blazeofglory
10-04-2009, 08:45 AM
I am reading James Joyce these days. I have started Ulysses but could make no head and tale while reading it reaching even the middle. Reading Joyce and particularly his Ulysses is a matter of pride and it gives the feeling of prominence. James was a writer of the altitude most could not ascend and of course his stature remained un-scaled in the history of fiction, and needless to say he was magnum opus given his novels and short stories. I take him as a man of insuperable artistic disposition unmatched and therefore a guiding star or role model. I hardly understand Ulysses but never stop reading thinking of course that he gives me everything I need as a writer in point of fact.
His style is really majestic and imposing to tell the truth. He tires me and I sit with a number of dictionaries around when I feel hard pressed with words. He seems wordy, intricate, yet very edifying and his readers get a great degree of maturity.
Needless to say there are other writers I am not tired of admiring from Tolstoy to Sartre to Kafka. They are great writers of immortal classics for mortal humans. But alas we are running in a world short of readers of classics. Classics gives us values, meaning and philosophies and answers so many questions we find unanswered elsewhere, yet there is a dearth of readers.
I am reading two books simultaneously- the Mahabharata with its reinterpretations in a modern fashion by Guru Charandas and Ulysses. Both are works of genius. The Mahabharata is in Sanskrit and since I have some knowledge of Sanskrit I enjoy reading the Mahabharata and chanting the Sutras or hymns is really thrilling even if I cannot fully comprehend the texts in point of fact.
So is Ulysses. I am poor at English in the first place and James makes maximum use of difficult words and intricate sentence structures in his book.
Both are not my mother tongues and I have some knowledge but not enough yet reading them is really a matter of great pride to me.
What really saddens me today is people lost interest in reading classics and therefore they are deprived of some of the values they need in life and their many questions in life remain unanswered.
Today we have so many other things of entertainments and timepass,yet literature gives us something different and of course very rich feelings. The taste of literature is really awe-inspiring and incomparable. Once you know the taste of it no other tastes can give the same feeling in life.
But it is a pity the world of literature is on the edge
His style is really majestic and imposing to tell the truth. He tires me and I sit with a number of dictionaries around when I feel hard pressed with words. He seems wordy, intricate, yet very edifying and his readers get a great degree of maturity.
Needless to say there are other writers I am not tired of admiring from Tolstoy to Sartre to Kafka. They are great writers of immortal classics for mortal humans. But alas we are running in a world short of readers of classics. Classics gives us values, meaning and philosophies and answers so many questions we find unanswered elsewhere, yet there is a dearth of readers.
I am reading two books simultaneously- the Mahabharata with its reinterpretations in a modern fashion by Guru Charandas and Ulysses. Both are works of genius. The Mahabharata is in Sanskrit and since I have some knowledge of Sanskrit I enjoy reading the Mahabharata and chanting the Sutras or hymns is really thrilling even if I cannot fully comprehend the texts in point of fact.
So is Ulysses. I am poor at English in the first place and James makes maximum use of difficult words and intricate sentence structures in his book.
Both are not my mother tongues and I have some knowledge but not enough yet reading them is really a matter of great pride to me.
What really saddens me today is people lost interest in reading classics and therefore they are deprived of some of the values they need in life and their many questions in life remain unanswered.
Today we have so many other things of entertainments and timepass,yet literature gives us something different and of course very rich feelings. The taste of literature is really awe-inspiring and incomparable. Once you know the taste of it no other tastes can give the same feeling in life.
But it is a pity the world of literature is on the edge