/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.15782779]

What is so great about Dubliners? I'm four short stories in but I can't tell what's supposed to be so good about it. They're just snapshots in people's lives in Dublin.

[Anonymous No.15782819]

>They're just snapshots in people's lives in Dublin.
you're missing important subtexts
pay more attention to imagery and narrative

[Anonymous No.15782835]

>>15782779
What's great about Dubliners = (you + epiphanies)(your IQ) + (how Irish you are)

[Anonymous No.15782883]

>>15782819
examples

[Anonymous No.15782897]

>>15782883
In Araby he's masturbating in church.

[Anonymous No.15782933]

>>15782897
that's so great, really made me think

[Anonymous No.15782946]

>>15782933
Count how many times a certain image appears (and in what form) throughout a story. Easy one: snow in the The Dead.

[Anonymous No.15782950]

Some of the stories are wonderfully written. Give 'The Dead' at least a go if you don't find yourself liking the others.

[Anonymous No.15782967]

>>15782946
all that is great and shows good craftsmanship, but does it have a point?

[Anonymous No.15782968]

>>15782897
Wow

[Anonymous No.15782991]

>>15782967
It does but it's undetectable to brainlets like yourself. Stick to Goosebumps and Magic Tree House.

[Anonymous No.15783070]

>>15782991
I won't deny I'm a brainlet but if you understand it then you should be able to explain it

[Anonymous No.15783270]

>>15782883
Since the other anon has already brought up Araby, think about the role light plays in the story, fir example, or how can it be interpreted on a less presentive level. Plus there exist tons of commentary on Joyce, if you ever feel like you cannot get it no matter what try reading some of these, although I'd rather not.

[Anonymous No.15783276]

>>15783270
>fir
for
>can it be
it can be

[Anonymous No.15783279]

>>15783270
>how can it be interpreted on a less presentive level
What?

[Anonymous No.15783370]

>>15783279
I mean presentive as substantive, I just didn't want to say "more abstract" because subtext doesn't necessarily have to lead to abstractions. Basically you just have to detach fabula from its realisation in the text and try to interpret it in another way using imagery, stylistic features and symbols as keys. For instance, on the surface level, Two Gallants is a story of two dingy fellows and their little enterprise, but it can also be interpreted as a story about betrayal of ideals, namely Romanticist ones.

[Anonymous No.15783446]

Post top 3 stories to show you’re not a brainlet. I’ll start:
1) Two Gallants
2) The Dead
3) A Little Cloud

Anyone who isn’t Irish and hasn’t lived in Dublin wont truly be able to immerse themselves in the settings created by Joyce

[Anonymous No.15783466]

>>15783446
I've got the same favourites with Araby being a close runner-up and I'm not Irish. Wat do?

[Anonymous No.15783571]

>>15782779
While I like Dubliners, it's mostly propped up by pseuds who want to say they have read Joyce and that they like him without having to read Ulysses or Finnegans Wake, you know, his actual greatest achievements? It's been said that Dubliners is only remembered because of it's association with Ulysses, and I must say I agree with this, Dubliners would have been forgotten a long time ago if Joyce had never written everything he wrote after.

It's worth it just to see how Joyce progressed and evolved his ideas and skills, it's a stepping stone to the great works of Joyce but not really great on it's own. The same ideas are explored in Ulysses anyway, even in Portrait of the Artist.

That being said, I still think it's worth giving it a chance, but if it doesn't click no worries, slice of life literature is more of an acquired taste.

[Anonymous No.15783650]

>>15782991
Why do pseuds always beat around the bush without ever explaining themselves? Are you afraid that you'd be exposed as a brainlet if you actually tried to articulate something of substance?

[Anonymous No.15783671]

>>15782946
Nice sparknotes tier analysis, pseud.

[Anonymous No.15783674]

>>15783466
Assuming you don’t want to actually go to the effort of living in Ireland for at least a few months, I’d say to just read up on Ireland and it’s history, and spend a week in Dublin, exploring the city centre and the surrounding areas. That’s just so you can get a spatial awareness of the place, like where everything is, the architecture etc.
For a better understanding of the culture you really would be better off spending a lot of time in different parts of the country as Dublin has lost much of its soul. If you ever did stay here, Dublin wouldn’t be the place I’d recommend to stay in for longer than a week or two.

[Anonymous No.15783679]

>book is titled Dubliners.
>"it's just about Dubliners wtf"

[Anonymous No.15783745]

>>15783650
No I just don't want to waste my breath on reptile-brained dimwits like yourself. Keep seething though.

[Anonymous No.15783754]

>>15783745
>I-I am very intelligent! S-Stop seething!
voilà

[Anonymous No.15783796]

Most of the stories are about shallow escapism that prevents people from directly facing their inner demons and taking control of their lives. It's condemning people who take refuge in hedonism and materialism rather than trying to sincerely grow as human beings.

[Anonymous No.15784834]

>>15782779
Read Araby 10 times and you'll probably have an emotional breakthrough of some sort.

[Anonymous No.15784847]

>>15783674
Bad advice. Dublin is nothing like it used to be. A better place to live would be Des Moines, Iowa.

[Anonymous No.15784898]

>>15783070
Anon, /lit/ doesn't understanding why it likes anything past the fact that liking it gives them entry to some group they want to be a part of. Asking why Dubliners or any book is important, meaningful, beautiful, etc. is fine (even here, even when the answers will likely be nonsense), but I suspect you'd be better served by earnestly asking yourself these same questions while reading it.

[Anonymous No.15784963]

boring as all heck

[Anonymous No.15784988]

>>15783446
The Dead is the most low hanging fruit of the stories

[Anonymous No.15785769]

man I love Araby

[Anonymous No.15785959]

>>15782897
doggy-doggy what now

[Anonymous No.15786736]

>>15783370
>Two Gallants is a story of two dingy fellows and their little enterprise, but it can also be interpreted as a story about betrayal of ideals, namely Romanticist ones.
Was Joyce well acquainted with Romanticist literature, as well as Classical?

[Anonymous No.15786779]

>>15783674
Do you need to find an edition with a map?

[Anonymous No.15786854]

>>15782779
it's good but not great

[Anonymous No.15786884]

>>15782779
he's using slice of life stories in dublin because dublin has always been a hyper-modern cosmopolitan city against the backdrop of ireland proper (not even an indigenous irish city, it was founded by vikings). pre-rising dublin you have one of the wealthiest current cities in all europe in a country that's still mostly a dirt-poor colonial shithole. this can be seen as description of modernity itself sitting atop the vast racial memory of humanity

[Anonymous No.15787176]

What albums does it remind you of? I've just kind of dipped into it, but it seems like a shoehorn for various characters to understand and empathy with how Dublin is shaping them. Often the incidents appear a little too cute in terms of how it sews people together, which can remind me of songs like Jack White's I Can Tell We Are Going to Be Friends... I suppose if it was a film it would weave together these stories in a sort of montage structure, like Fellini's Amarcord. It reminds me of some of the vignettes or spotlights on Radiohead's OK Computer and Amnesiac, but the content appears in a more specific, localized way.... (KID A doesn't come to mind for some reason despite 'How to Disappear Completely', maybe it's just less anthemic). One of the things that does impress me about the book is just how atmospheric, rural and analogue it seems, like electricity itself is a bit more dynamic than usual.
>When we returned to the street, light from the kitchen windows had filled the areas. If my uncle was seen turning the corner we hid in the shadow till we had seen him safely housed.
Has an Artist sought to design these characters? I've heard that Ireland has animation studios so it seems like this would be a natural book to adapt.

[Anonymous No.15787185]

>>15782835
>Dubliners = (you + epiphanies)(your IQ) + (how Irish you are)
Dubliners = 1 + 12 + 134 + 50/100 = 147.5

[Anonymous No.15788199]

>>15787185
midwit detected

[Anonymous No.15788351]

>>15788199
<100 is brainlet
100 is midwit
111-139 is smort
140+ is psycho in one way or another
>>15787185
I should have put my glasses on. it's Dubliners = 1742.5

[Anonymous No.15788383]

>>15782779
It's good but nothing special

[Anonymous No.15788395]

>>15788351
>thinks "midwit" means "average"
Average people are just retards. I'm thinking your midwit IQ score might be inflated

[Anonymous No.15788410]

>>15782779
It's a portrait of a city and the corrupted morality of hypocrits, common mean people, and unfortunate folks. The style is some kind of realism that is sometimes found in Portrait of the Artist or as one layer that shines through in some scenes of Ulysses. Most of the short stories do not really work as oral story-telling, but must be read together like a novel to get said portrait.

[Anonymous No.15788413]

>>15788395
but the average is in the middle. and you are a bully.

[Anonymous No.15788519]

>ITT
>Joyce dweebs
There's nothing exceptional about Dubliners save the final passages of The Dead and, for me, A Painful Case. It was ignored upon publication, and in response Joyce scurried down the rabbithole of genius. You can place it alongside Exiles and Chamber Music as a failed Joyce project. It survives because Portrait and Ulysses made his name and cast a favorable light on his earlier work by proxy.