shinbook

I am just starting to get into Joyce, read Dubliners and Artist, starting Ulyses. I love the stream of conciousness style. It just fits the way I think. I have tried, unsuccessfully, to write in that style several times. How did that man do it. I always wind up with 15 pages of rambling hogwash, I don't know, any advice???

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doctor

so far i have only read portrait. although i occasionally found the language a bit thick, and draining on my attention span (i have this same problem, to a far greater degree, reading dickens), i still thought it was a beautifully written novel. i found his style of prose original and brilliant. i would love to be able to write with such seeming effortlessness. (although i know that alot of years of work went into many of his novels, it does not seem so as you read it)

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Shepard

I found some old notes of mine from when I was a kid written in SOC and I was blown away at how good it was. The plot was crap, but compared to my current complete inability to write in anything but simple sentences I was impressed. SOC isn't that great. It's been rendered to novelty nowadays.

daisy

If you are enjoying Joyce's SOC style, you should read Faulkner and Woolf as well. Personally, I've had more success with Woolf than Faulkner, but as writers in the "modernist era," they were all influenced by one another and developed some really interesting, personal styles that can still be classified as SOC.

teflon

There is a James Joyce word game thread: http://www.writingforums.com/showthr...ighlight=joyce

Can you contribute your Joycean injuicivity?

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strangedaze

though i list woolf as one of my favorite writers, it is more on the basis of her sex life than her novels.

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ThatSmokingGuy

The thought of sitting down and spending a good deal of time on Ulysses or Finnegans Wake, both makes my mouth water and my brain hurt. I want to, because, even reading a few pages of the book, a few threads like this, and some reviews, you get the feeling that this thing is rich beyond measure. Like tucking into a 7 course meal with all the trimmings and vintage wine, intellectually.
But dam, I think I'd have to take it slow. I'm the kind of person that would have to know what everything on the page meant, both literally and alluded to. I have a feeling it'd be like blundering around in a dark rabbit warren.

obscurantist

Can anyone suggest me the simpler works of Joyce which I can start trying on? How's Joyce classified among writers?

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Mike C

Start with the Dubliners; it's a series of shorts, nice and easy to digest.

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obscurantist

Thanks Mike, So kind of you...

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Mike C

A pleasure. You'll love it, and it shows that short stories can be beautiful if you dispense with plot, conflict, resolution, all the stuff everyone tells you you need.

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Londongrey

Oh trust you!!! But as we have already discussed 'To the Lighthouse' is far to wordy with not enough substance to warrant such a splurge of language.


James Joyce is an enjoyable author, however, people these days don't seem to give the classics enough time for adjustment, they want instant satisfaction.

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Hellknight

I have read Dubliners, A Portrait of an Artist as an Young Man and am currently in the process of reading Ulysses (just started the second chapter). So far, it has been one of the, if not the most, difficult works I have ever read (and I just finished Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury) - but also one of the most beautiful. A very rewarding experience, if you ask me. Stream of Consciousness is an impressive technique, yet it has to be handle with care, otherwise you run the risk of ruining the entire piece. Joyce, quite obviously, is a master of it, and can use it as a powerful literary device.

One thing I find very interesting is how he mixes third and first-person narrative, something he had already done in A Portrait. This allows him to balance moments of extreme introspection with more descriptive, elaborated sections, which works particular well in Ulysses, aiding the flow of the novel.

As far as reading conditions goes, I personally can only read it when I'm completely awake and concentrated, otherwise I can't really focus on what I'm reading. I also look up on the net every expression I don't know or can't deduce the meaning of, as it happens with his many Latin phrases. Other than that, I suppose there's nothing else to it: just seat and read.

By the way, I second whoever suggested Faulkner. As I said, I just finished his The Sound and the Fury, and it's probably the best novel I have ever read. Brilliant masterpiece.

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josephwise

Ulysses is by far my favorite novel. The key to reading it, or to writing something similar, lies in the setting. Peppered throughout the stream-of-consciousness you'll find setting and action references. "Bloom stepped down onto inkshimmered Colgrove where mudcaked sandles held a shineboy off the stones." Keep an eye on the character, where he is, what he's doing, and the SOC thoughts will make near-perfect sense. The SOC is reactionary. Thoughts are driven by what the characters see, what they hear. Ever see a cat that made you think of your old childhood cat, which reminded you of the time your brother lost a shoe in a ditch, etc.? Eventually you end up thinking about a candy store somewhere in town, and you think "how did I come to these thoughts?" Then you trace everything back, domino by domino, to the cat you just saw. That's how it works. It requires a bit of attention, but it's no sweat.

And once you have that down, you can start pondering Joyce's enigmas...but he was as human as we are, so it's all very "doable." And rewarding, to boot.

cabbageguy

I read Portrait, then Dubliners, then Ulysses, then Chamber Music.

James Joyce is an author who you can really picture through his works. You can really see how smart he really was.

Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man I read through way too fast, it flew over my head, but the part when the priest gives a sermon about Hell and Infinity really scared me.

Dubliners was all right, maybe I read through that way too fast too.

One day I picked up an old copy of Ulysses, and read the first three pages. I didn't get it, but later on I had the biggest urge to read all of it, because those three pages were so good.

You have to read Joyce slowly. When reading Ulysses there were parts where I just had to put the book down and say "How can he be that good at writing?", or just think about all the wordplay and allusions.