The Velvet Forum

Mmmmmmm....I must admit as an Irishman, I am ashamed of Ulysess. Nothing winds me up more than BA literary types going on and on about it being 'the greatest novel in the English Language'. Bullshit! It is singlehandedly the most pretentious, unreadable novel in the history of literature. I've tried to read it twice in my life and each time just given up through sheer exasperation and bemusement. What's the point of writing a novel to put off people reading it? It may be innovative in in its style & direction but it's being innovative for the sake of it and at the expense of its readers. (God, I sound like some mad right-wing critic!!)

I loved 'Portrait Of The Artist..' but Ulysess just throws the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to keeping an open-minded reader interested in reading it. No wonder I half-jokingly call it 'Useless' when anyone mentions it to me. Dare I say it, but is THE worst novel in modern literature for a) totally being up its own arse and b) because of the pseuds who rave madly about it, showing off how intellectual they think they really are.

Yeah, I didn't make it through the book either. And I wouldn't even attempt "Finnegan's Wake." It may be the most brilliant thing ever convceived, but it's way beyond me. Sorry, can't use it.

(And yet, having said that, my pat dismissal does remind me of people who listen to "Sister Ray" and say, "That's not music, that's just noise." Or the old, tired claim that nobody really listens to the Velvets, they just claim to like them to be cool. So granted, it may truly be me who is missing the boat on this stuff. But it just doesn't connect with me.)

http://www.themodernword.com/joyce/joyce_works_fw.html

I had similarly irritated views of Joyce's epics until I read this wonderful little introduction to Finnegans Wake. It's now one of my favorite books. If you're interested in what he was really trying to do with his experiments, I recommend taking a look at this link.

Oh, jimjim, I'm curious... how well does Joyce capture the real essence of Ireland? (I know you don't like Ulysses, but what about Portrait of the Artist? Is it / was it really like that?)