incomprehensible

[Unregistered]

i think that is an extremely ignorant opinion! nausicaa is by far the most amazing literary piece i've ever read, powerful and lasting. persevere with ulysses and the rewards, often not obvious at the time, are great at the end.

[Unregistered]

No, honestly this is the most awful book ever! Reading is supposed to be an enjoyable past-time, not a chore! Why waste your time?

[Leo Mahon]

To paraphrase another comment, 'you don't judge ulysses, it judges you'

[Amarjeet Nayak]

I had heard much about ULYSSES as Joyce's greatest work.At the same time I was aware that it was not easy reading.However after I began reading it I realised for the first time that sometimes "classics" can be as boring and incomprehensible as modern art.Good luck to its readers!

[WriterOnFire]

I'm quoting my mentor on this one. I have to admit, however, that I studied Ulysses in small discussion groups and independently for 2 years. I go back to it and read passages outloud to myself or recite some of it while I walk around the city (i'm currently in Manchester, England). This book is really accessible once you let yourself get it... or more importantly, not get it, and find it, like a memory or thought you had. It works like a memory in that much of what happens to you in real life can often reference you back into it. Yes, it's challenging, but profoundly engaging and rewarding if you are patient.

[pcockey]

The best way I've heard to read it is to "half-read", the way one would read poetry for impressions rather than words. I'll admit that when I was first assigned this book, I hated it. I still have the response paper I wrote on it where I threatened to throw it out the car window but opted to keep it for its use as a doorstop. It's not an easy book to jump into on the first try...you have to go a few rounds with it, and it's very much worth it when you do.

Honestly, I suggest reading Joyce's stuff in order. Start with Dubliners, which is immediately accessible, and then Portrait's not bad after that...and once you're through Portrait, Ulysses becomes much, much easier.

For the record, I'm still pretty intimidated by Finnegan's Wake. I'm in the warming-up process now...

[ac410]

I will get started on Finnegan's Wake in two weeks, but it is a horrid that someone would not appreciate Ulysses. James Joyce was a very creative writer who used many distinct styles of writing in this book alone. I also suggest you read Joyce's books in order and re-think your comment.

[danielrsmith]

Think of Ulysses as you would think of anything...think for a bit longer and your train of thought will probably take you somewhere distant from Joyce. This is how the novel is written, something happens to progress the story, then a distance grows from the reader and, arguably, relevance - with this in mind Ulysses becomes a capable piece of literature, with the reader in the knowledge of simply reading until the return to relevance.

[lit-phile]

I am currently reading Ulysses. I first read Richard Ellman's biography of James Joyce and am familiar with the Odessey. These works are invaluable in understanding much of Ulysses. It also does help to read Joyce's books in order.

[Behemoth]

I've just finished Ulysses myself, and I found that I did really enjoy certain episodes, for example "Scylla and Charybdis" and "Nausicaa." However, at other points I would have to agree that the narrative was extremely challenging: "Circe" and "Ithaca" being my prime examples. Whilst overall I think I enjoyed the novel, and Joyce's mastery of the English language, I still feel alienated from it and I'm not sure what I have gained, if anything. I think you're probably right re: reading his novels in order, though I'm not looking to attempt Finnegans Wake anytime soon...

[aeroport]

So I just learned that I will be reading Ulysses next semester for my Irish lit class, and was quite excited. However, reading everyone's comments here, I'm beginning to wonder if I should not feel a bit intimidated...

[Virgil]

So I just learned that I will be reading Ulysses next semester for my Irish lit class, and was quite excited. However, reading everyone's comments here, I'm beginning to wonder if I should not feel a bit intimidated...

Wow, James. 18 seems young for Ulysses. Freshman in college? Good luck. It's a hard read. But fun once you get the hang of it. At least most of the time.

[aeroport]

Wow, James. 18 seems young for Ulysses. Freshman in college? Good luck. It's a hard read. But fun once you get the hang of it. At least most of the time.

I did the freshman comp requirement for dual credit in high school, and knocked off the sophomore comp requirement this semester, so now I can take all the 300-level English courses! Happy times. But yes, I hope the thing doesn't eat me or something.

[Arnav]

Well even I think that you should read Joyce's books in succession. Start with Dubliners first. Its a great collection of short stories and more than any thing else it provides you with a "slice of life."

[katdad]

Ulysses is not an easy book to read -- if you want easy stuff, enjoy yourself with popular fiction (I do), such as Stephen King and others. That's okay.

However, think of Ulysses as a challenge -- a puzzle to be solved. Anyone who can enjoy the difficulty of a hard crossword puzzle, quiz game, even a challenging video game, can "enjoy" Ulysses.

No, it's not easy. Yes, it's a challenge. And yes (to quote Molly), if you DO get into the book, you may become a lifetime fan.

Here are some helpful things to do that may make the book more approachable...

See the 2 films. Both, available on DVD, are excellent and enjoyable "up front", but they also give you an introduction to the novel. There is "Ulysses", the 1967 Joseph Strick production. It's stark and sharply directed. And the new "Bloom", the 2002 all-Irish production.

Get a couple of guidebooks:
"James Joyce's Ulysses" by Stuart Gilbert
"The New Bloomsday Book" by Harry Blamires
both are in print and in paperback.

[Compost]

I just finished Ulysses last week. It took me three seperate attempts over ten years, but I got it done. It has been a very humbling experience. It casts such a wide net over language and lets nothing escape. I may never read it again and that might just be the greatest compliment I could pay Joyce.

[Hephaestus]

It's coming up to that point in my life when i will read Ulysses, everyone says it is so indecipherable but iv been teasing through the first 3/4 pages while i lube myself up with the odyssey, i think i will enjoy deciphering this enigma of this book because thats wat i enjoy in literature, the hidden genius in a single line, a book of that will be something that i could lose myself in. I haven't lost myself in a book since Lord of the Rings, i guess they are both alike Tolkien and Joyce have created entire microcosms in paperbacks. But i haven't read it yet...

[Hephaestus]

It's coming up to that point in my life when i will read Ulysses, everyone says it is so indecipherable but iv been teasing through the first 3/4 pages while i lube myself up with the odyssey, i think i will enjoy deciphering this enigma of this book because thats wat i enjoy in literature, the hidden genius in a single line, a book of that will be something that i could lose myself in. I haven't lost myself in a book since Lord of the Rings, i guess they are both alike Tolkien and Joyce have created entire microcosms in paperbacks. But i haven't read it yet... wish me luck.

[Finn.Rhies]

Good luck.
Don't forget to update your progress.

[Massalex]

I started reading Ulysses this past summer, in the ending days of my junior year in high school. I wanted a challenge and I had never read Joyce before. I researched him and found that out that he's supposed be the biggest and best writer of the modernist movement? I decided to read it because one, it was rated the best book of all time by a lot of literature critics, and two, I love to read. I went to the library, picked up the book, and was lost in the confusion.It took me awhile to catch on, but I finally did. Eventually I finished it after reading for a month and a half for just about every day.Now that I am done with it, I want to read it again and decipher the latin. This book opened new doors for me and the incomprehensible excuse is bull****. It can be viewed as hard or impossible to understand, but that's the magic of a book. The magician never gives up his secrets.This book has transformed my whole outlook on books, reading, and the art. Now, I want to just read Joyce alone.

[Dublo7]

I'm in the process of reading Ulysses, and I am going ever so slowly through it. I'm not the fastest reader you'd ever meet.
When I read the first 50 pages of Ulysses, I put it down, and I literally asked myself, "Ok... what just happened?". I was absolutely lost.
I then decided to go and read the summaries of the parts I just read, and it all seemed to make sense. One thing I've never done before is read a novel so heavily ingrained with a stream of consciousness, so naturally I had some trouble with it.
I stopped reading the novel and moved onto something else (The Road by McCarthy), and afterwards decided to tackle Ulysses again. I'm about 160 pages into it, and somehow it's starting to make sense to me. I think, if you try to concentrate on every single little word and piece of information Joyce throws at you, you'll be absolutely suffocated. Someone mentioned before, you could half-read this book, and I sometimes do. However, sometimes I'm deeply attentive to what I'm reading.
I definitely will stick with the book this time, as I'm finding it almost difficult to put down. It's hard to read, but it's quite addictive.

It's funny, I've told people I know to read books by Dostoevsky, and they've tried and couldn't finish it. I always wonder how they'd react if they had Ulysses shoved in their face :D

[Lambert]

I read Ulysses in a month, when I was sixteen.

Wonderful Book. Deep and affecting. A summoning up of the nearly the entire range of western literature into one vast microcosm of prose.

It’s always a hoot to see the various opinions you get from people when you mention it. I met one guy who was so frustrated by his experience of the book, he claimed no one has actually read it but instead it’s just a conspiracy by the intellectuals. When I told him I had read it and enjoyed it immensely he was sceptical, so I quoted some lines from the book. He just shook his head with disgust and some slight confusion.

Thank you Joyce!

[metal134]

I'm about to start Ulysses, but I think I'll wait until baseball season is over so I'll have a good amount of time to devote to it. Nothing, NOTHING interferes with my baseball!

[blazeofglory]

Indeed I tried to read it a few years ago and I found it highly incomprehensible then. Maybe then I was just a beginner, and as English is my second language, then reading and understanding complex sentence structures was out of question.

I made several endeavors to understand them, and I could not understand them, maybe their intricate sentence patterns that ingrain deep rooted ideas comanioned by great artistic embellishment.

Now I think I will give it a retry. But I wait for a vacation. With my tight daily schedules I can not read this mammoth book, but the desire to read this book, something tour de force of Englsih literature is very powerful.

I am fully convinced of the fact that after completion of this book, definetely
my linguistic skills will grow manifold.

[Lambert]

Indeed I tried to read it a few years ago and I found it highly incomprehensible then. Maybe then I was just a beginner, and as English is my second language, then reading and understanding complex sentence structures was out of question.

I made several endeavors to understand them, and I could not understand them, maybe their intricate sentence patterns that ingrain deep rooted ideas comanioned by great artistic embellishment.
I think the problem people have, with the first nine chapters (the first half of the book), is understanding the interior monologue technique employed by Joyce.

Take a look at this excerpt:

By lorries along Sir John Rogerson’s Quay Mr Bloom walked soberly, past Windmill lane, Leask's the linseed crusher's, the postal telegraph office. Could have given that address too. And past the sailors' home. He turned from the morning noises of the quayside and walked through Lime street. By Brady's cottages a boy for the skins lolled, his bucket of offal linked, smoking a chewed fagbutt. A smaller girl with scars of eczema on her forehead eyed him, listlessly holding her battered caskhoop. Tell him if he smokes he won't grow. O let him! His life isn't such a bed of roses! Waiting outside pubs to bring da home. Come home to ma, da. Slack hour: won't be many there. He crossed Townsend street, passed the frowning face of Bethel. El, yes: house of: Aleph, Beth. And past Nichols' the undertaker's. At eleven it is. Time enough. Daresay Corny Kelleher bagged that job for O'Neill's. Singing with his eyes shut. Corney. Met her once in the park. In the dark. What a lark. Police tout. Her name and address she then told with my tooraloom tooraloom tay. O, surely he bagged it. Bury him cheap in a whatyoumaycall. With my tooraloom, tooraloom, tooraloom, tooraloom.

The first sentence in bold, is the impersonal narrator (though this, of course, changes drastically throughout the rest of the book). The rest of the passage, in italics, is Bloom’s interior monologue. This is the way Joyce tends to structure narrative around Bloom’s journey. Sometimes it will continue for several paragraphs but you’ll usually be able to spot it by its choppy, staccato style.

For the second half of the book, be prepared for changes in style that occur in each chapter.

Other than that, it should be said that Ulysses rewards readers on multiple readings.