/lit/ - Literature

Get a map of Dublin. Chart the paths.

given you are a novice reader of english, starting out with ulysses is probably one of the worse choices you could've made. try Finneagan's Wake instead.

>>2175889
>Do you have any tips how to read it?

Well by looking at the letters sequentially starting from the top left of the page, working left to right down.

>>2175891
Thank you I will look into it.
>>2175893
I am not a novice I have already read several books in English.
>>2175895
4chan, oh 4chan...

I started my acquaintance with Irish lit with Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman. Easier, less obtuse in language but not in concept, and the space-time of the narrative is still terribly skewered. Some call it the first postmodern novel.

I would not start with Ulysses. It's good to keep it around though.

Have a good sense of what text is and means (if this sounds obtuse, you're not there yet). Use guides to pick up alliusions or the less accesible narrative elements (there are some good ones on the internet). Be prepared to spend a lot of time getting into it. Ideally, you aim to be really enjoying at least by the middle and if this isn't happening, you were never ready for it and should leave until your english and textual understanding gets better.

>>2175942
I will give a guide a shot also I thought making notes throughout reading would be a good idea.
I didn't expect it to be a simple read in first place I am prepared for the martyrs of the complexity of the glorious Joycean language I have heard that much in here.

>>2175895
But I only read Arabic brail.

I call it troll, or really stupid.

> try Finneagan's Wake instead.

sure..

OK, so, is the first book in english and you choose Ulysses? I think you're dumb or really pretentious.

>>2175991
As I have said earlier this isn't mine first book in english.

>>2175991
Obviously he should start with something simple like Harry Potter or the Iliad.

>>2175994
there's plenty of other books,

Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, and other scifi works that would be better.

>>2175997
>Harry Potter or the Iliad

>>2175889
I'm not sure if troll, but here's my answer anyway:

I was in a similar situation. Was a young, not native english speaker (15 at the time), and for some reason thought I go with Ulysses. Probably just to impress my Literature professor at the time, by saying I've read it.

Well, I started out, read the first three pages and then stopped and thought "Damn, I don't understand this shit." Then I put it aside, and it left on the side for three years.

Then I picked it up, and quite enjoyed it. A few month later I got a bit more aquainted with the book, reading Ellmanns biography and bought some Annotation-books.
Suddenly, I loved the goddamn thing, and eventually chose it for the main topic of my diploma.

SO, MY ADVICE: GET A GUIDE.

Excuse any spelling mistakes in this message, I'm kinda stoned.

Native English speaker here, I have no idea what the fuck they are saying in this book.

nobody knows what Ulysses says

should have gone with Paradise Lost...or green eggs and ham

>>2176588

If you need a guide you're stupid or the writer is shit.

>>2176588
a rogue joyce scholar appears: but do you do the Finnegans Wake? kinda forgot Ulysses existed after I got to that guy. 90% of joyce's readers don't seem to care about it, though, which is confusing

OP, what's your native tongue? I feel U is probably fine to start with, make what you can of it... I enjoy struggling with Dostoevsky in the origianl

This is like that time when I spent three months learning french and then tried to read untranslated Derrida.

>>2176868

Pic related

>>2175889

My best advice is to use a guide, or several guides. Gifford's Annotated Ulysses was pretty essential for me. Also, just be aware that the chapters vary in difficulty (as well as style & pacing) so don't be too turned off if you're having trouble at one particular part. The hardest chapters are generally the ones involving a lot from Stephen. Don't expect to understand everything (or even most of it) on the first try and if you're really getting lost try reading it out loud to get a feel for the rhythm, at least in the earlier chapters.

Man you just leaning American? Fuck them Irish read some real American if you learning it. Like Hemmingway or Faulkner. Shit son. Go where they invented this language. Native American got some good shit to. Just saying.

>>2176909 When I have parties at my house, sometimes I get drunk and bet random people they can't read the first page of Finnegan's Wake and explain what it says.

>>2177584
You sound like a fat fag.

>>2177585
Please try and avoid using that kind of bigoted language, thanks! Polite sage for off-topic.

>>2175889
3/10, because I'm responding and a bunch of other people are too
If serious, you're stupid or misguided or trying to impress a foxy librarian; read a YA novel or something

if you've read a bunch of books in english previously it's not that difficult
read or re-read the odyssey and hamlet
then just read the book two times in a row
it's not that difficult

read something else

this book made my balls hurt... I am serious. I would read the book, and my balls would just, hurt. I am not saying that its aliens, but if you look at the evidence, you can see certain elements of aliens being aliens with a least one group. That group has since been discovered to be aliens by evidence which you can clearly see has been left here for us to find by aliens. So you can be objective and actually look at the fact in many of these situations. If you do you should reach only one conclusion.