If you become bored out of your skull, there's no way for me to know that you've stopped reading :)
When I first started reading Ulysses, I hadn't read any guides or articles, had no idea what it was about, and had no idea what to expect. I am currently a little more than halfway through with it, and I have some comments.
1.) When reading such a major literary work, it's easy for one to take every line seriously, and to try to find meaning behind every little event. This will not work because the events that occur in the book have very little impact on whatever plot exists, and the vast majority are just mundane events that occur in every day life. What you don't expect, is that it's hilarious...and it wasn't until around episode 4, where there is an extended poop joke that goes on for a few pages, that I stepped back and realized that I was reading a comedy. Even Joyce himself states in an interview that “the public will demand and find a moral in my book—or worse they may take it in some more serious way, and on the honor of a gentleman, there is not one single serious line in it”.
2.) That being said, there are layers upon layers of jokes, puns, and puzzles that Joyce lays down for us in the book, and the best part is that they're all totally unexplained. There is one "chapter" (episode) that is basically all music puns, and one even references Don Giovanni, which will fly over the heads of readers unfamiliar with the music world. Some things only make sense when they're read aloud - and in an Irish accent. There is also humor found in the fact that Homer's Odyssey is the work that Ulysses is loosely (and I mean loosely) based upon. Instead of the characters in the Joyce novel being heroic, they're drunk, perverted Irish men. There are even jokes on Shakespeare's major works, most of which probably went right over my head...not to mention the hundreds if not thousands of other details and nuances that lay hidden within the words. I would leave any interpreting to Mr. Frank Delaney: this is a man who has taken on a serious mission to decipher the entire book line by line.
3.) And here's the kicker: It's written in the most beautiful language. So it's a hysterical comedy with not too much of a plot, full of puzzles and references, hidden jokes, with no real moral, and written by someone who is a wizard of the English language. All that and I'm only half way through the book, which chapter-wise leaves me at the very beginning of episode 14, out of 18 total episodes. There's a chapter (7) where it's written in the style of a newspaper, with headlines and everything. There's a chapter (10) where everything stops and it follows around minor characters of the book, about 19 of them, with 19 individual short stories, and they all make fun on the major characters of the book while walking around the streets of Dublin. There's even one, which is in my near future (15) written in the style of a play, complete with stage directions.
This book blows my mind.
Not that I'm trying to convert you into a Joyce reader, but if the reasons above haven't sparked at least a little bit of interest in the work, here's a pretty good article on why you should read this book. Yes, it's a huge book that falls around 783 pages. Yes, you may not understand the majority of what's happening, and you will not catch all of the jokes. You might not even laugh once. Yes, it's a difficult read because you have to adjust to all the different writing styles. It's a daunting task, but with this book being more talked about than actually read, wouldn't you at least want to hack your way through it just once, if not for the bragging rights alone?
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| Doing the best I can... |
