Have you ever read Ulysses?

[Berean]

...and if you have were you as impressed, blown away, shocked, dismayed, and offended as I was not only by the Circe episode but the beach scene...14 years old...in *public*???

Other than the fact that he was an insanely intelligent arrogant drunkard, what do people think of James Joyce?

Personally I liked Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which was readable and excellent. I also liked Dubliners, which got me to take the Joyce seminar...fantastic and a wild ride but with some regrets.

He also wrote poetry which was technically clever but extremely dull.

Not one of them being the trip to NYC where we saw La Boehme, MOBA, where the Professor bought us hot chocolate.

I would be SUCH a fantastic book without the filth and blasphemy the way pumpkin ice cream would be fantastic without the bugs and worms. Oh and the nuts which BTW do *not* belong in ice cream.

He wrote at least one play?

My husband said he does not remember it being anything spectacular.

I was asked to read my essay about Ulysses at a James Joyce Day about the Book itself being character like the others because it talks and has opinions.

Unfortunately for my great professor I decided sort of at the last minute I could not bring myself to read it. At one point I could not find my draft and it occurred to me that perhaps I should not find it. I was devastated because I did not get my proverbial "moment in the sun" as this was a very difficult and respected professor. I told him I was very sorry I could not stand behind this book.

I think that was the only time my father in law said he was proud of me. An elderly farmer's sparse praise was worth it just for that.

The professor was great, just admittedly frustrated that I opted out at the last minute. I felt bad but this was I test I think I passed.

Oh and I later got to do something cooler. I taught French to Special Education middle school students as part of a research program. It was great but was difficult due to the resistance of the SPED teacher who underestimated these students in tragic and maddening ways, see my blog if I can figure out how to put the url in my signature...but I need to be official for that don't I?

I has a sad.

Edited March 7, 2009 by Berean

[Wingnut]

I've never heard of pumpkin ice cream having bugs, worms, or nuts in it. :)

I have not yet read Ulysses, though I have a very old edition of it here at home. I've heard it's quite risque, especially for its time.

[Captain_Curmudgeon]

Read it a long, long time ago. Enjoyed it. Of course, I'm a longtime fan of the Odyssey, so that was a factor. I should also say that reading it was a lot of work.

In the news: Ulysses is third on the list of books that people lie about having read.

Dubliners is on my list of Top Three short story collections by a single author.

[Berean]

Amazing, you bear a striking resemblance to my James Joyce prefessor Dr. Daniel Gunn, who is an ex-Catholic and probably an atheist and a very good man.

Yes it is fantastic but I could have done without the Circe episode, the scene on the beach with Gerty, and some others. Some phrases are stuck in my head forever unfortunately that I would probably get kicked off the forum or maybe just disciplined.

Is it a good thing I am glad I read this and would do it all over again?

And did you read Portrait and what did you think...and did you read Finnegan's Wake? I read a bewildering paragraph...:confused::confused::confused::confused:

too bad you can only have 8 emoticons, the other forum with the least next to this we can use 15...and that is too bad since this has the best emoticons I have seen on any other forum and I am an emoticon connoisseur. Some I am surprised to see on an LDS forum but pleased but I digress.

Yes it was risque for its time and was banned in the US for some time.

If one wishes to read Ulysses I would suggest anyone with short of a genius IQ should read it with a group with an expert, an anthology, and the group should be good and inquisitive. Research helps too, as we had to do. There are great articles, short and long about this work. We all need help with this...that is, unless one knows every language, has read every work of literature ever read, and knows the Irish culture and slang of Joyce's time.

And the ice cream thing was in a poster I saw for youth...it has vanilla ice cream with a cockroach...however I am disgusted by worms more...especially live ones. Rodents are cute, worms and bugs are icky.

Oh and if you never tried pumpkin ice cream and you like pumpkin pie, go immediately to your local decent ice cream store and try some. You will not regret it as pumpkin has replaced chocolate with jimmies as my favorite.