Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Happy Bloomsday!

Sax

07:50 / 16.06.04

Now, has anyone actually read Ulysses?

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

08:06 / 16.06.04

Joycecore...like it.

And no, nobody has read Ulysses, ever. It's actually filled with nonsense verse and blank pages from page 17 onwards, which is JJ's Big Gag at the Academic Establishment, along with a limerick about Molly Bloom doing a fanny fart.

Christ, have you ever had a go at Portrait of the Artist?

Kit-Cat Club

08:36 / 16.06.04

I believe the old book club thread in which several people actually read Ulysses still exists, will dig it up. I enjoyed it - I found I really got into it after a while. Is it the third chapter that's a bit tricky? (The one on the beaach where he picks his nose, I think.)

O Loomis, where art thou?

Kit-Cat Club

08:44 / 16.06.04

Here we go:

General thread

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Lots of good stuff in there.

Has anyone ever been in Dublin for Bloomsday?

Sax

09:08 / 16.06.04

Been to Dublin several times, but never on Bloomsday. Although I have sampled Guinnes and oysters for breakfast in Davy Byrne's on a couple of occasion.

Sax

09:10 / 16.06.04

And here's the BBC's condensed guide to Ulysses for those who can't be bothered

sleazenation

09:47 / 16.06.04

so, in a fight what would win Ulysses or Rememberence of things passed

Loomis

16:04 / 16.06.04

Finnegans Wake would win, hands down. Nearly killed me, that did. Could've almost been Loomis's Wake, or possibly Finnegans Asleep, depending on how you take the title. Oh, how literary I can be with my new pipe smouldering 'tween my teeth. Or going out, more accurately.

KCC - I'm languishing in the desert of dial-up. Where's the fun in being unemployed when it's oging to take them 2 weeks to transfer broadband to our new flat?!

And no, I haven't ever been to a Bloomsday thingy. I did go and see the Martello Tower when I was in Dublin though. Kewl.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:16 / 16.06.04

yes

_Boboss

18:59 / 18.06.04

just got back. top.

Ariadne

13:04 / 19.06.04

I really, really like it, now that I'm not reading it any more...
It was hard work to get through to the end but now I have really warm feelings about it, like I've seen something beautiful and taken part of it away in my head. It's turned into a favourite book even though i wouldn't leap to read it again. Although.... writing this, maybe I just will.
I am sober, honest. Just inarticulate.

Brigade du jour

05:24 / 12.07.04

I've read Ulysses, but it took months and by about halfway through I wasn't reading it for pleasure, but out of sheer stubbornness. I wasn't going to let that clever, dead bastard James Joyce get the better of me, I was going to finish his damned silly book and warm his heels to Putney Bridge, hurrah!

paw

16:31 / 14.07.04

If you had to give say three books of criticism that help in a reading of Joyce's last two works what would they be? Which Derrida books should i be reading to help my understanding of Joyce?

sleazenation

18:22 / 15.07.04

Well Derrida wrote Ulysses Gramophone for the James Joyce symposium, but I wouldn't say its particularly designed to help anyones understanding of Joyce...

paw

10:06 / 16.07.04

Would you mind elaborating a bit more sleazenation?

sleazenation

18:58 / 16.07.04

Sure. The essay I am referring to is probably more properly entitled Hear say yes in Joyce. I had a quick google, but couldn't find it on the web but it is reprinted in 'acts of literature'.

What I mean by I wouldn't say its particularly designed to help anyone’s understanding of Joyce is that it is it makes great play of liberal humanist close readings of the text. At the same time it also gives a reading that is soooooo close to the text that it is almost gynaecological. It starts with the line 'Oui, oui, vous m'entendez bien, ce sont des mots français' a line which cannot be effectively translated into English because neither the 'oui's nor the rest of the sentence would then be 'French words'.

But, yes. The real meat of the essay is an examination of the occurrences of the word 'Yes' in Ulysses and their various different meanings. It's fun and it engages with the text, but perhaps not necessarily in the way you might expect...

_Boboss

11:59 / 16.06.05

well fuck that, fucking freezing out there today. the lunch plan was guinness, ploughman's sandwich and oxen of the sun on the beach, but it's grey enough to be dublin here today, and blowy, so i just gave up and sat down on a bench, evoking a kinda underwhelming 'am i walking into eternity along hove promenade?' feeling.

'no' i thought.

so a bit of a disppointment there, would have neen nice to relax and bask for a while. still, pub later, fake irish accents and pseudo-thoughtful booziness ahoy. enjoy folks.

Digital Hermes

23:53 / 13.07.05

I've worked my way through Dubliners, Portrait, (as well as Homer's epics) as homework for Ulysses. Someone else said they loved it after they finished it, and I agree with that. In particular the play section takes some getting used to, and you can only really appreciate it when you're done.

As for the Wake? I find it's best to just run with it, and pretty much gave up trying to figure out every page all the time.

Benny the Ball

06:25 / 14.07.05

I've read it, and no, I didn't like it at all - except for the chapter all about Shakespeare, which was great, the rest I found annoying to terrible. The last chapter is painful.

Add Your Reply