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What are you reading now?
- Thread starter thegunner
- Start date
:thumbsup: Let me know what you thought about it when you're done.
Why is that?
It's big drawback is that it's very dense and difficult to follow, which understandably is more than enough for someone to put the book down. I think the 15 page sermon about Hell is almost entirely alienating to all readers and requires a big leap of faith (no pun intended) to examine in a larger context, which is the only thing that validates it- which can also be said for most of the book and is it's other major flaw.
After letting it settle in a bit, I liked the book. The beginning was good enough biography and enjoyable writing, and the end had a lot of ideas that I really got behind. The middle was not so good, as I said.
I think the book is important because first of all it's good writing, and it's pretty revolutionary technique. The idea of having a book that really only has one character and no real plot, just a person's thoughts and impressions of the mundane was practically anathema to the idea of literature. That's usually what defines non-fiction.
It's also a great insight into the reality of the Irish Catholic experience, so it has a social/cultural and historical value there.
And these things are also blended into the literary character of the book, and all of Joyce's work. With the exception of Shakespeare, Dante is arguable the greatest historical verse writer. Stephen Dedalus, Joyce's alter ego, says "I am the servant of two masters. One in England and one in Rome." He is referring to the British Crown and the Catholic Pope, but it's an interesting literary parallel, isn't it? And Portrait of the Artist is a parallel of Dante's Vita Nouva.
For Dante it is about how the relationship to another person introduced him to a greater vision of destiny beyond his own psychological and sensory experience, and reaffirmed his faith in the church. For Joyce he lost his faith in the church because of the hypocrisy and dogma and felt alienated from the people around him for almost all of his life, and he found that experience of enlightenment through art. I don't know about you, but that had a lot of personal resonance for me and I think that speaks to a lot of how people feel and is the best thing about the book.
Oh yeah, and right now I'm reading Ulysses.
That's a clue there, BTW, in the introduction. Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man is also a parallel to Ovid's Metamorphosis, which was about archetype's depicted in mythology (Daedalus was the builder of Minos' Labyrinth. For an analysis of that theme, see my previous recommendation of Danielewski's House Of Leaves.) Meta morphos means change of bodies, Plato's "shadows and dust." The physical forms of being are unified by the manifestation of "Spirit" (God/ Nirvana / Psychology/ Quantum Mechanics), to use Ken Wilber's model (which is a collaboration of all these ideas).
The Sequel, Ulysses is of course a parallel to Homer's Odyssey which is about maturity and "modern man" striving to integrate that vision of Spirit and overcome cultural programming that limits his evolution. It's also a parallel to Dante's Infernus where people suffer the "Hell" of everyday life (Dante's Hell was modeled after his home town of Florence, while Joyce's is Dublin), cut off from transcendental illumination and unable to grasp a deeper meaning of the world beyond their own limited personal experiences.
I'm finding it to be much more accessible and cohesive than the former, although it's still a staggering breadth of information on the page, and about 800 of them to boot. They say that if you can comprehend 1/4 of it in the first reading, then you are doing very well.
That's a clue there, BTW, in the introduction. Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man is also a parallel to Ovid's Metamorphosis, which was about archetype's depicted in mythology (Daedalus was the builder of Minos' Labyrinth. For an analysis of that theme, see my previous recommendation of Danielewski's House Of Leaves.) Meta morphos means change of bodies, Plato's "shadows and dust." The physical forms of being are unified by the manifestation of "Spirit" (God/ Nirvana / Psychology/ Quantum Mechanics), to use Ken Wilber's model (which is a collaboration of all these ideas).
The Sequel, Ulysses is of course a parallel to Homer's Odyssey which is about maturity and "modern man" striving to integrate that vision of Spirit and overcome cultural programming that limits his evolution. It's also a parallel to Dante's Infernus where people suffer the "Hell" of everyday life (Dante's Hell was modeled after his home town of Florence, while Joyce's is Dublin), cut off from transcendental illumination and unable to grasp a deeper meaning of the world beyond their own limited personal experiences.
I'm finding it to be much more accessible and cohesive than the former, although it's still a staggering breadth of information on the page, and about 800 of them to boot. They say that if you can comprehend 1/4 of it in the first reading, then you are doing very well.
^^^ I read Ulysses about a year ago, I enjoyed it for the most part. I did at the time feel that I needed to at some point slog through it once again. But I just havent felt that urge to do so, yet.
At the moment I'm reading:
Last Exit to Brooklyn - Hubert Selby Jr
Herzog - Saul Bellow
Herzog I have to say is a little slow, yes its beautifully wirtten as I am assured are most of Bellows works. But the story just doesnt draw one in. Our protagonist is certainly an interesting character but his life just isnt that interesting for me to feel like I should be reading on. Last Exit to Brooklyn on the other hand is very good.
At the moment I'm reading:
Last Exit to Brooklyn - Hubert Selby Jr
Herzog - Saul Bellow
Herzog I have to say is a little slow, yes its beautifully wirtten as I am assured are most of Bellows works. But the story just doesnt draw one in. Our protagonist is certainly an interesting character but his life just isnt that interesting for me to feel like I should be reading on. Last Exit to Brooklyn on the other hand is very good.
Re-reading "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". One of my faves from my college days.
A biography of Napoleon
WWE Encyclopedia
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home
I recently saw a great documentary on James Ellroy called "Feast of Death" which promted me to pick up a copy of his book The Black Dahlia.
What book are you currently reading?
Hoping to start up a book thread on here and see what it is that people read, love to read, what they look for in a book, and all that great stuff.
I am currently reading Parasite Eve (which is the first and reason behind the most notably games for PS1 back in the late 1990s; and a movie) and it is quite enjoyable. It provides a huge biology lesson big time!
I am also reading Death of a Tsar by Robert Marcum.
The Red Star which is based off the comic series, it is a novel.
I enjoy reading multiple books at once in case I tend to get at a dry spot or bored of it, I can move onto another novel and partake in that, but I tend to read at least two novels at once.
Hoping to start up a book thread on here and see what it is that people read, love to read, what they look for in a book, and all that great stuff.
I am currently reading Parasite Eve (which is the first and reason behind the most notably games for PS1 back in the late 1990s; and a movie) and it is quite enjoyable. It provides a huge biology lesson big time!
I am also reading Death of a Tsar by Robert Marcum.
The Red Star which is based off the comic series, it is a novel.
I enjoy reading multiple books at once in case I tend to get at a dry spot or bored of it, I can move onto another novel and partake in that, but I tend to read at least two novels at once.
Re: What book are you currently reading?
Porn mags.
No but really, World War Z.
Im waiting for the Zombie apocolypse and i want to be ready
Porn mags.
No but really, World War Z.
Im waiting for the Zombie apocolypse and i want to be ready
