Need a hot feminist take need a hot feminist take. Oh I know
“A woman could never write Finnegans Wake or Ulysses”
Anglos just assume anything related to Ireland is inherently nonsense, thus making Joyce completely incomprehensible to them.
Also, Ulysses is an eminently readable book, like it’s very dense which means you have to read it a couple times and read commentary/annotations, but that’s something every great work of literature requires. They teach you this in HS English. Finnigan Wake I could take or leave, but Ulysses is a genuine masterpiece.
Was thinking might try it someday, just because I’ve heard so much about it over the years. Is there a particular annotated edition you think is good?
It’d be a separate volume, but Don Gifford’s Ulysses Annotated. Or you could go another route and read Anthony Burgess’s Re-Joyce, which attempts to make the case that annotations are unnecessary.
I think I’d rather go with the annotated, just because like if I get to the end of the book about why we don’t need annotations then I could have just read Ulysses without annotations in that time, and if I disagree at the end then I have to read the annotations anyway. :galaxy-brain:
Damn, the annotations book is 700 pages long? And that doesn’t include Ulysses? That’s intimidating damn.
I have Don Gifford’s ‘Ulysses Annotated’ which is comprehensive but almost as long as Ulysses itself.
Another option you might want to try is the Ulysses lecture series that the Great Courses produced, its cheap/free to listen to on Audible. The professor give a 1 to 2 hour lecture on each chapter, going through the events, giving background and some light commentary.
Is it better do you think to read the notes beforehand so I know what I’m getting into, or afterwards to contextualize what I read? Or maybe both? Probably both is best for me lol.
