James Joyce

[Millane]

Happy Blooms Day to all you irish out there (or Fenir if you are it )
My next book for Lit is the Dubliners and although i havent read it i was wondering if any of you had (or any of Joyce's other books) and what you personally thought, in particular his writing style, the excerpt we read today sounded bizarre i have never read anything like it...
anyway I would have waited until after i have read the book but i thought it very appropriate to start it on Bloom's Day, i think it is 100 years today actually

[sun-star]

Yes, I think they're having lots of special events in Dublin today...

I read "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" last year and quite enjoyed it. I read it because I was told it was one of his more "normal" ones in terms of writing style, though, and I'm too scared to start any others just yet, though I've heard very good things about him Maybe this year would be a good time to find out for myself.

[Millane]

Originally posted by sun-star
Yes, I think they're having lots of special events in Dublin today...

I read "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" last year and quite enjoyed it. I read it because I was told it was one of his more "normal" ones in terms of writing style, though, and I'm too scared to start any others just yet, though I've heard very good things about him Maybe this year would be a good time to find out for myself.

yeah ive heard his stream-of-consciousness technique is pretty difficult and the majority of people who say they have read Ulysses are lying
A girl i knew's dad is having some art exhibition in ireland because a lot of his work is Joyce themed or inspired, cant remember what it was called though...
Ill hopefully start the Dubliner's tonight and see how if i could stand another similar book

[Artanis]

I'm reading Ulysses and the progress is really sloooooow. This is my second attempt to read it, last time was more than 12 years ago I think, and then I gave up on chapter 3. It is a hard book to get a grip on. Joyce's style of writing is called poetic prose, and I think he often writes seemingly meaningless words but use them to describe how things sound and smell and feel. I'm on chapter 7 now and most of the time Joyce puts the reader right into Leopold Bloom's head. But not all the time, and the shifts are not always obvious. There are times when I don't have a clue on what Leopold, or Joyce, is getting at, but it is not as frustrating as it was last time I read the book. This time I even find the book humorous.

[Millane]

Originally Posted by Artanis

I'm reading Ulysses and the progress is really sloooooow. This is my second attempt to read it, last time was more than 12 years ago I think, and then I gave up on chapter 3. It is a hard book to get a grip on. Joyce's style of writing is called poetic prose, and I think he often writes seemingly meaningless words but use them to describe how things sound and smell and feel. I'm on chapter 7 now and most of the time Joyce puts the reader right into Leopold Bloom's head. But not all the time, and the shifts are not always obvious. There are times when I don't have a clue on what Leopold, or Joyce, is getting at, but it is not as frustrating as it was last time I read the book. This time I even find the book humorous.

well ive read the Dubliners now and it wasnt as bad as i expected. Ive realised now that its not a book you can pick up and finish in the one sitting, ive done that with a few lit books and managed alright but i told a girl that i would finish the Dubliners that night and she laughed and said theres no way i would, well it put me to sleep about a quarter of the way in
A lot of Dubliners is focused around the senses aswell, like he'll have a passage related to the color of the feast and then he'll move on to the smell of the room and characters.

[Hasty Ent]

I read Dubliners years ago and loved it. Shortly afterwards I picked up Ulysses but only got 1/3 of the way through it before I gave up. Still hope to pick it up again and finish it.... someday.....

John Huston directed a film based on The Dead, one of the stories in Dubliners. It's worth viewing, being very faithful to the text and spirit of the story. It was his last film, and starred his daughter Anjelica Huston in a positively luminous performance.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092843/

[Fenir_LacDanan]

Just found this thread, and am damn happy to find so many lovers of one of Eire's greatest writers. I will get into it more later, but I will say that Ulysses will knock you on your arse the first time you read it.

Carry on!

[Artanis]

Well Joyce certainly didn't underestimate his readers.

I think it is a nice touch that all the story in Ulysses takes place on one day, 16 june 1904, the day Joyce established his relationship with his great love Nora Barnacle.