Hey all, thanks for watching! If you enjoyed this, you might like the follow-up episode of How To Read It in which I take a look at Joseph Heller's Catch-22 which you can find here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-T9jS5ka_fNo.html
Hi Tom, really enjoy your channel. Though I tried to read this book twice, I found it so confusing that I couldn't get through it. Can you dumb it down for me in a few words? Thanks.
@@nedgilkeson4391 - try listening to it, it is a brilliant listen. also skip to Bloom and skim over Stephen's chapters, you can always come back to them. for a guide I recommend Declan Kiberd (lecturer in Joyce's old alma mater)
Absolutely love it. Your enthusiasm is infectious, so to add to the Ulysses apologia: What I hate about the conflation of "Ulysses is great" and "Ulysses is hard" is that it makes Joyce sound terribly pretentious, just trying to be clever and obscure, when Ulysses is a deeply sincere and intensely personal work. He spent seven years and sacrificed most of his eyesight writing out the manuscript of an 800 page novel longhand, and survived mostly because of Harriet Shaw Weaver's patronage. It was a colossal undertaking, and he approached it with both the determination of purpose in what he knew he was creating, and the joy of working on something that it's 100% clear that he loved. Specifically, if you are a writer, you owe it to yourself to read Ulysses, both to engage with one of the undisputed masters of language, and to see how much inventive, creative fun he had with all of it.
I think everyone reading Ulysses should listen to the voice of Joyce reading it. I love Ireland. I lived in Dublin for most of the 70’s. There is something so quintessentially Dublin about Joyce. I love it. I must admit, I never got through Finnegan’s Wake, although I enjoyed listening to Joyce reading it.
I just finished reading Ulysses last week--it took almost a year! Throughout the book I learned how to be a better reader. My uncle lent me the book and made sure I had the annotations along with it. But soon I figured out I needed more of an overview of each chapter--not every single word or reference. So I started reading the sparknotes before each chapter and following along that way, which helped tremendously and I would love to check out that book you recommended next time I read Ulysses. Also, my Uncle recommended I should listen to the last episode, which was fantastic as well as it gave so much emotion to the words! Love your video, thanks for posting it!
Hope you enjoyed it! I found the same actually; line by line guides weren't massively helpful but that general overview just helped ground me in what was going on in the plot when I needed it. After spending so much time with my head in Ulysses, however, shorter books all seem a little thematically thin!
I attempted to read this book twice, & though being an English & Literature major, I could make no sense of it whatsoever & couldn't get through it. Can you clue me in with an over view? Thanks.
So lucky... when I started reading it my teacher thought I was insane... TT I’m still reading it and I don’t think I can either... BUT ILL GET THERE EVENTUALLY *insert anime opening*
Yes, I’ve read JJ’s Ulysses. Yes, it is hard to understand. But leaving ME behind and softly falling into JJ’s magic pages always makes thoughts and senses (some I never knew I had) light up and resonate with raw life. Did I enjoy your “How to Read It” - Yes. More? YES !
Hi all, thanks for watching! I hope this video is useful to anyone wanting to have a crack at reading Ulysses and, as I said in the video, any thoughts on the format would be much appreciated!
Finished Ulysses after watching this video. Took me three months, but it has been worth it. Ulysses captures so many aspects of life and the human experience, and how the wealth of complex emotions and circumstances culminate into how we live our lives. This video was super helpful! Thank you! I really understood the book because of this. For those who haven't read it, I'd recommend reading a quick plot summary of each chapter once you finish it, as it helps you make sure that you understood what occurred. It's challenging to read, but it is totally worth it!
Came across this video having decided to give Ulysses a try. Loved it! Your enthusiasm for and down-to-earth approach to the book is really helpful! Thank you!
Nicely done. I'm on my 3rd attempt at this book, and this time I'm much further on than I've previously gotten (over halfway now) - I have to say I am enjoying it far more this time than previously and I think its videos like this that have helped. I am appreciating it as a sedate, meandering and experimental look at everyday life in Dublin at that time. I appreciate the wit and levity its often written with. In short I think I'm so much further through and enjoying the read so much more because I'm not taking the novel quite so seriously as I did before.
I'm on my first read through and have finished the third chapter... I barely have the vaguest notion of what I just read lol the first and second chapter were clear enough, but now I feel lost.
God man Mr. Nicholas! This is my second attempt of the book (after 15 years break!) and your video made it bit easier to approach it and more encouraging to keep reading. Best from 2021 Ireland 🇮🇪
Thank you Tom for your invigorating overview of Ulysses- why I should have a crack at it. Many years ago I attempted ‘Finnigans Wake’, I got through 278 pages by reading it aloud to myself in my best Irish accent (I’m Australian with no Irish experience) which helped to made the experience an existential joy especially - when reading it to my lover, ( perhaps more like a farce) however the virtual impenetrability of the txt & especially its narrative, has left me procrastinating on Ulysses ( I have read Homer’s original) but your introduction has reactivated my interest in the heroic undertaking. Tom - your finely articulated enthusiasm is nothing short of infectious - all power to your adventures. Thank you. 🙏🎖👑
This was absolutely wonderful and I’m so grateful you made this! I was an avid reader as a kid reading every day, loving books more than TV and video games, but I’m in my 30s now and have lost the love for it. I bought a copy of Ulysses after heading about it on a podcast but haven’t even opened it, because I was too fearful about feeling stupid or my fried attention span making it painful. Your wonderful video assuaged that fear completely and I’m totally stuck into it now. You are brilliant!
A remarkable novel appeared lately, titled No Land for Dead Men is a superb work and it has all the features of Ulysses but with a good story in it; a fantastic book.
I read it into a tape recorder for about an hour a day and listened back while I was doing chores . I think it took about six weeks. There was no way I could have taken it in in one reading and even with the playback I probably didn't get half of it , but I enjoyed the writing and it made me realize that my vocabulary needed an upgrade . I kept a notebook of unfamiliar words to look up before I played back. The changes in literary styles in the book showed how different Weltanschauungen can inform a given subject.
As someone who took a Joyce class in college to read this book, I gotta say this was a good introduction. Also, it's so weird in retrospect how Ulysses is held up as so hard when Joyce's next book, Finnegan's wake, I found impossible to read.
I've never read the book. I have a copy and I've thumbed it over the years. Since watching this vid I've started turning pages. My first thought is, not that I should read this book.....but it may benefit me if I do. This vid, narrated expertly and knowledgeably , is an inspiration and the literal journey begins!
Having read Portrait is a really good set-up for reading Ulysses. Partly because it means that you've got that little bit of background on Steven but largely because Portrait just acclimatises you to Joyce's style that little bit (and gets you used to occasionally having to wade through something not entirely engaging, ahemthesermonahem.
Finnegans Wake is his biggest masterpiece but definitely the most difficult because the entire book is a giant pun, made up of smaller puns. The puns are sometimes referencing multiple languages at once too. Paradoxically, as arcane as FW is, it actually has basically a coherent story. It is structured like a fractal though.
Trippy? Naked Lunch is “trippy” Finnegan’s Wake is literally impossible to read. It’s cool to pick up and read a page every now and then just for the pure stream of consciousness like poetry but it’s hardly coherent.
Haha, thought I'd start with a tough one (in that, I basically had to leave out 90% of what I wanted to say about it!) so that everything else should then seem easy by comparison, right?
Tom Nicholas I thought you did a good job. It might have helped enrich the context by mentioning the characteristic of modernism in literature. I’m a high school English lit teacher, and I must say your enthusiasm and engagement with the material is inspirational.
@@jamesroberts2282 Thanks James! Yes, I was keen to squeeze that in but didn't want to make it too long! I do have a video on Modernism more generally although it's not particularly focussed on literature. Thanks you, I do try to get some of that enthusiasm across in my videos so I'm glad that's working!
@@Tom_Nicholas You can always say the other 90% in another piece or even break it up into segments . I'm positive anybody that watches it will thoroughly enjoy and appreciate it .
Well done,Tom, I tried many times, also testing people pretending to have read, while they obviously could just quote the first lines of chapter one, then I stopped even trying… YOU,Tom, make me want to start anew, thank you‼️
I most insightful extremely brief encounter with the uproarously funny Ulysses of James Joyce who surely must have been a genius. Total congrats on this!
This is awesome, you really should do something similar for Mad Men. This video made me realise how much it references James Joyce in style and content. James Joyce inspired Lacan, Lacan inspired Mad Men
Hey man, you convinced me to read Ulysses, simply in the sense that you said it wasn't important to know exactly what's happening ALL the time... I actually didn't really understand anything until chapter 4 (let alone know I was past ch. 1 because the "episodes" aren't numbered in my edition). By the time I made it this far, I more or less understand Joyce's style insofar as I could start picking up on story structure, and once that happens, the words become surreal/psychic/psychedelic images in my minds-pace. Favorite fiction book 100%. TY
That's awesome Thomas! Yeah, that was a really important thing for me to get past too. I think it can be tempting to think "AHH, I'M LOST, IT'S ALL POINTLESS, I SHOULD GIVE UP" a lot during this book but I found that, as long as you stick with it, it's not like everything moves too quickly so you do eventually get back on track again. There's a couple of guides to where the "episodes" start and end online which I think it's worth seeking out as it does help to know when you've finished one and started another. Glad you're enjoying it!
Hi Aditi! Definitely planning on it! I got a bit sidelined reading Infinite Jest but am planning on making a Pride and Prejudice next followed most probably by A Tale of Two Cities. Although I have been debating making a Catch 22 one to tie in with the current TV adaptation. Any suggestions as to what books you'd like me to cover though I'd really appreciate!!
Dublin was a great place to grow up in the 60's and even the 70's. Characters abounded in every pub and hotel bar. Even the pubs had incredible character. People cared for each other. People were really interesting! Then tourism and demolition took over and destroyed it all. Homogenous. Joyce captures all of the interesting phase of Dublin's evolution (and subsequent demise) so beautifully and accurately. Long live Joyce! ☘💚
Ulysses in 15 minutes, Joyce himself said one particular sentence in the book took several days to compose. Nice summary though, people will be more prepared, thanks to you, than I was the first time around!
A good rapport and the way of engagement with the topic. I still have butterflies before embarking on the book. Wish they would spare me and lead me nicely through the book. Thanks
I have finished your WTF format and now starting this one, I love it too! I suggest you change the name to OMG, cross the G and call it "Oh my Reading"! I hope you are going to make a video about Proust someday, but Celine, Artaud or Blanchot would also be pretty need
Excellent eloquent really interesting presentation thought provoking and presented in a friendly self effacing way. Thanks very much. Encouraged me to persevere with the book. Well done. James
Hi all! Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed the video and it maybe inspired you to have a crack at Ulysses! If you'd like to support me to make more videos like this, and to help influence exactly what I make next, then I've just launched a Patreon. I'd love it if you'd pop over and check it out and, if you're able, consider supporting my channel! Check it out here: www.patreon.com/tomnicholas
Cool that you enjoyed it. I needed the Gifford annotations along with the audiobook to get thru it. The book is frustrating beyond words, and took it in college for a semester
I'm about halfway through Ulysses and have been using the Sparknotes, but I think I would like to get the guide you mentioned also. I've read Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist, and Stephen Hero, but am haunted by how much I'm missing as I read through. Yes I will have finished the book after I'm at the last page, but it is frustrating to know that I'm missing a lot. I really liked how you cut in scenes from historical Dublin as well as scenes from the movie (I didn't realize there even was a movie). I was picturing Bloom and Molly much differently than they looked in the movie scenes. :) Anyway, I love classics and will be delving into your channel more now that I found it. I find most Booktubers are not into classics and that's where I need the most help when I'm reading, LOL!
Excellent summary Tom. Although JJ did make that comment about keeping academics busy analyzing this work, at its core, Joyce’s writing is about finding signicance in the mundane. Cheers.
Just finishing the book. As Czech I had to read it in English with the help of Czech translation. Completely in love with the book. It is so witty, funny, dirty (and sometimes braindamaging in a good way). I know I will return and read it again and again...
I think it helps if we approach this book knowing that the " density" of it comes very much from its style. One has to get used to how Joyce develops his stream of consciousness. In my case, when I got to chapter 3 I did not get most of it and then I read it again and it made much more sense. It is very important to know what to expect before reading it. That's when your vid comes at hand. Thanks for the amazing content you upload
I didn’t realize Ulysses was literally just the Roman name for Odysseus until I read the odyssey and saw that for the Roman translations. I listened to a Greek one though as it felt more fitting. I was thinking about reading Ulysses since I just finished the odyssey but I’ll probably give it some time and read Joyce’s other novels first.
This book is certainly a challenge, and definitely not one you would read to wind-down with on a lazy Sunday afternoon. You really need to mentally prepare for. But most importantly, don’t be shy to read in very short stints. It took me almost 2 years to finish it.
My tutor told me i should read Ulysses recently and i absolutely declined, however, you've made me want read it! haha! As for a bit of feed back with the video, the overall content was very good, it is just you talking for 15 mins though so maybe a little royalty free lowkey background jingle would be nice just to fill the video in. regardless, good stuff and looking forward to more! :D
Haha, I'm glad I've maybe tempted you to give it a crack! Yeah, I occasionally toy around with some background music. I've tried it every so often and found it can be a little grating after one or two minutes. I may need to just find some better tracks though, haha!
@@Tom_Nicholas One doesn't need ANY music in the background when someone is explaining something . It's perfect the way it is... thank you for your hard work .
@@amysedai aren't you tired of these people who constantly have to have background noise or music or some kind of distraction because they just don't want to have to deal with listening to someone talkin ? It's like these people who have the earbuds on and expect you to have a conversation with them but they don't take the earbuds out and you know the whole time you're talking to them they're also listening to the music . We live in weird times
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! And happy reading! I'm no authority on The Odyssey but, in Book 11 I believe, he follows Circe's instructions and takes a brief trip to Hades.
@@Tom_Nicholas If I recall correctly, he goes to a land of Cimmerians, believed to be the edge of the world, and there he performs a ritual to bring the souls from the underworld to him, but he never actually is in the land of Hades, just near it. I'm not trying to nitpick, none of this had to be said in the video, just wanted to let you know :)
Great stuff, sir. I love that book, but some bits are so dense you have to skip 'em and rejoin the rollercoaster 5 pages on. I really liked where Dedalus closes his eyes on the beach to imagine what it would be like to be blind. Finnegan's Wake totally threw me tho'; I had to give up 28 pages in
Hi Tom, I'm from the US and have tried a few times to read ""Ulysses". These were both in the pre-digital age when I couldn't look unfamiliar words up online (many of the words Joyce uses are not in paper dictionaries). You have given me courage to try again. Do you recommend that I just read without Googling all those words? I know it will kill the flow of the book if I do, but I'm afraid I won't understand anything if I DON'T look them up! But, bravo to a very engaging video.
I feel it sounds better when read in the Dublin accent. It comes to life somehow. That Dublin accent is nearly gone now, but it was still around in the 70s and 80s. I'm not a Dunliner before I'm accused.
