Jame Joyce and Dubliners embraced by Dubliners. (1 Viewer)

the bearded lady

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I'd imagine some of you Thumpers were at some of the One City:One Book events of the past month for Dubliners?
I got to a few things, from talks to music recitals and films to a theatre group acting out extracts from the book, and not only was I struck by the really high quality of what was on offer, and all for free mostly, but the amount of people who turned up for each event I was at.

I mean, a sunday afternoon talk on Dubliners by Prof. Anne Fogarty drew a crowd of about 200, and ranging in age from young teenage to lads who'd be lucky to have seen the sun set that day. It was great though that so many people were bothered. The Theatre piece that was on in the wonderful Pearse Museum had to put on an extra show, and stick in loads of extra seats, and there were huge waiting lists for both days, AND loads of people had to be turned away. Again, the age "demo" ranged this time from about 10 - 70.

Weird thing was, no-one mentioned if he was still fucking Andy Cairns sister.
 
great book. This 'One City, One Book' thing seems good. I should get more involved. I'd already read every book they've featured though so next time maybe.

Everyone should read Dubliners though. Some Joyce I actually enjoyed.
 
The story Counterparts is one of the best I've ever read. Somehow all of this passed me by

yeah, that's one that could very easily be transposed to today with hardly any changes as it's a pattern I'm sure plenty of us are fairly familiar with. I'm on the second last story in Dubliners at the moment, having not read it for about 20 years. I'd forgotten about the way a lot of the stories often start with a sort of almost twee safe Victorian feel, luring you in like like an Artful Dodger with sweets in his hand to a place that turns out to be grimy or sinister or at the very least has something hiding in the basement.

even in whats perhaps the "lightest" story in the collection "A Mother", besides being very funny, there's great descriptions like the aforementioned Mother being "haggard with rage".

while we're on it, has anyone here read Finnegan's Wake? I've had it for years but have always been saving it up as my "Broken Leg Book", but I can't seem to manage to break my leg! I've even stretched my criteria to include "Recovering From Major Operations" but any operations I've had I've fucking got over too quickly. Do you eventually get into the zone and find it moves along at a lovely little trot or is it as bonkers as it looks?
 
yeah, that's one that could very easily be transposed to today with hardly any changes as it's a pattern I'm sure plenty of us are fairly familiar with. I'm on the second last story in Dubliners at the moment, having not read it for about 20 years. I'd forgotten about the way a lot of the stories often start with a sort of almost twee safe Victorian feel, luring you in like like an Artful Dodger with sweets in his hand to a place that turns out to be grimy or sinister or at the very least has something hiding in the basement.

even in whats perhaps the "lightest" story in the collection "A Mother", besides being very funny, there's great descriptions like the aforementioned Mother being "haggard with rage".

while we're on it, has anyone here read Finnegan's Wake? I've had it for years but have always been saving it up as my "Broken Leg Book", but I can't seem to manage to break my leg! I've even stretched my criteria to include "Recovering From Major Operations" but any operations I've had I've fucking got over too quickly. Do you eventually get into the zone and find it moves along at a lovely little trot or is it as bonkers as it looks?

Dubliners is flawless but A Little Cloud really resonates with me. The part where Little Chandler is walking by the river imagining reviews of the poems he will never write is truly heartbreaking (and a bit too close to home).

I reread A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man last year for the first time in over 10 years and was blown away by how brilliant it is. Revisiting books I read as a stupid teenager is the way forward. There were weeks where I would just reread a couple of passages trying to take in how beautifully crafted they were.
 
while we're on it, has anyone here read Finnegan's Wake? I've had it for years but have always been saving it up as my "Broken Leg Book", but I can't seem to manage to break my leg! I've even stretched my criteria to include "Recovering From Major Operations" but any operations I've had I've fucking got over too quickly. Do you eventually get into the zone and find it moves along at a lovely little trot or is it as bonkers as it looks?

I've read it twice. The first time was very, very hard and the second time was very hard. In the interim, I read a few books either about Joyce in general or specifically about Finnegans Wake (Bishop's book Joyce's Book of the Dark is particularly brilliant) and found the second reading more enjoyable. You do get a bit into a flow but every single sentence has multiple meanings, some superficial and some that will completely pass you by without a guide book. Despite or perhaps because of its difficulty, I loved it.
 
I've read it twice. The first time was very, very hard and the second time was very hard. In the interim, I read a few books either about Joyce in general or specifically about Finnegans Wake (Bishop's book Joyce's Book of the Dark is particularly brilliant) and found the second reading more enjoyable. You do get a bit into a flow but every single sentence has multiple meanings, some superficial and some that will completely pass you by without a guide book. Despite or perhaps because of its difficulty, I loved it.

aye, thought as much. however, being a truculent cunt myself, I too love difficult books. I've read Ulysses twice but enjoyed it more the first time, but I think that was because I had more time to read it the first time and got through it in about 3 months whereas it took me about a year the second time. fair fucks to you for your perseverance in getting through it twice AND reading those other books about it. I want to read that new biography about J.J. that came out last year, seems like a good one.
 
I haven't read that one but the Ellman biography is probably the best biography I've ever read.

I'd been planning on reading the Ellmann one once I'd read Finnegan's Wake, however, having not read that yet, I'm thinking of reading the Gordon Bowker one instead. It's got good reviews and he had access to more papers and letters etc. that came to light in the time since Ellmann wrote his one. I'm also planning on reading Ellmann's biography of Oscar Wilde, someday. Jaysus, so many books to get through!
 
A mate of mine emailed me his favourite passages from Finnegan's Wake as he read it. Typed them all up and everything. Sound lad. Did make me want to read it but never got round to it. You do have to set aside quite a bit of time for it.
 

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