Revision as of 01:11, 26 November 2016

I first read Ulysses in 2011. I've dipped into the book several times since then. It's particularly helpful during tumultuous periods. Most recently, I returned to it after reading Marshall McLuhan's commentary on Joyce, and the way that he demonstrated the way that he explored different mediums for communicating, first with conscious (stream-of-consciousness) methods (in Ulysses), and then with the subconscious elements of language in Finnegan's Wake.

2011 Reading

I began reading Ulysses in 2011, reading it alongside the audio book. I was listening to Librivox recordings, which were sometimes good and sometimes bad. In this reading I was making notes in each chapter - a few specific notes, but mainly identifying the major themes and the general idea of what's going on (often necessary). I was able to understand the structure by reading Stuart Gilbert's excellent guide. However, while the Gilbert guide explains some of the themes, and highlights many passages that are interesting or notable (making it easier to recognize and remind yourself of the themes in the chapter), it did not do much to make the longer and harder-to-understand chapters any shorter. Thus, the later chapters (Ch. 12-17) are still the hardest parts of the book to get through.

Here are notes from that reading: Ulysses/2011