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14972394 No.14972394 [Reply] [Original]

I'm not an English native speaker and don't know too much about English literature and its history. Should I even bother?

>> No.14972399

>>14972394
no, with your attitude you will surely quit before getting a quarter of the way through

>> No.14972407

>>14972399
Don't be a meanie. I want to read it because my great grandfather knew James Joyce personally, so I have motivation to read it and I like the book's concept.
I'm just not sure if I'm well-equipped to understand it.

>> No.14972409

>>14972394
read The Dubliners instead

>> No.14972424

>>14972394
Are you Italian?

>> No.14972425
File: 604 KB, 668x1876, ulysses.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
14972425

I don't know if pic related is a meme or not, but it might be helpful.

>> No.14972426

>>14972394
You could, but you should read Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man first. If you want to tackle Ulysses though, go ahead and do it with one of the online guides (I’ve found http://www.ulyssesguide.com/ to be quite helpful although it’s not complete). If you want to do some reading in order to get it then maybe you should read tons of Shakespeare and some other of Joyce’s favorites. You could also read The Odyssey but that’s honestly a meme at this point and not as big a deal as most people make it out to be

>> No.14972433

>>14972425
>read the Summa first
yea it's a meme

>> No.14972442

>>14972425
Actually a fairly good list. You obviously don't need to know Chamber Music (lol), & no-one's going to read the entire Summa (but some knowledge of Catholicism is necessary). Hamlet seems an arbitrary choice, almost all of Shakespeare is needed.

>> No.14972446

>>14972409
>>14972425
>>14972426
Thank you very much! I'll start with The Dubliners!

>>14972424
No, I'm Austrian.

>> No.14972461

>>14972446
Just "Dubliners"

>> No.14972761

>>14972442

I think by 'read Hamlet first' they mean 'you'll get more out of it knowing that several key relationships/themes are based off Hamlet', same with The Odyssey.

Sure theres all sorts of Shakespeare reference throughout, but Hamlet is a particular point of reference for many aspects.

>> No.14972816

you shouldn't bother making shit threads like this.

>> No.14972875

>>14972761
Joyce himself regretted the whole Odyssey thing and considered it a dumb marketing mistake

>> No.14972929

>>14972875
You mean recommending people to read the Odyssey or structuring his book after it?

>> No.14972940

>>14972394
Even if you did I wouldn't recommend this piece of garbage.

>> No.14973017

>>14972929
Listing it in the schema

>> No.14974199

Just fucking read it. Who gives a shit about his clever references? You can still greatly enjoy it without any research.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4g9txXFe9o

My man Scott Bradfield knows what's up.