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Frank Mclean's Reviews > Ulysses
Ulysses
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I'm writing this review as a result of attending a book club meeting in my home town last night. I was disturbed by some of the comments people were making and want to make some recommendations.
I should say that I first read Ulysses in my teens and come back to it every few years, finding it richer each time. As I progress through the stages of life, I 'get' more and marvel at just the understanding of human nature there is in the book. So I'm a fan, basically. :-)
Now, our meeting featured a talk by a fantastic Joyce scholar, which was very enlightening as to the incredible multiple layers of meaning and the references and the depth of the thing and so on. But the thing is, you can read the book as the book. Just read the words.
Anyway, so, recommendations:
1. If you're not liking it, stop reading it. Plain and simple. I don't mean dismiss it and rate it a zero. I mean just stop reading it. Because I can't tell you the number of books I've started reading and not got on with, that if I'd just slogged on and on and on like I was going to be punished for not 'finishing', would have put me off them for life. I've opened those same books, sometimes years later, and absolutely loved them. Sometimes you just have to be in a receptive mood. It'll pay off, believe me. This ain't school. You don't have to produce a report or keep up a grade average. If you ARE in school and etc, then I'm so sorry. The system will be cutting you off from what is a great pleasure in life.
2. PLEASE don't try and get all the meanings at once. One gentleman commented last night that he couldn't get on with it, even though he had the annotated version, etc. Holy moley. Imagine you're passing a bookshop on the day it came out. There WERE no annotated versions, no scholarly works, no summaries, no helpful reviews. You just picked it up and read it and got whatever you got out of it. The pure surface meaning isn't THAT obscure that you can't follow it. If Joyce can do nothing else, he can certainly make music with the language. When I was 15, I didn't even know the MEANING of half the WORDS in there, let alone the hidden meaning behind THEM. But I never felt the urge to get out the big dictionary and look something up every time before moving on in the sentence. The overall flow just carried me on. There are still phrases that stick in my head that contain words I've not got a dictionary perfect definition for (30 years later) - 'ineluctable modality of the visible' springs to mind. :-) So... to think you have to stick on page one for two days with your highlighter, mining every single concept and nuance and whatever... I think it's safe to say Joyce would've given you a fair old whack with his stick and told you to stop messing about. He joked that he'd put things in there that would keep academics going for hundreds of years. ACADEMICS. Not you. Just read the bloody thing. :-)
3. Skip bits. Yep. You're allowed. Some passages contain very 'experimental' stuff you might find boring. Since Ulysses contains such a variety of styles and techniques, it's a lot like reading a number of books at once. You might be receptive to some and not others - at THAT reading. You'll like them all at a later date, honestly. Come back later, the bar's always open.
4. Once you're tuned to the thing and want to get more insight, yes, buy the annotated edition, or whatever. But remember there are good and bad of those too. If they're not adding pleasure to your experience, stop. They're bad mouthing what might be a very good friend to you.
5. You'll never 'get' it all. But you'll always be curious and keep coming back. Don't be frustrated. You've got all the time in the world. And if you don't care about getting it all, that's also fine.
6. Just read it as a book and forget all the nonsense about it being difficult and a challenge and 'monument to world art' and some sort of badge of honor to have read. It's still only a book. The greatest book, in my opinion, but why should you care about my opinion, right?
Basically, go at it like Joyce just handed it to you and no one else has seen it.
Had to share... :-)
Frank
I should say that I first read Ulysses in my teens and come back to it every few years, finding it richer each time. As I progress through the stages of life, I 'get' more and marvel at just the understanding of human nature there is in the book. So I'm a fan, basically. :-)
Now, our meeting featured a talk by a fantastic Joyce scholar, which was very enlightening as to the incredible multiple layers of meaning and the references and the depth of the thing and so on. But the thing is, you can read the book as the book. Just read the words.
Anyway, so, recommendations:
1. If you're not liking it, stop reading it. Plain and simple. I don't mean dismiss it and rate it a zero. I mean just stop reading it. Because I can't tell you the number of books I've started reading and not got on with, that if I'd just slogged on and on and on like I was going to be punished for not 'finishing', would have put me off them for life. I've opened those same books, sometimes years later, and absolutely loved them. Sometimes you just have to be in a receptive mood. It'll pay off, believe me. This ain't school. You don't have to produce a report or keep up a grade average. If you ARE in school and etc, then I'm so sorry. The system will be cutting you off from what is a great pleasure in life.
2. PLEASE don't try and get all the meanings at once. One gentleman commented last night that he couldn't get on with it, even though he had the annotated version, etc. Holy moley. Imagine you're passing a bookshop on the day it came out. There WERE no annotated versions, no scholarly works, no summaries, no helpful reviews. You just picked it up and read it and got whatever you got out of it. The pure surface meaning isn't THAT obscure that you can't follow it. If Joyce can do nothing else, he can certainly make music with the language. When I was 15, I didn't even know the MEANING of half the WORDS in there, let alone the hidden meaning behind THEM. But I never felt the urge to get out the big dictionary and look something up every time before moving on in the sentence. The overall flow just carried me on. There are still phrases that stick in my head that contain words I've not got a dictionary perfect definition for (30 years later) - 'ineluctable modality of the visible' springs to mind. :-) So... to think you have to stick on page one for two days with your highlighter, mining every single concept and nuance and whatever... I think it's safe to say Joyce would've given you a fair old whack with his stick and told you to stop messing about. He joked that he'd put things in there that would keep academics going for hundreds of years. ACADEMICS. Not you. Just read the bloody thing. :-)
3. Skip bits. Yep. You're allowed. Some passages contain very 'experimental' stuff you might find boring. Since Ulysses contains such a variety of styles and techniques, it's a lot like reading a number of books at once. You might be receptive to some and not others - at THAT reading. You'll like them all at a later date, honestly. Come back later, the bar's always open.
4. Once you're tuned to the thing and want to get more insight, yes, buy the annotated edition, or whatever. But remember there are good and bad of those too. If they're not adding pleasure to your experience, stop. They're bad mouthing what might be a very good friend to you.
5. You'll never 'get' it all. But you'll always be curious and keep coming back. Don't be frustrated. You've got all the time in the world. And if you don't care about getting it all, that's also fine.
6. Just read it as a book and forget all the nonsense about it being difficult and a challenge and 'monument to world art' and some sort of badge of honor to have read. It's still only a book. The greatest book, in my opinion, but why should you care about my opinion, right?
Basically, go at it like Joyce just handed it to you and no one else has seen it.
Had to share... :-)
Frank
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
March 14, 2013
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