Reading Ulysses

I'm now around p. 130 of my first attempt. I can't say it's easy and that I know what's going on very well. I got that Stephen went to the beach, I got that Leopold Bloom had liver for breakfast. I have found gorgeous language. My problem lies in the stream of conciousness internal dialogue. It may be allegorical, it may really be nonsense too, but I feel like I'm on the outside of an inside joke. Here is where annotations would come in handy I think even if they would really slow me down. I will trudge on. Maybe I'll take a look around for a Wordsworth Edition, they're normally annotated. I am reading the Everyman's Library edition. Any advice?

believe it or not, Ulysses is the one book in the world where I recommend using those oft-maligned crutches for the lazy high school student, Cliff's Notes.

Ulysses is slow going enough without an extensive external guide to slow you down, but the Cliff's Notes chapter summaries in particular i found invaluable. Had I not read them, I may have missed the fact that Stephen went to the beach

actually Poldy had kidneys for breakfast . . .
I don't get what the problem is
about reading Ulysses
O sure first time around
you don't get some of it
and too much is made of the "parallels with the Blind Greek's Tale
(Joyce started that line of thought but he is a Trickster
akin to Loki and what he said
about himself and about his works
is often contradictory
and who really knows what the man thought)

especially reading in and around and through
finnegans wake

makes Ulysses much easier going

the first three hundred pages confused me... - after that, I simply LOVED it.
funny, I mostly read it when I was out: sitting in cafés, waiting for appointments,
going by train. It's one of the best books I've ever read.

I'm not sure about the Cliff's Notes, but I do know that The Bloomsday Book by Harry Blamires (now out in a newer edition as The New Bloomsday Book) was a wonderful guide to reading the novel. It's fun just to luxuriate in the language even if you're not entirely sure what is going on anyway...

Ah yes of course, the faint smell of piss. Forgive me, it was an error of memory.

when I was about 16, I read the kidney scene in Ulysses and tried making some kidneys in the kitchen when my parents weren't home. Haha, the thing is, kidneys need to be soaked in liquid for hours or days to rid them of the urine smell, but I basically just threw them on a frying pan and made my whole house smell like a petting zoo (i.e. like hot, reeking urine)...!

Were they good?

I'm nearing page 400. Just past Stephen's theories on Hamlet/Shakespeare. I've looked for Cliff notes but none of the local retailers have any for Ulysses in stock.

With something as referentially dense as Ulysses, it makes sense to give it one read through to be able to see the general borders of the work as a whole. Then on the second read, you can pick through the parts you may not have understood but saw as important to the book.

Anyway, notes on the first time through may stunt your reading pleasure.

I hate to admit this but I'm around page 500 and not really enjoying this. My mind wanders and I don't look forward to picking it up. Maybe I'm not ready or capable for Ulysses. I'm going to persist until I finish but I'm not sure I'm getting anything from this. Perhaps once finished I will pursue some supporting material which will elucidate the work for me.

Ions, don't bother slogging through until you get some simple guide-- you've hit the hardest part of the book, in my opinion. What's the point of forcing your eyes over the sentences, though?

I couldn't agree more. I read Ulysses in a class while in college, and I can honestly say that were it not for the slow pace and bi-weekly lectures, I would not have made it through the book or gotten anything out of it. I think that some sort of guide or supplementary help is absolutely neccessary with this work, especially in the last several hundred pages.

I will plod on hoping that Wikipedia will carry me through. I do think that the band of normal people that can appreciate this book close to completely is perhaps a narrow subsection of the said normal people. Perhaps, I'm dumberer than the average normal person. Entirely possible.

@ ions

maybe it's just not your cup of tea - you know, that is also entirely possible :-)
for example: everybody I ask simply loves Donna Leon. I can't stand her books. I don't like Don DeLillo and started loathing Herman Hesse after I've read most of his books (although, a lot of people said that about Hesse - so in this case I'm not alone). Sometimes I decide it's worth worming my way through books that are somewhat "difficult"; at other times I just stop reading them. Gut feeling, I guess. So if you have the feeling that you really don't like it, just stop; I did that with a lot of books that I then read later, or never picked up again. (e.g., I started twice with Foucault's Pendelum, got to page 200 on both occasions, but never finished... I know I will sometime, though).

ions,

You shouldn't beat yourself up. Ulysses is difficult; why make it harder than it needs to be? If you're having trouble, do yourself a favor and pick up the New Bloomsday Book or Don Gifford's Ulysses Annotated.

I was first moved to read Ulysses
when I was 11
because I read that it had been banned in the US
and I was curious about why

needless to say
I didn't "get" the whole thing
at that time

and there are still parts
I find confusing
but I certainly wouldn;t call it a difficult read
but that's probably from having spent hundreds of hours
reading in the Wakemuch more exciting book
in my opinion

lasy night I was reading
recently arrived
Collected fictions and non-fictions
of Borges

in the essays
he says he never made it all the way through either
so considerf yourself in good company

and WOW
I am really enjoying Borges!

@suzannahh,

Borges is one of the best.... You might also like "This Craft of Verse" (Harvard University Press 2000), six lectures of Borges on literature (Harvard 1967/68), including one lecture on metaphors.

You should just...read it...as slow as you need to...note the effect on your pysche...use a dictionary if necessary...try not to put too much space between your reading sections...if you don't like it...PUT IT DOWN, necessary my ass, it is the most overrated book by far we have, not because it isn't worthwhile for some readers, but because people feel like they have to read it which is a bunch of rubbish considering how many of the great books those people will never even Hear of! let alone read....and if you use a guidebook, well, have fun having some dude tell you what it means, I won't do it. (I own a copy of the Gravity's Rainbow companion but that is to catch all the pop culture referances and I half regret even buying that.)

if I were you, ions, I'd probably be thinking about running away, screaming, after having read all our good advice :-))
no, seriously now - every one is right, kind of - you can try reading it slow, quick, at night, in the morning, only in bed, only when out, with guidance books or without -- you get my drift: we all tried it our own way and were successful or not, depending on whether the book we had chosen was right for us, and time, locus and conditions of reading were fitting... (but I admit, it is always interesting to see how other people go about reading a certain book... and reassuring especially in this case!)

you might also
have a watch pf Sean Walsh's recent
movie Bloom

all the ddialogue is straight from the book

the only fault I have with the film
is that he loves the book so much
he made everything sdpanking sparkly CLEAN
and Joyce didn't call it
dear dirty Dublin
fer nuthin'