03-04-2004, 04:34 AM | #1 (permalink) | |
Junkie
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Passage of the day - 4 March 2004
It's been quite a while since I posted one of these.
I'm not sure how many people will read the following, but this is perhaps the most famous passage from the most famous book of the 20th century. It may be a bit tough going at first, but it's worth it. Trust me... :-) Quote:
Ulysses by James Joyce Mr Mephisto |
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03-04-2004, 09:36 AM | #3 (permalink) | |
Fly em straight!
Location: Above and Beyond
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03-04-2004, 09:46 AM | #4 (permalink) | |
absolute relativist
Location: D.C.
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I slogged through Ulysses in a 300 Level Honors English Couse in College and could barely comprehend it much less enjoy it. I have a feeling that fifty years from now the whole academy will take their collective heads out of their collective behinds and say, "You know what we just shitting all of you. Writers like Proust, Joyce and Pynchon were all really just a crock trying to make you feel insignificant and stupid." Of course that is just my opinion. I could be wrong.
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Neither rain , nor cold, nor dark of night shall.......ahh whatever, just get me a beer! |
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03-04-2004, 09:57 AM | #5 (permalink) | |
Junkie
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Ulysses introduced the "stream of consciousness" concept in writing which is very evident in the above passage. This alone was groundbreaking at the time. You don't think with commas, full-stops and in nice orderly grammatical constructs now, do you? If you do, you are very very strange... :-) Yes, Ulysses is difficult to read. Famously. But it's undoubtedly a very rewarding one if you "get into" it, and it's a very important book (probably the most important book) in 20th century literature. Mr Mephisto |
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03-04-2004, 10:37 AM | #6 (permalink) |
absolute relativist
Location: D.C.
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Well I didn't really call them shit. What I was sort of railing against were the professors who told me that if I didn't enjoy the writers I mentioned that it was my fault because I wasn't "getting it". I was on the Dean's list as an English major in college/university and I felt that I was "getting it" just fine I just wasn't enjoying it or appreciating it.
In regards to how I think. I sort of feel that I do think with pauses, stops, in a grammatical sort of fashion when I am concentrating on a subject. When I am sort of free floating in thought I guess stream of conciousness is a close approximation of how I would transcribe it although to do it properly it would take countless reams of text. (I am glad Joyce didn't do this or Ulysses would have been 18 volumes I do enjoy re reading some of Joyce's other work very much and I love Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49". "Gravity's Rainbow" on the other hand is three weeks of my life that I am never getting back. Finally I differ greatly that Ulysses is the most important book in 20th Century Lit. I would probably argue for Steinbeck or Faulkner for that but I am a bit predisposed towards American Realists. And boy am I in the minority in that nowadays. Good discussion, thanks.
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Neither rain , nor cold, nor dark of night shall.......ahh whatever, just get me a beer! Last edited by clifclav; 03-04-2004 at 10:51 AM.. |
03-04-2004, 10:45 AM | #7 (permalink) |
Junkie
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Yeah, I shoudn't have paraphrased you by using the word "shit".
For the record, I find Pynchon very difficult to read, though I do like Umberto Eco. He can be a bit too "clever" sometimes though. With regards to Ulysses' designation as the most important book of the 20th century, don't blame me but take it up with the general English literature academics. I have to say that I like Faulkner and Steinbeck both, but they were no way as influential as Joyce. Mr Mephisto |
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2004, day, march, passage |
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