/lit/ - Literature

>>4695356
if you don't understand the hype, read "The Dead," the last story

also if you still don't get the hype understand that no two books of joyce's are the same sort of thing. i could imagine someone liking any combination of them and thinking the others weren't that great.

>>4695364
He...said he does understand the hype.

>>4695367
lol damn

>>4695364
I think you misread it, bro. I do understand the hype. The only story I wasn't too crazy about (and didn't finish) was "Ivy Day in the Committee Room." Even for Joyce I thought it was a little too esoteric for me. A little too dated.

joyce is too much light and not enough dark
even Wake is blinding in its obfuscation

>>4695376
I'm not sure if I'll ever have the wherewithal to even attempt to read Wake.

1. "ULYSSES".

2. "A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN".

3. "FINNEGANS WAKE".

4. "DUBLINERS".

>>4695388
from what i hear from people who've read it you just sort of float around the book not understanding anything and just feeling the language

doesn't sound that hard but i don't see the point if i will only understand .1% of the book

>>4695398
Aside from basic knowledge of Homer, what does one need to know before starting Ulysses?

>>4695376
>joyce is too much light and not enough dark
Not sure what you mean by this. I sure thought Ulysses had plenty of both. Several stories in Dubliners as well.

>>4695388
Let's do it together immediately!

Here it is online in all its obfuscating glory
return in an hour to discuss your feelings

>>4695404

YOU NEED TO START WITH THE GREEKS.

>>4695404
nothing

seriously it's not as bad as people think

reading portrait of the artist is a good idea. but overall you'll be fine except for hardest chapters, which aren't worth preparing for on your first read because they would still be impossible to get. seriously, fuck oxen of the sun.

>>4695405
too much is invested in Joycean as method and as a result there is nothing of him in it which leaves it ungrounded because Joycean is of course a projection
there is no ambiguity, no darkness, no self, the reader is the author, its like being sleepless wall-eyed on caffeine, the illusion of stillness coming occasionally as your mind slips for a second but you've forgotten you even have a body
its extremely uncomfortable and lonely for the sake of its depth and beauty

Araby. The final sentence probably ranks as one of my top 5 favorite short story endings of all time.

The Dead is also very good.

Dubliners also reminded me of Mavis Gallant (RIP) and her short fiction, if OP is looking for some other stuff. Ice-Wagon Going Down the Street is phenomenal.

Other than the main one and 'Araby', I'll put in a non-standard vote for 'An Encounter' and 'A Painful Case'.

I just finished it this weekend.

My favourites were definitely "A Little Cloud", "Counterparts" and "A Painful Case".

Might be because A Little Cloud hits fairly close to home.

The Dead, Araby, A Painful Case, Counterparts

>>4695404
Everything written before Ulysses.

Alternatively, just Portrait of the Artist.

>>4695685
>>4695655
What did you think of Ivy day?

I liked the one about the shit author who likes farts

the dead is easily the best. It is so good it makes the other stories in the book better through the osmosis of the pages and ink that make up "the dead" being physically close to them

>>4695404
It would help in some passages if you've read or are at least familiar with Hamlet. But that's a small part of the book.

>>4697721

That was my favorite as well!

I heard he once fucked all the farts out of his whorish wife's arse! All of them! Imagine that!

The big fat fellows, long windy ones, even the quick little merry cracks!

>>4695398
gosh you're the worst

>>4697712
Ivy Day's a lively one, with the politics and all the corks flying around.

Dubliners is so so boring and dry. I don't get the hype at all.

>>4700808
Maybe it ties into life experiences you don't have.

>>4700821
Life experience is the last thing you need to read fiction.

>>4700848
>Life experience is the last thing you need to read fiction.
Presumably you mean 'understand and appreciate'. Tell us what you think you need in order to 'read' fiction. Also, tell us what you think is good if you think Dubliners isn't.

>>4700865
>Tell us what you think you need in order to 'read' fiction.
Nothing really apart from basic literacy.
>tell us what you think is good if you think Dubliners isn't.
Who cares? Belittling something I like isn't going to make me like Dubliners any more.

>>4700808
i felt like this until i read "the dead" then i sort of "got" it

it still doesn't blow my mind like it blows some people's though. it was good joyce moved on.