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/lit/ - Literature

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6712162 No.6712162 [Reply] [Original]

ITT: We share which books kicked us in the balls and call each other plebs. Pic related for me.

>trying to start reading
>figure I might as well get the standard /lit/ must-reads out of the way
>start with East of Eden, Brothers Karamazov, Blood Meridian and Ulysses
>hooked on East of Eden 1 page in
>slog through Brothers Karamazov with help from the notes in the back of the book
>took a very long time to read but loved it
>love Blood Meridian even though I don't know who the fuck is speaking half the time
>read 20 pages of Ulysses and have zero idea what the fuck is going on ever
>took me 2 hours to read those 20 pages
>a book written in English feels more foreign than a book translated from Russian
>sit there feeling retarded and ashamed

>> No.6712215

>>6712162
>read 20 pages of Ulysses and have zero idea what the fuck is going on ever
>took me 2 hours to read those 20 pages
You must be severely retarded because the first 2 chapters of Ulysses, which together is like 30 pages, are not complicated whatsoever.

>> No.6712230

>>6712215
This. I can understand the confusion caused by his stream-of-consciousness technique at first, but, after a couple of pages, it should make sense. My advice: stop worrying about which POV it's in or how it transitions to it.

>> No.6712241

Ulysses is not something you read when you're "trying to start reading" m8.

>> No.6712245

Yeah I also don't get what you'd find difficult about the first chapters, they're actually a pleasant read, which can't confidently be said of some other parts.
Maybe try reading Portrait of the Artist first? Not that it'd help much with the narration, but you'd know who the character is at least.

>> No.6712304

ay man, Ulysses is an intimidating book. it's okay to get lost. read plebbier shit for now. there's a million classics to read that you won't be wasting so much time trying to understand.

les miserables
count of monte cristo
100 years of solitude
Crime and Punishment, Brothers Karamazov
all Kafka's short stories
Moby Dick if you want, that's my favorite
Faulkner is convoluted but beautiful
Tolstoy's a boss
Infinite Jest is surprisingly easy if you have a smartphone next to you to function as a dictionary through the first ~150 pages

don't worry about Joyce. he's boring *and* difficult, so that shit is for patricians, which you and I are not. NO SHAME

>> No.6712305
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6712305

>mfw I actually thought out of 4 responses, at least one would say "yea it's a tough book m8 no worries"

Guess I'll try to level up my reading comprehension and come back to it

>> No.6712311

>>6712305
fact:
4/5 /lit/ users read Ulysses on sparknotes

>> No.6712312

>>6712304

aw shit my nigga

>> No.6712321

>>6712305
It gets tough, sure. But not in the beginning.

>> No.6712324

I have read the first 30 pages of Remembrance of Things Past like four times. It literally puts me to sleep.

>> No.6712341

>reading ulysses in high school
>teacher sees book: "holy shit anon, nice. most people can't read that book"
>huge swelling of ego, until
>get 111 pages in, basically kicked in the nuts by the way joyce ties english into ornate knots
>put ulysses down, it sits on my shelf for a decade

feels really bad man

>> No.6712347

>>6712304
>don't worry about Joyce. he's boring *and* difficult

Dubliners is easy as fuck and great. Portrait isn't too hard either, but definitely more challenging.

None of Joyce is boring.

>> No.6712350

>>6712304

Could I read Les Miserables in french? Is it hard? I've read 4 short novels in french, the last one I used the dictionary only every 4 or 5 pages, it was "Le Diable au corps" btw, I rather liked it

>> No.6712355

>>6712341
forget whether i saw it first hand or whether it was a cap but there was a great greentext of an anon who was asked about Ulysses and why he was reading it, turns out he had just gone on some greatest book of all time list, and decided to start from number 1 and go down.

>> No.6712378

>>6712350
to be honest I have no clue. it's totally a page-turner in english, so I don't imagine it's insanely difficult in french.

>> No.6712392

>>6712347
bro dubliners is easy but boring as FUUUUCK.

portrait is mildly interesting, a little more difficult, only readable due to flashes of heavenly prose.

ulysses is insanely difficult but by far the most enjoyable thing he wrote.

Joyce was an immensely boring writer compared to almost any other literary giant

>> No.6712393

I'm struggling through Finnegan's Wake.

My plan was to read the book first, then the Campbell "Skeleton Key" analysis.

But having no fucking clue what is going on for more than a few words at a time if that is proving to be far more unsettling than I expected. I might reassess and read the Campbell companion first.

>> No.6712420

>>6712162
What is this pretentious obsession with Ulysses? You guys know he was thought to be a schizophrenic right? You are trying to make sense out of the ramblings of one who, today would be wandering the streets and disregarded as a tossed napkin due to his mental state.

I commend him for being so based that he was able to pass off his disordered thoughts as a revolutionary method of writing that would influence others who are just waiting for the opportunity to open their mouths at the first sight of a circle jerk so as to feel some sense of warmth. OP, you are not retarded and you shouldn't feel ashamed; there's a reason schizophrenics cannot function in society without being heavily sedated. Stick with the Russians, bask in their literary superiority, and leave the pretentious who vacillate from worshiping dysfunctional ramblings to extolling the struggle of a single mother to revering and defending those persecuted for disregarding and defiling nature.

>> No.6712433

>>6712420
You could've just said you didn't get it, no shame in that :) ____

>> No.6712434

>>6712162
Starting Joyce with Ulysses is a bad idea. Read Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man first.

>> No.6712443

>>6712420
Spoken like a true pleb. Joyce knew exactly what he was doing and if you actually read it you can definitely see what he was going for and how meticulously crafted it is even if the end results are often difficult to parse out.

>> No.6712449

>>6712162
>sit there feeling retarded and ashamed
Kek iktfb

>> No.6712486

>>6712443
Spoken like a true fanboy. The same could be said of any schizophrenic whose obscurity leaves room for interpretation. If the abstract is what appeals to you, there is nothing more to be said, but to consider Joyce among those geniuses whose works contributed to a greater collective understanding of the nature of man is simply to harbor a delusion no different than those who see something that appeals to them as individuals in a man like Kanye West and as a result, consider him a genius in the realm of music.

>> No.6712640

>>6712486
at least you use more words to bait instead of most people who post one liners to be edgy

>> No.6712706

>>6712486
>implying his mastery of the english language isn't awe inspiring
>implying he didn't will it to suck his glorious cock and play by his rules
>implying you didn't jizz at the genius intricacy of "contransmagnificandjewbangtantiality"
>implying every modernist piece of literature afterward was more than an inferior imitation of Ulysses
You're either a bad troll or an idiot.

>> No.6712766

It helps if you have some annotations. Only read one section a day.

Also read it out loud in an Irish accent. I'm serious.

>> No.6712779

>>6712434
Dubliners is nothing like ulysses stylistic though. And the latter half of Portrait which is like the first section of Ulysses blows. The first half is GOAT though.

>> No.6712807

>>6712486
Those are the kind of insults that one applies to noise music on /mu/, not to James Joyce. One who knows a single thing about Joyce knows the insurmountable eruditeness that he had. It's incredibly arrogant to view oneself as above James Joyce when one knows enough about him. He's one of the few artists that truly deserves the praise he gets, like Mozart and Bach. James Joyce isn't particularly obscure because he writes with lots of words and allusions that are laborious to sift through, but once you're there you know exactly where you are, and it was more than worth the work.
It's never been documented that he was a schizophrenic - his daughter was.

>> No.6712872

>>6712807
I do not insult the man; I admire anyone so devoted that they are willing to endure hardship for the success of their creative enterprises. I insult those who attribute profundity despite its being a mere figment. Naturally, the thoughts of a man with schizophrenia will be considered more interesting than those of the average man due to the absence of the absurd and unique in 'average' thoughts and you need only read the journal of one suffering from the ailment to see this. To compare Mozart, the genius whose work cannot be apprehended save for attributing the divine assistance of God, with a man whose fruits resulted from dysfunction of mind is to blaspheme. Joyce was not 'documented' a schizophrenic because he was analyzed as a patient in the same manner of his daughter, but Jung, the same man who diagnosed his daughter, thought him to suffer from the disorder as well.

>> No.6712890

am I the only one here who was underwhelmed by portrait after reading the masterpiece that is Dubliners? There are some brilliant moments prose-wise and the way he employs free indirect speech is great but the narrative itself was pretty tedious

>> No.6712900

>>6712304
this board is too sincere now. stop it.

>> No.6712912

I couldn't get into heart of darkness, surprisingly I was even harder for me to read during my second attempt (22 years old) than my first (16)

>> No.6713025

>>6712872
You're trying way too hard m80.

>> No.6713058

>>6712890
The earlier parts up until about Stephen has his beach epiphany are fantastic. For all the praise joyce gets for being a complex writer, his ultra minimalism works beautifully.

Stephen as a young artist is a shit head though and not depicted in an interesting manner. Stephen in Ulysses is amazing though.

For all that Bloom has going for him in his Everyman thing, Stephen has in being the consummation of the thinker in the modern age. Thrown into a world understood too clearly, trapped by his flighty thoughts and coarse movements on earth, bound by history and his past.

>I will not sleep here tonight. Home also I cannot go.

>> No.6713086

>>6713058
Bloom isn't that much of an Everyman. He's a Jew in a predominantly Christian country and isn't quite as dumb or irresponsible as his peers despite having shortcomings.

>> No.6713254

>>6712392
Sorry son, you're a pleb.

>> No.6713273

>>6712162
>sit there feeling retarded and ashamed
Last month I started reading Finnegans Wake, English is my second language. I only read it when I'm in the bus to the uni and I'm on page 30, that makes about 2 pages a trip. Unlike you I can't help but feel amazed and flabbergasted. Reading it as a native speaker must be amazing. Being born in an English speaking country must be wonderful. You people don't even know how good you have it.

>> No.6714898

>>6713273
Most native speakers would probably understand it even less than the average foreigner who'd care enough to read it.

>> No.6714925

>>6714898
I'd go even further and say a native speaker is at a disadvantage if they think of Finnegans Wake as something they can read in a language that is native to them.

>> No.6714939

>>6713086
>He's a Jew in a predominantly Christian country
Isn't he baptized?

>> No.6714951

>>6712162
>>6712162
Ulysses, as with McCarthy and Dostodicky are all hyped up shit.

/lit/ is a meme hivemind, never forget that.

Get out, make your own choices.

>> No.6714956

>>6712347
>none of Joyce is boring

Wow, you had one of THOSE professors.

top kek

lrn2think4urself

>> No.6714963

>>6712162
I am there with you friend. I understood what was going on in the chapter itself, though I didn't exactly know who was talking, but I really couldn't get an overarching story out the book. I liked it, but felt I really didn't get much out if it. Sucks to be such a pleb.

>> No.6715030

>>6714951
>>6714956
Are you 13? You sound like one of those stereotypical know-it-all teenagers.

>> No.6715732

>>6712304
>don't worry about Joyce. he's boring
/lit/ is a joke

>> No.6716693

>V

I read TCoL49 and thought it was great but couldn't get into the mood for V just yet. So I'm slowly getting through his latest book (I know its not ideal a choice, but I don't care) before getting into V again.

>> No.6716927

>Never read the the bible, greek mytho's or Virgil
>Thought I'd be able to understand The Divine Comedy
>"I'll just get a copy with the notes"
>Somewhat short book turns into Russian lit tier slog
I got about 1/2 through Purgatorio before I cracked the shits and picked up Paradise Lost

>> No.6717172

>>6712162
What? The first 20 pages are as lucid as Coatzee. Are u dumb?


I mean I give you credit for trying to better yourself, but fo'real, man.

>> No.6717179

>>6715732
+1 buddy :)

>> No.6717191

I can get into any book. If I don't understand a book, then I slog my ass through it like a man, read every fucking word and appreciate the fuck out of it on my second read through. Like a god damn man. Read Ulysses when I was 15, 18 hours a day over a month of my summer, but I read it and now I know the book like the back of my hand. Y'all are pussy faggots who have no drive and will forever be nothing.

>> No.6717208
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6717208

>>6717191

>> No.6717252

Catch-22. Granted, I've only read it once and you're apparently supposed to read it twice, but I found it to be unfunny incoherent dogshit