams into ya first.

of the “meme trilogy” books (Ulysses, Infinite Jest, Gravity’s Rainbow), I must admit Ulysses was the least pleasurable read for me, but also the one with the most literary relevance
GR is a real doozy, I recommend that one next if you’ve not yet had that joy