/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.7355634]

This is literally the best book ever written.

Prove me wrong

protip; you can't

[Anonymous No.7355639]

>>7355634
Someone would actually have to read it to be able to disagree with you. Nobody does, they just pretend to like it to be patrician.

[Anonymous No.7355642]

life is too short to read ulysses

[Anonymous No.7355645]

>>7355639
I have read it three times and currently on my fourth and /lit/ wise I am a turbo pleb but even I can appreciate it's greatness.

[Anonymous No.7355649]

>>7355639
>he thinks Ulysses is finnegans wake
Read more pleb

[Anonymous No.7355653]

>>7355634
By which measures and by what nature of these measures material do you guarantee the aesthetic primacy of Ulysses over every other book?

I understand that it may take you some time to write the treatise necessary to answer my question. I have therefore established an email address: [e-mail], which I will be checking only one time, in exactly two weeks, for your no doubt deeply felt and rigorously conclusive answer. Though of course a fortnight is a brief period, I take it from the certainty of your initial post that at least some of your arguments are already at the ready.

I look forward to your substantiation,

Anon, 11-15-15

[Anonymous No.7355656]

>>7355639

It's quite readable except for a few sections

[Anonymous No.7355659]

>>7355645
>/lit/ wise I am a turbo pleb

Don't worry, everyone else is looking everything up on Wikipedia too.

[Anonymous No.7355662]

I'm reading it right now and liking it okay but some part just drag on and on and I start to lose track of what's happening. I know that's no criticism on the book's part, but it's a tough read for me. Coming from a big fan of Faulkner and Pynchon who can handle long passages that trail off into abstraction. I don't know what it is, but Joyce is especially tuff for me.

[Anonymous No.7355676]

>This is literally the best book ever written.
But that's Finnegans Wake.

[Anonymous No.7355678]

>>7355662
I find I have to read Joyce the same way I read philosphy; when I am lost or confused I start to think about what happened 5, 10, 20 pages before the point I am, maybe go back a bit and see what happened. Often I will find some sentence or even paragraph I missed initially that will clarify the whole thing. For example, the first time I read Ulysses, I totally missed that Bloom was being ostracized in the carriage ride before ( I think it was before? ) to the funeral. Looking back and reading it through again, I realized what was happening, as well as realizing it was happening because he was Jewish, which then gave me a further insight into his actions for the remainder of the book. It's definitely a spider-web of a book which pays dividens to those who carefully follow the traceries of the fiber rather than simply trying to push through it.

[Anonymous No.7355685]

>>7355639
Nice projection.

[Anonymous No.7355693]

>>7355678
hey, thanks for the response.
I'd actually caught that about Bloom being looked down on for being Jewish, but on the whole I'm sure there are a lot of things I'm missing. I think what makes Ulysses difficult for me is how scattershot it feels so far. I'm it will benefit from a second read somewhere down the road, but for the time being the only structure I have to go off of is The Odyssey's parallel and I'm honestly having trouble even seeing the significance there a lot of the time.

[Anonymous No.7355716]

>>7355693
There's really not a lot of significance to the parallel to the Odyssey, really, except in abstract structural terms. In terms of the word-to-word life of the book, the most significant meaning of the relationship is actually the powerfully evident absence of an Odyssey-like heroism within the lives of these characters; there's no mythic weightiness and material details like the drifting of pubic hair in a bathtub are poetically recorded. Friction arises from the fact that that mythic structure is still there, ghost-like, despite never, or perhaps only partially, manifesting itself within Joyce's Dublin. But as far as actual reading goes, once you get past the Circe chapter where everyone goes to some kind of haunted drunken play hell for a while the book is all down hill. It struck me that Joyce is a sucker for some kind of symmetrical narrative structure, and I wonder to what extend it can be connected to his Catholicism.

[Anonymous No.7355721]

>>7355693
>I'm it will benefit from a second read somewhere down the road

You will, I missed so much during my first read through that I picked up on my second and likewise for my third. It's one of the things I love about it, you really do discover something new every time you read it.

[Anonymous No.7355728]

>>7355634
I honestly can't tbphwyhf(to be perfectly honest with you here fåm(ily))

Joyce was the greatest novelist ever to live

[Anonymous No.7355759]

I can, its boring and alludes to so many tangential things no one understands without notes and many little truths like 'red haired girls fuck well' are plain wrong.

[Anonymous No.7355762]

>>7355759
plen/10

[Anonymous No.7355861]

>>7355676
But Finnegans wake is incoherent.

[Anonymous No.7356262]

>>7355634

Don Quixote is objectively the best book ever written. Ulysses dosn't even come close.

[Anonymous No.7356318]

>>7355634

James Joyce didn't even think it was his best book.

Protip: You'll never be as handsome as Joyce, OP on suicide watch.

[Anonymous No.7356426]

>>7355759
I'd say the guy's finger makes a more convincing penis, even if it's too high.

[Anonymous No.7356434]

What's so good about it?
And how many years must I have been reading before tackling that ponderous tome?

[Anonymous No.7356442]

IN COUNTRIES KNOWN AS PROGRESSIVE AND ENLIGHTENED WE HAVE CREATED A SENSELESS, FILTHY, ABOMINABLE LITERATURE.

[Anonymous No.7356464]

>>7356434
Ulysses is the opposite of ponderous

[Anonymous No.7356471]

>>7355639
I laughed.

[Anonymous No.7356475]

>>7355639
I read it twice. First time was as a kid and it was fucking difficult. Second time was after going on /lit/ and rekindling my love for reading. :s

[Anonymous No.7356476]

Finnegans Wake exists, which is the logical expansion of "Circe," obviously the most brilliant section of the book.

[Anonymous No.7356857]

>>7355861
>which makes it perfect

[Anonymous No.7356872]

starting a thread with "prove me wrong" should be a bannable offense.

[Anonymous No.7357909]

What's the best version of it?

[Anonymous No.7358961]

It's alright, I guess

[Anonymous No.7359376]

>>7355634
Fucking right it is.

[Anonymous No.7359603]

>>7358961
I tried. I really did. What the fuck is this book about?

[Anonymous No.7359631]

>>7357909
I like Homer's version personally.

[Anonymous No.7359654]

>>7356476
>a non-linear clusterfuck narrative is a logical expansion of raw stream of consciousness based monologue

Yeah no, you gotta quote some academic on it m8.

also Circe has its flaws

[Anonymous No.7359671]

I think Don Quixote is the greatest of all time but to each his own.

[Anonymous No.7359690]

>>7355861
For you

[Anonymous No.7360907]

Bumb

[Anonymous No.7361039]

>>7355634
It can't be the best book ever written because the novel is an inferior form to epic verse. But it is the best novel ever written (Anna Karenina is the only real challenger).

[Anonymous No.7361051]

>ulysses
>better than finnegans wake
>better than anna karenina
>better than moby dick
>better than don quixote
>better than petersburg
>better than infinite jest
>better than Crime and Punishment
nice try desu

[Anonymous No.7361090]

>>7361039
>the novel is an inferior form to epic verse.

[Anonymous No.7361112]

If this is your favorite book please post a play-by-play commentary of Oxen of the Sun to prove you're not just a highschooler that claims to like it because of its popularity.

[Anonymous No.7361172]

>>7355653
>11-15-15
There are only twelve months to a year, Anon.

[Anonymous No.7361192]

>>7359654

You're thinking of "Penelope" I think. "Circe" is the episode written in the form of a grand cosmic-historical-psychosexual drama, which is, I would argue, what Finnegans Wake is at its heart, and a resoundingly successful one in its own way, which makes it probably the greatest single work of art in history. I've heard the leading Spanish expert on Joyce (I forget his name now) articulate a similar view, but I had already pretty much come to that conclusion.

[Anonymous No.7361205]

>>7355634
I'd like a word...

[Anonymous No.7361209]

>>7361205
lol just no

[Anonymous No.7361220]

>>7361172
Murrica doesn't have a monopoly on dating standards, anon.

[Anonymous No.7361231]

>>7361220
third date = sex FACT

[Anonymous No.7361246]

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO

[Anonymous No.7361259]

>>7355634
it's undeniably one of the top

it's one man's vision carried out with such expertise and perfection, innovation in form and style, it can't help but demand to be called the greatest.

I don't care too much for Pet Sounds, but I feel like it may compare to Ulysses well

Trout Mask Replica is the Finnegans Wake

[Anonymous No.7361273]

If it's so great, then tell me what it's about besides some guy walking around doing nothing?
Protip; ya kan't

[Anonymous No.7361276]

>>7361205
Is the word pimply?>>7361209

[Anonymous No.7361319]

>>7361259
Ulysses would be Trout Mask Replica
Finnegan's Wake would be Philosophy of The World by The Shaggs

[Anonymous No.7361328]

>>7361319
Rude. Unless you unironically consider Philosophy of the World to be arguably the greatest achievement in world music.

[Anonymous No.7361335]

>>7361319
but Ulysses isn't nearly as disjointed and bizarre as TMR minus Circe

[Anonymous No.7361365]

Honestly, this is better.