Yet there is much more to be done. And it will be hard. (But oh so worth it.)
When my brain couldn't dump any more into my Dana, I headed over to the bookstore and checked out their 70% Off stack. As usual, it was filled with tour guides to places I don't need to read up on just yet (like Stockholm, although I'd love to go), various religious books, and random novels I'd never heard of. But there was a gem: yes I said yes I will Yes: A Celebration of James Joyce, Ulysses, and 100 Years of Bloomsday. I snatched that up pretty quick. Maybe, just maybe, it'll help me finish (and understand) Ulysses. I've read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Dubliners, and Chamber Music, but the "best book of the 20th Century" has continued to elude me.
I picked this photo because it was taken in 1904, the same year Bloomsday occurred. Photo source: National Archives of Ireland.
Why tackle the book? He tells me to, that's why.
"The only demand I can make of my reader is that he should devote his whole life to reading my works." --James Joyce
Also, I think I'm in love with him.
5 comments:
congrats on some free time and brainstorming! and whoa on dead author crushes! =)
Step off my dead literary boyfriend, Lough. He is mine and I will fight you for him.
(Ulysses is my favoritest book of all and the last paragraph of "The Dead" possibly the most beautiful paragraph ever written)
No, he's mine! But really, Jacqui, you read the whole thing and understood it all? Without a class or an annotated version? My HS English teacher recommended it to me, but said to make sure I got an annotated version...and of course I promptly went out and bought the only version I could find, which has no notes. So I'm left bare with only my own brain for guidance (which is scary).
I read it myself first, and then audited the section of a lit class where they read it. I'd agree about the notes, but human guidance is better so you're not interrupting your reading all the time.
Thanks ffor this blog post
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