Is anyone interested in a Ulysses reading group?

[Victoria2133]

I recently attended the James Joyce Summer School and left Dublin with such a love for Ulysses. I spent one week studying the novel and talking to great people about it and, honestly, I miss that experience. I live in Chattanooga, TN, so finding a Ulysses reading group will be hard to do. If anyone is interested in participating in an online reading group, please let me know. We could read it slowly, maybe concentrating on one episode a month while keeping conversations going about our experience with reading it. Also, if you've been thinking about picking it up, but have been intimidated or just haven't found the motivation, a reading group is a great way to approach such a huge text. You'll be spurred along by everyone's discussion and you'll get to see various points of view as you move along.

[Virgil]

That is a great idea Victoria but I just don't have the time. I've read Ulysses twice and have gotten to appreciate it more. But it's exhausting and time consuming, so I cannot be counted to participate. I do want to move on with other literature. I guess if you get a good group together I could pull out my copy and see what notes I've made in the margins and pop in the thread and say something. But I will not be able to read along.

[Victoria2133]

I guess at some point everyone has to move on, though I'm sure even those types of comments would be helpful. Thanks.

[Scheherazade]

I would be interested in if we read it with a relaxed pace. It is one of those books that have been hanging over my head for so long.

[Victoria2133]

That's my goal - a slow reading.

[J.D.]

In a way, I've spent about three years reading Ulysses without picking up the book. What I mean is that the first time I "read" Ulysses, the allusions were so beyond me that I decided I had to go back and try to learn what Joyce knew. I got so lost on my journey through classical literature and history that I never really made it back to Joyce. I owe a lot of what I've read to Joyce, and yet I've never even finished his most famous book.

[sdarcy]

I have been an informal Joycean for 30+ yrs occasionally dipping in & out of his work and I've yet to figure it all out nor have I become tried, bored or disengaged.
I'd love to have a slow read w/this & that commentary as one plods along.

[blazeofglory]

Joyce is what I really want to read and I as a non native speaker of English find it a very tough job to read his book, for first I suffer limitations of words, the power to understand highly structured sentences, and very sophisticated styles in his works.

As a reader I want to read his book, and I made many endeavors, yet I never could complete it for he used so many allusions and references that came out of his limitless knowledge and learning.

I am a small writer and do small writing jobs and it will be a great venture to read a work of art by a great wirer and the idea of reading collectively and of sharing what we know already is really a thrilling thing. I am impatient to do it but I do not know how I can access it or get a chance to participate in the discussion.

[HerGuardian]

I'm in. I need a motivation to read such a book. Thanks for the opporunity.

[mayneverhave]

I'm just now finishing up the novel (about halfway through Ithaca), but I would love to have some other people to discuss the novel with.

I'm currently attending a university for an English degree, but you'd be suprised how few people have actually read the book (or even have any interest in it) despite being in what one would consider an academic community.

I wish this thread was around when I first started reading. Novel was quite the struggle, but equally rewarding.

[sdarcy]

I believe that the 1st sentence, Stately plump Buck Mulligan... exactly matches the cadence from the 1st sentence from Homer in the original Greek. See this ref to the work in Greek: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin...:book=1:card=1 (this is fully annotated and links to an English translation). I can see Joyce having one of thousands of chuckles as he created the sentence. And then beats the reader over the head when he says to SD teaching him about the Greeks.
Joyce said he wanted to keep the critics buzzing for a hundred (or a thousand) years. He's done that.. and he knew he was going to write Finnegans Wake when he wrote Ulysses; there's tons of hints and allusions along the way- they both begin looking at water and hint toward eulogy.
It's fun already and I've not finished the 1st page.
SD

[nietsche]

i am reading Ulysses now and it will be a good and helpful idea to share the experiences while reading
first of all i would say this novel is for the academics to puzzle about as Joyce said and really i ddnt find any pleasure reading it -until now - yet as i study literature and interested in the modernist era and products in literature i have to dissect it if i dare say

now i think we must understand the technique by which the story will be told before reading too much of it ...the stream of consciousness =
after conversing a little about this one could move on to tackle the symbols and puns and so on
waiting for reply


with my best regards

[mona amon]

Count me in, Victoria!

I love Ulysses. It's funny, and I love a funny book more than anything else. I've never had an opportunity to discuss it with anyone and a slow read and discussion sounds great.

[kacsing]

Has a group been formed for this? I know this is an old post, but I'm interested in reading this book and would love to have a group to do it with. Let me know if there is still any interest.

[jupiter]

I would like to discuss this book with people on this site. I just started it. Can anybody help with translation of latin? I'v read "Portrait" twice (a long time ago) and can understand why SD is so serious. The jovial (Stately?) Buck Mulligan is counterpoint. SD can't be "The Artist". I imagine Joyce quite amused at mankinds lot. Your thoughts?