I was lucky to have this novel discussed in a university class i took a long time ago. It's nice to have a good professor introduce you to Joyce, Woolf, Faulkner and Pynchon.
It is nice to listen to a professor highlight all the small elements that a casual reader would likely pass over quickly. I did enjoy it, although we spent so many weeks on it, it was really tiring by the time we came to the end of it. I was wishing we could have looked at something a little different, Faulkner or Dos Passos. By the time we finished Portrait of the Artist... I was just as miserable as Stephen Daedalus.
Currently getting into Samuel beckett, and pleasantly learned that he was James Joyce's personal assistant when he was in France. And obviously was transfixed by the way Joyce used language.
That has always seemed the oddest footnote in all of the history of literature, Beckett secretary to Joyce. Perhaps that is how one gets the training to write Waiting for Godot.
I completely agree, maybe I'm not smart enough to"get it" but it was incredibly tedious indeed. There are many other gorgeous works out there, waiting for us to discover them.
I do have to concede that it is a little fun to have a university professor to point out all the little lines that can mean big things in the narrative. Which, seems to be what university English studies is all about; careful, and slowly, line by line, identifying those good lines that relate to the main theme. But I worry that 90% of the students who get an English BA will have all the love of reading completely destroyed and will never want to read another book for the rest of their lives.
The Welsh poet R.S.Thomas was also a priest. His privileged and intimate knowledge of his local community was what informed his poetry. I think poetry helped him get to the crux of what he observed and did so in an intensely effective way He renders bleakness very well. His poems go very well with the bleaker than bleak paintings of Kyffin Williams. I gather from what I've watched of your content that you aren't especially keen on poetry. I would nonetheless recommend his poem, 'A Peasant'. I choose my poems very carefully. Can't stand Wordsworth (Byron called him Turdsworth and I agree!). There's heaps of prentious crap out there but every now and then, I strike gold and R.S.Thomas is one such enduring seam in the poetry landscape. I am enjoying your channel so much. Thank you for all if your efforts - I don't know how you find the time.
Thank you for writing Ms. Crunchy. I am sometimes a little surprised myself. Although I wish I had the time to improve the quality of my videos. I think they would be a lot better if they were scripted and I rehearsed a few times what I wanted to say. Now I just press record with a vague idea of what I want to talk about. Which means a lot of editing, and a rough and choppy end product. It is quite hard with school and a family to take care of to manage the time. But I am still enjoying it and will keep trying to stick to one video a week for as long as I can!
As an Irish person, I must confess to having very little love for this novel. Dubliners, on the other hand, I consider to be a masterpiece. The final story, The Dead, is among the best short stories I’ve read. Cheers.
Hello, I was hoping someone from Ireland would make a comment. Sometimes I just throw my opinions out there and then afterwards think, 'Maybe, that wasn't quite the way I should have phrased it.' I like some of Dubliners, not so much The Dead, but A Little Cloud, for sure, and Eveline. I think it really helps a lot to be Irish to appreciate The Dead.
i'm an english literature student and had to read this book for an irish lit course i took and i really enjoyed it. currently thinking about rereading it
12:05 and this unfortunately happens in so many other areas, mimicking, repeating to exhaustion what others have said before, is a posture of "security", a constant not risking being "stigmatized", in a way, it obviously represents the inability to have a more critical, personal, original thought. I've had a look at two of his books, this one and the famous Ulysses, but I never felt like reading them, and it seems I was right to do so (and I'm glad my field of study didn't force me to!), but Grant, an interesting video has emerged from a seemingly boring book!😁
Thanks Cristina! I suppose it's natural to feel fed up at this stage of university. I can be happy knowing it will never kill my love of reading. I hope you are having a great Easter weekend!
I agree, 12:20, I hear this about Philosophers as much as literature. Maybe worse with philosophy. So many not only repeat rehearsed lines, but they also seem to have only read books about these books or authors... The example I give is one of the foremost linguists has admitted in his books that he had many books memorized(12+?) that he never read but lied that he did: about characters, plot and discussion points?! That shocked me since learning to lie about reading a book or an author takes as much time as reading them... But it requires thought, your own..
I try to have a little lenience with the professors. I think if it were me up there, looking at today's youth, semester after semester, I doubt I would put much effort into my classes. I feel the entire Eng. Lit. department, teachers and students are stuck on a 'Do The Minimum' setting.
Faulkner seems also to be too tough for anyone to tackle in my Eng. Lit. department. I haven't seem one course with Fauklner on the syllabus. And I've taken classes called Early 20th Century American literature and Modernism, which one would imagine would have a bit of Faulkner to read. I feel there is a big difference between Faulkner and Joyce. Joyce feels to me to be to self and nationally preoccupied. Whereas, I feel anyone can read Faulkner and get a sense of his ideas about race and small towns. (Sorry I didn't get to the post office yesterday, Easter weekend.)
Hello Steven, You might want to try Dubliners, his collection of short stories. There is a good story I quite like called 'A Little Cloud.' 'Eveline' is also a good one. But most of Joyce, it seems to be one of those artistic phases that seem quite important, and no one really loves, although everyone begrudgingly admits it is important, but I think most people would be happy to leave it in the past.
What sports are Jesuits good at? Maybe we could come up with a Jesuit pentathlon for future olympic competitions. Kayaking would have to be one event, as well as charming the heathens, and long-distance conversions.
I thought I knew the answer, but when I Googled your reply I saw I was wrong. I thought it was; 'Poverty Chastity Obedience.' Send me your mailing address to grantlovesbooks@gmail.com and I will mail you a copy of my limited edition, signed and numbered magazine.
