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SENATOR DAVID NORRIS has said one of the most common pieces of advice given to people attempting to read Ulysses is “absolute nonsense”.
The James Joyce expert has read the classic piece of literature several times, but most people are put off by the its length and style of writing.
The book, set in Dublin on 16 June 1904, has 18 ‘episodes’ or chapters, and many people often say the first three are the hardest to read, but Norris disagrees.
“The first three episodes are sometimes called the most complicated, that’s absolute rubbish. They are not, they are actually the most accessible. There is a bridge between Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man and the opening of Ulysses.”
Here is Norris’ own advice on tackling the tome:
Listen to it, read it as far as you can with your ears … It gives you an entrance into the world of Ulysses to hear it.
If you’re bored, skip a bit, look for a joke – there are plenty of wonderfully funny jokes.
If you’re bored or confused, forget about it, move on.
So, how many times has Norris read it himself? “I haven’t the slightest idea,” he told us.
Norris is going to interview Stephen Fry about Joyce this evening – one of several events taking place to mark Bloomsday.
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I’m sure I got a dodgy copy because I had to fill in the punctuation myself in the last 50 pages of it.
Is that not 50 shades of grey?
Thanks David, but I think I might wait for it to come out on DVD.
David was given a copy of this recording a few years ago and acknowledged the significant connection of mullingar and James Joyce – see audio tour link free to download https://archive.org/details/TheJamesJoyceHistoricalAndLiteraryTourOfMullingar
David … how about if you are bored you could write a letter on Senate paper to an Israeli Judge, then get back to the book after that.
maybe some ‘rejoycing’ there???
I read it first at 15 years of age and remember doing an essay on it aa jy favourite book in fifth year. Teacher seemed both amused and impressed ( but to be fair more amused). I suppose that this is proof just how full of pretenious shite I was back then :)
Nail on the head Catherine! It really is for the pretentious morons among us!
I like it.
Catherine on that advice i must get my own copy to read.
Too much time on his hands, ah the senators life
Thank you for such a wonderful and fulfilling article. My day is now complete.
I read it when I was 12 then again when I was 21. One of the greatest literary pieces ever. I found it difficult to read at first but forced myself and it was worth it.
James Joyce visited Mullingar in the summers of 1900 and 1901 with his father. His father,John Joyce,had been employed by Westmeath County Council to sort out and update the electoral rolls for Mullingar. James Joyce,then just 18,worked with his father in the Court House. He probably stayed in what was then Phil Shaw’s Photographers,(now Fagans’ Office Supplies) ,on Pearse (then Earl) Street. When he came to write “ULYSSES”,more than a decade later,Joyce had Milly Bloom,the 15 year old daughter of Leopold and Mollie Bloom,working in Shaw’s learning “the photo business.”. In his novels,Joyce also mentions the Greville Arms Hotel,the Westmeath Examiner,the Railway Station and the Royal Canal. He visited Leavington Park ,now the home of novelist and artist J.P Dunleavy. In his novels,Joyce also mentions the tragic Mary Molesworth,Countess of Belvedere,locked up by her jealous husband for 30 years,while he lived alone at Belvedere House,and the Hill of Uisneach,sacred centre of Ancient Ireland. While in Mullingar,Joyce wrote a play “A Brilliant Career.” While the play was never published,it was his first literary work. A chapter of his first novel,”Stephen Hero”,is set in Mullingar. A poetry anthology owned by Joyce,now in Yale University,is inscribed “Mullingar .July 1900.” An advertisement for “Teas,Teas,Teas”,which appeared in the window of a bar called Connellans,beside the Court House on Mount Street,where Joyce and his father used to eat, was transposed by Joyce to Dublin and is noted by Leoplod Bloom as he walks through the city centre on June 16th,1904,in “Ulysses.” After 1901,Joyce never returned to Mullingar and would soon leave Ireland for good. But Mullingar remained in his memory. He never forgot the town.
Is he anything to Joyce’s in Dalton Park ; )
So
Read it when you were 12 fuve? You did in your hulla
Eh I think you will find most of us had book shelves in our homes and as you see above Catherine read it when she was fifteen. Have you got a problem with that? I started writing fiction when I was 8 filling 120 page copies. Unfortunately no one encouraged me and only started writing again now. I read every night history literature and fiction. So just because you didn’t or couldn’t imagine someone reading it at 12 doesn’t make it so. So just wish me luck in witting my fictional Irish based novel now and pray it will be successful thanks :)
@fuve if you are a writer then why are you making so many mistakes on the comments section of the Journal?
Fuve. Here are some commas you might like to use in your writings: ‘,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,, , ,, , , ,, ,, , , ,,,,,, , , , ,,, ,, , ,
Give me a call if you need some more. I have lots here.
It’s the greatest load of literary crap I have ever attempted to read. Why didn’t he just write ‘look how much cleverer than you I am’ on all the pages. Jaysus wept….
Agree.. the most over hyped book ever written here. Full of waffle.
Joyce would be proud of all the commentators above. The stream of consciousness is typically Irish. Abrasive, vulgar, derogatory, incomprehensible, poetic and above all lacking punctuation, flowing like a sewer into Dublin Bay. Well done all you unknown Joyceans, you give a good read regardless of where one starts or ends.
I never even knew that Ulysses wrote a book about James Joyce, – sure gadblashtit, no wonder nobody understands it so, if it’s all in Greek…
Modernism is a bit beyond the comprehension of most of the plebians that populate these pages.
The labels you put on people covers what people do or in this case what people wrote, it is an Irish thing…
They think Joyce is great therefore what he writes must be great and that is how they see it but the fact is if anyone else wrote it they would be calling this book a load of s….
It is the Emperors new clothes really, if everyone says it is great then if I say the same therefore I must look intelligent???
Ye’ can’t keep a good man down, I think? No pun intended, David?
Chapters 1 and 2 aren’t so bad, Chapter 3 is a head-wrecker. He does start using Latin in the first page which is a warning for casual readers they’ll be in for a rough ride. There are moments of humour, the whole Cyclops Chapter (12) is a riot.
have your say