I read Ulysses 3 years ago. After initial skepticism, I discovered that it is truly a great work of literature. One example that impressed me was the chapter Wandering Rocks, where Joyce implements a virtual Dublin that operates like a massive, clockwork simulation tracked over one hour -- he follows many different events and points of view as the characters walk through the city, experiencing events in accurate time that ripple across their perspectives (e.g. a clock chiming heard by 10 different people at different times and intensities according to their distances from the clock, echoes from the walls of surrounding buildings, and the speed of sound -- all mapped to Joyce's deep knowledge of Dublin's geography). Ulysses requires a lot of work and time to understand. I would like to recommend the following to anyone who wants to read it:
1. Give yourself about 6 months.
2. Do not read the text at first go. Instead, listen to the excellent audio recording. http://www.amazon.com/Ulysses-Naxos-AudioBooks-Joyce-James/d... James Joyce was a lyricist and singer and incorporated many auditory elements into his wordplay. Many voices interact in this work, forming a weave that can be baffling on the page but which acquires a certain harmony read aloud. I would even suggest that much in the way rap musicians take utter (often ridiculous) liberty with the English language, creating works incomprehensible on page but that can be understood in the context of song, Joyce experimented with language-as-lyric. Joyce was known for waking up his wife by laughing out loud as he was writing this work -- he found the wordplay ridiculous and hilarious -- so don't approach it with the severity of a religious text.
3. Do not worry if you get lost or zone out. Just keep going and review or re-read later. If you try to understand everything you will never finish and become discouraged.
1. Give yourself about 6 months.
2. Do not read the text at first go. Instead, listen to the excellent audio recording. http://www.amazon.com/Ulysses-Naxos-AudioBooks-Joyce-James/d... James Joyce was a lyricist and singer and incorporated many auditory elements into his wordplay. Many voices interact in this work, forming a weave that can be baffling on the page but which acquires a certain harmony read aloud. I would even suggest that much in the way rap musicians take utter (often ridiculous) liberty with the English language, creating works incomprehensible on page but that can be understood in the context of song, Joyce experimented with language-as-lyric. Joyce was known for waking up his wife by laughing out loud as he was writing this work -- he found the wordplay ridiculous and hilarious -- so don't approach it with the severity of a religious text.
3. Do not worry if you get lost or zone out. Just keep going and review or re-read later. If you try to understand everything you will never finish and become discouraged.
4. While you are listening to Ulysses, read Vladimir Nabokov's Harvard lectures on Ulysses. http://books.google.com/books/about/Lectures_on_Literature.h... This is a wonderful chapter-by-chapter companion that will make sense of the chaos.
5. If you want a warm up, read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.