This past week I read James Joyce's Ulysses for the fourth time in my life. I last read it in 2001, and the 13 1/2 year gap was too long for this quintessential Modernist novel, and one of the greatest literary achievements in history. The twisting narrative techniques, the brutal depths of the stream of consciousness where the novel itself exerts its own consciousness, the richness and creativity of language to propel the well designed themes, rich in cultural, historic, religious and litereary allusions make this something much more than a reading experience.
Sounds good! *scribbles 'Joyce' into notepad...*
I've barely read anything of length in the past few years so decided to make an active effort to up my reading at New Year. Finished Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy, Graham Greene's The Quiet American and Jonathan Rendall's This Bloody Mary is the Last Thing I Own. I recommend the latter if you're into boxing. Turnbull would love it, if he's not already familiar with it (I suspect he is).
Wonderful to see you on the boards, and I admit that more than once I thought about you as I immersed myself in Ulysses because I remember once or twice discussing it with you. Particularly, I remember saying that I've tried to conquer Finnegan's Wake , but concluded that it requires a far more evolved literary mind than mine to read it with the intelligence it deserves. I felt that you have the ability to do it justice.
I know that your current career keeps you very busy, but have you ever had the chance/desire to jump into Finnegan's Wake ? I just may attempt to approach it again before I die. I may read some more analyses and commentaries to make it more comfortable to start it again.
Cheers Klyd - always nice to drop by.
I still haven't read Finnegans Wake. Though I did meet a film programmer in Santiago de Compostela last year who translated it into Galician! I've been advised it's best consumed alongside an audio book, where the sounds and rhythms of the work take on a real musicality. I'd like to get to it someday. Part of the reason I haven't read much fiction at all in recent years is that everything felt like a disappointment after Ulysses.
Alongside my work as a film critic, I'm a programming consultant for several film festivals, one of which is Bradford International Film Festival (BIFF) in the north of England. Next month, I'll be seeing The Joycean Society at said festival, a doc on a group of Joyce enthusiasts who meet up in Zurich to read Finnegans Wake. Sounds like an idiosyncratic but accessible film; my colleague Neil Young (not that one), who programmed it as co-director of BIFF, wrote about it here. Keep a look out!
I've just started a book on Joe Dante, and am about to begin Simon Winlow's Badfellas.
...dot com bold typeface rhetoric. You go clickety click and get your head split. 'The hell you look like on a message board Discussing whether or not the Brother is hardcore?
