Me on Ulysses via THE B9

reading this post will tell you everything i think you need to know about that book.

first of all, nobody really enjoys reading ulysses. it's some english major rite of passage that they all do the same way maori tribesmen hang themselves from skewers.

joyce was irish. what do we know about the irish? they love punishment. and ulysses is a thousand pages of punishment.

you can either get in for a ride and let the words wash over you like passing cars or you can pore over every detail and try to get it all to make sense. do the first one and you're allowed to stand in a circle and talk about the book when it comes up in the next literature thread, which it undoubtedly will because this is the book people read to impress other people in literature threads. (among other reasons) do the second one and you'll probably appreciate the book a lot more, typically to the point of an irish-catholic abusive relationship where Ulysses comes home from work and beats you for reasons unknown and you love him for it because he's dark and complicated and nobody knows him like you do.

it's genius at its most horrifying. this is not the kind of book you read on the train or on the beach. i think there's no amount of speculation you can invest into this book that won't yield some sort of clarity, but you'll never truly understand it. fortunately you can appreciate it for what it is even if you can't master it. (again, like the irish)

just read the molly bloom speech and call it a day.