My Thoughts on (Parts of) Ulysses. Part 1.

In one of my last posts, I was talking about how I had started reading a lot again. Whenever I'd look for recommendations, I'd see Ulysses by James Joyce high on the recommendations as one of the best, if not, THE best work in English. Other people disagreed with that, saying it was a heap of exaggerated trash, too self indulgent, whatnot. I decided I'd give it a try myself.

I read a bit last year, on Wiki. I wasn't in a mood to pay much attention, plus it's hard to on the computer, so I gave up pretty much before I began, promising that I'd try properly, later.

I forgot about for a few months and kept reading books that I COULD finish + understand (including, but not restricted to the ones in the list I put up). Then, I remembered what I said to myself. 

Remembering the warnings about the inscrutable use of language in the book, I picked a day I'd not be distracted by anything else, and when I'd have a 'heightened awareness'. I went to the library, made straight for the fourth floor and found their copy of Ulysses and went through the first chapter.

I had to read the introduction to get a sense of what to expect, and the annotations. There was an appendix in the back of the book I had to keep referring to to get a sense of the context and meanings of certain words (Latin, French, Irish Gaelic, Irish English - so far) and cultural aspects (mostly dealing with Catholicism and Irish and British culture of that period) and politics (Irish republicanism and unionism, British imperialism and apologists - but this at least I already had a good idea of because of the IRA and stuff and the history of 'our own' British Raj). I had to refer the appendix pretty often but I don't think there would have really been a way to get into the atmosphere otherwise, since 1904 Irish/British society/values are totally alien to those of my my own (which themselves are alien to me).

That day I finished the first chapter, Telemachus. I really liked it. Granted, it was still pretty simple compared to the rest of the book, but it serves as a good starting point to gradually (?) get into the feel of the next book. Though, the links with the Odyssey, I didn't get. It seemed normal, but had lots of quirky turns. It had a sense of simmering frustration on the part of Stephen Dedalus, the main character, especially with Ireland. It went suddenly, at random, into his thoughts, usually diverting from what was going on, or his own musings on them. 

Another day, I came back and read chapter two, Nestor. It was like the first but there were more internal musings, because it's set in a school where Dedalus teaches, and he's bored/frustrated with the kids (who wouldn't be). He makes some references to stuff related to Irish history, that I needed annotations the understand. He speaks to a fellow teacher and they talk about the state that Ireland is in, and once again we get the sense of Dedalus' frustration with his nation.

I tried reading chapter 3, but it was too vague and rambling. I skipped it for another time, and settled on chapter 4. This dealt with Leopold Bloom, an Irish Jew. Chapters 4 and 5, both with him as the focus, were less heady, but not easier to read, as Bloom has a very wandering mind and breaks his train of thought frequently for trivia. It dealt with more 'current' stuff, and day to day things. Both the chapters ended with things I can't imagine people writing about in the period Ulysses was published (1922) and so I was shocked. Chapter 4 starts with him hogging on meat and ends with him taking a dump. Chapter 5 has him thinking of women and checking out one, and ends with him ejaculating. Yes, shocker, hah, coming from someone using language like that while writing, to write about something like this and describe it too. (Not graphically though, thankfully)

That's all that I've finished successfully. I'm working on another post, about what I felt about what I've read so far (I know it's not enough to give a proper judgement, but bear with me), and the parallels I felt between India and Ireland (I was surprised by this), about his use of language, use of internal monologues, and things I could relate to in the book -- making it not just some piece of literature, but something relevant and insightful as well.

I wanted to include it with this post, but thought it'd be too big. Plus I want to make it good, and work on it, it'll take a while, what with exams and general laziness. More than a month probably.