James Joyce

[coreyhemp]

Can someone give me some insight into some of his books? I came across his name on imdb (looking up Adaptation) talking about if Charlie Kauffman was influenced by him at all.

I read some stuff on amazon and can't really make out what kind of stuff he writes. It's obviously not the norm and it sounds like it caused some controversey back in the day.

some help would be greatly appreciated.

[Jake_Barnes]

His stuff is hard to understand. I mean, it's not something you can take to the beach and just breeze through, it takes mad effort. I read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and it was good, but there were parts which I didn't know what was going on. It's basically just about a kid growing up and discovering himself (I think I remember hearing that he based it on his own life). The thing I liked about that book was that as it went on and the main character grew up, the language he used also advanced. Of course, that made it tough to understand in parts, too.

I have heard that Finnegan's Wake is damn near impossible to understand, so I haven't even attempted that one yet. Same with Ulysses.

[thelunarbee]

Well first off, I was gonna post something totally wretched about him, then I realized it's Henry James I hate, not James Joyce.

All I know is that he's Irish and that his novel Finnegan's Wake has been on my reading list forever.

Yeah, that's a lot of help, eh?:rolleyes:

Here, try these links:
Link1 (http://www.themodernword.com/joyce/)
Link2 (http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/)

[Marlowe]

Well, Ulysses (which just celebrated its 100 year anniversary this year) was banned in the U.S. for a few years due to some sexual scenes, and people had to buy it illegally before it was finally published here.

He was a brilliant, inventiver writer whose work holds up to this day, although many find Ulysses and (even moreso) Finnegan's Wake to be obtuse and therefore hard to read all the way through.

I recommend you pick up his collection of short stories, Dubliners. It is a great introduction to Joyce's writing and may entice you to read more. (if you do decide to read more, go next for Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which is the prelude to Ulysses)

[mistergugi]

James Joyce is one of the most important writers of the 20th Century, if not the most important. His stories are unconventional and difficult to read, but they are still some of the greatest. By far the greatest Irish author, it took him 15 years to finish Finnegan's Wake, which might tell you something of the complexities within it. I have only read Portrait and I don't think I even finished it, but I know some basic facts about his two master-works.

Ulysses is a story that takes place on one day. It's a stream-of-consciousness story that loosely mirrors the story of Homer's The Odyssey.

Finnegan's Wake is the followup to that story, in which it takes place (instead of during one day) during one night. It starts in the middle of sentence and ends in the middle of the same sentence, therefore representing a dream-like circle throughout the 600(?)-some pages. If you think about the complexities and the disjointedness of your dreams, try thinking about having them written out. That's what the book is (supposedly) like.

FW has been on my shelf since last summer, and I've been too scared to pick it up and read it.

[MissKitty]

I agree with Marlowe--start out with The Dubliners and go from there. I read Ulysses and it's mindboggling. I've started Finnegan's Wake about a million times but to this day I haven't finished it. It can be read on so many different levels that it can make your head hurt. Languages merge, parts of words overlap and/or can be read together to form completely different words. For example, Anna Livia has "vlossyhair"--wlosy being Polish for "hair"; "a bad of wind" blows--bad being Persian for "wind."

Literary figures and historical figures appear, merge and disappear.

On another level, the protagonists are the city of Dublin and the River Liffey standing as representatives of the history of Ireland and, by extension, of all human history.

Don't let it scare you away. I adored Ulysses and someday I will finish Finnegan's Wake although you can seriously spend a lifetime studying it (as Robert Anton Wilson has done).

Start with The Dubliners. If you like what you read, and you like his style, take a summer off and read the others! :)

[munkie_boy]

As I scrolled down this message, reading the questions and replies, I was forming some thoughts for a response, but the other have taken care of the high points for me.

I third or fourth the motion to start with The Dubliners.

[dcXhc]

Fifth motion for The Dubliners -- especially "The Dead"

[Marlowe]

I have only made it through about 50% of Finnegan's Wake, too. I have heard that when read aloud it is a lot more accessable and you 'get it' a lot better. Would be fun to have a month of january sundays spent reading this in a pub...

On a similar subject, I recently read Gilligan's Wake, which was published last year, and really enjoyed it.

Here's a descrip:

In Gilligan's Wake, Esquire columnist Tom Carson takes a shaky premise---20th-century American culture as seen through the characters of Gilligan's Island--and turns it into a feverishly imaginative jigsaw puzzle of a book. Each castaway has been given a bizarre, interconnected history, which they recount in the book's seven chapters.

This fateful trip begins with Gilligan, who tells of his days writing beat poetry with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, only to awaken in a Minnesota mental institution. The Skipper relates how he spent World War II drinking cheap beer on PT boats with McHale and Jack Kennedy, who had "a grin like autumn leaves with a pack of Chiclets in the middle." In later stories, "beaming, imbecilic" Thurston recommends former chum Alger Hiss for his first government job, while spoiled Lovey has a morphine-inspired fling with The Great Gatsby's Daisy Buchanan. Brilliant bombshell Ginger ("My hips could have started the Timex folks weeping") lands a B-movie career in L.A., and a memorable night at Frank Sinatra's house. In between building the A-bomb, inventing the CIA, and generally dictating world events with his pals Roy Cohn and "Hank" Kissinger, the Professor bestows sexual favors on invalids. Finally, cheerful Mary-Ann, "the personification of America," leaves her Kansas home to attend the Sorbonne, where she meets a handsome Frenchman and discovers she is unable to lose her virginity.

Along the way, Gilligan's Wake's elusive meta-narrator reveals himself through clues and exposition in his hallucinatory retelling of American history. Carson propels the novel with astute cultural criticisms and energetic prose, including rapid-fire wordplay and narrative echoes that recall Thomas Pynchon. The result is a multifaceted, uncertain, and dazzling voyage.

[sirgareth]

For a while, I wrote radio scripts for "The Writer's Almanac," and Joyce was one of the author's whose birthday I wrote. In my research, I found a society in New York who gets together to read and study Finnegan's Wake. There are two groups reading at two speeds, and the slower group has reached page 64 in 4 years of reading, or something like that.

To read the language outloud in that book is a lovely, lyrical experience. To sit quietly before bed and read it is nightmare enducing experience.

Apparently, owing to old age, he dictated much of Finnegan, which helps explain its power in being read out loud. Samuel Beckett was one of the people who took the dictation. Now, that is a tutor...

He's got tons of good anecdotes, in addition to his writing- also, notably, that he was a fart sniffer. Check the archives of Savage Love to read Dan Savage interviewing a Joyce scholar on some of the perversions of the last century's greatest writer.

So, now that my gossip column for a dead guy is through....

[kcneon]

Another motion for The Dubliners.

[beki]

and, of course, if you get yourself into the ulysses club you get to celebrate bloomsday

[the happy prole]

When you wet the bed, first it is warm and then it gets cold.

Hush, baby tuckoo!

James Joyce was in The Pogues.

[yoshomon]

Read some of his short stories. He really is an amazing writer.

I'm planning on reading Ulysses this year.

[KaceySlater]

I read Joyce's short story "Araby" for multiple creative writing classes. If you're not ready to commit to a novel (actually, even if you are), I would reccommend it. Excuse me for saying so, but it's very touching. You can probably even find it online.

[vivalamusica]

Dubliners is an excellent place to start. If you read more, it's probably best to read the four major works in the order they were written: Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, Finnegan's Wake. I'm going to get around to Ulysses one of these days. Only a crazy person would start with Finnegan's wake. Nothing against crazy people, just sayin'.:)

[Johnnylama]

"... Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millonth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race."

That line blew my away in hs when I read it. It was almost my senior quote. Yes, I was a freak in hs, why do you ask? : ) I was quite the Joyce whore in college, but I've mellowed. Here's the skinny:

He has four books of note ( Dubliners, Portrait..., Ulys. and Fin), and a collection of poetry called Chamber Music. I had a copy but I loaned it to an irrisponsible friend. His poetry is actually quite traditional considering how cutting edge his prose was. There is an early version of Portrait called Steven Daedilus (the main character of Portrait), but it's really not a final draft.

Each book gets progressively more abstract and "stream of consciousness." Dub. is a collection of short stories and is very accessible. Portrait... is my fav, and is largely autobiographical. "Baby Tucktoo." :) Some VERY great passages, and some just weird. It's all good. Ulys. is pretty challanging. It got him in trouble b/c it contained some graphic scenes, rather tame by modern standards but enough to get him banned in the early 20th C. Fin is WAY out there. I've read some things about it, but I've never given/ had the time to really try to read it. You really need a version w/ text on one side/ explanation on the other if you really want to get it. I heard he makes puns in six languages in it. It all takes place kind of in a dream. Ulys and Fin contain layered allusions and almost codes that people are still cracking. Very heady. I eventually gave up and just read more Steinbeck. : )

Most of what he wrote focused on his Irish background, but his stream of consciousness style is really what makes him a major figure.

I'd go for Portrait... . If you just want a taste, Dub is good, but it really doesn't use the stream of consciousness style that sets him apart.