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James Joyce: What say you??
ScrambledGregs:
Did you guys even read my post?? I said the Bible is the most famous book nobody's ever read. I didn't say it was difficult to read. I would say a healthy 90% of Christians have never read even half of the Bible, let alone the whole thing. Yet they "know" their religion because of what others tell them. A dangerous state of affairs if there ever was one.
But that's a whole 'nother thread.
supersheep:
10% of Christians is 200 million people. Hell, even if only 1% have read the thing, that's still 20 million - far more than have ever read Ulysses...
Narr:
--- Quote from: snaps on 04 Dec 2006, 13:09 ---joyce is a genius, there's no question about that...
i've never read ulysses. i signed up for a class on it but dropped it because the prof was just too out there.
that doesn't make the text useless. no, without having even read it i have no doubt that its the most valuable literary accomplishment of the 20th century...it's just that before you delve into such things you must be familiar with its background...one simply can'y jump into a text such as ulysses without having read its influences...in a way, that's the very essence of it. but, ulysses aside, joyce is (perhaps) far and away the finest writer of the 20th century. yet consider the fact that you're only able to dismiss difficult texts because such texts have questioned the very validity of validity (say, what is good and bad, objectively).
--- End quote ---
Consider this:
Most contemporary authors that actually get stuff published that I have personally met/looked into/what-have-you can't stand Joyce. When I started going off on how awful I felt A Portrait... was, my teacher immediately asked "Have you been talking with Orson Card?" I recognize why a lot of people think Joyce is great literature, but my standpoint that there's no way in hell that his tripe would even be looked at by a publisher in the world today is probably my biggest problem I have with him. I think I'm in pretty good company when every writing workshop teacher I've ever had and someone as successful as Orson Scott Card think Joyce is crap.
elcapitan:
It strikes me as interesting that Orson Scott Card gets held up in (presumably, since you're mentioned that you are one) Mormon circles as a commentator on literature. I wonder if he would be accorded the same respect if he wasn't Mormon too?
Not trying to insinuate anything, I'm legitimately curious.
KharBevNor:
The authors of my favourite book (Illuminatus!) liked Joyce enough to emulate his writing style, make him a minor character and paraphrase Mollys monologue from the end of Ulysses in its entirety. The book also incoporates the Cthulhu mythos and features a cameo from HP Lovecraft that makes fun of his arrogance and bigotry. Oh, and there's zombie nazis.
Anyone who thinks the modernist stream of consciousness/internal monologue/non-linear narrative style is crap really needs to read it.
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