I’ve never read Ulysses and am interested and yet ... clicking a dozen links in this annotated version seems to add mainly trivia to the equation.
Admitting that I may be self-consciously afraid that I lack the education to “get” Ulysses, I also wonder whether works of art should be considered greater on account of the complexity of their allusions.
Not taking anything away from Joyce’s talent. Dubliners is amazing without requiring a source codex.
Link to Joyce Project homepage, https://www.joyceproject.com/
This seems like an ok time to plug my mom's project, https://joyceimages.com/.
She has spent the past 10 years collecting old documents, photos, and artifacts mentioned in Ulysses. For example, there are some really obscure people mentioned in it who she's found pictures of. It's a fun game for her, and if you're reading along it can help you picture what's going on!
The goal is to eventually cover every line of the book.
Really like it but they should add "back to homepage" link to the about page.
A nice project to show that computers and internet technologies can be useful to literature teachers. Its a shame that its possible since the 90's and still not a standard way of learning complex texts in school.
Dubliners is super easy to read. It's basically the man page for Joyce.
I like that Joyce wrote phrases like `Mama Matrix Most Mysterious` casually in those days. You see, wording like that can be found easily on The Internet and you have writers/bloggers trying to stand out using all manner of flowery language. Joyce would love The Internet in its current form if he was alive today.
Huh, apparently this is the first time I zoom in on a site that only uses the default browser font. Turns out, Firefox on Mac changes from Times New Roman to just Times when zooming in—so that the font proportions suddenly change.
It’s funny bc Joyce himself said the book should be read as if you randomly found it discarded in a hotel room. The point is it is what it is, just let it happen, then you can enjoy it.
I like the idea but I wish it didn't do a full reload each time you click on the links - all this space on the right where it could display things
Two resources I always recommend for anyone daunted by Ulysses:
- The RTÉ dramatization[1]. It's essentially unabridged: The entire novel as a well-produced, well-acted radio play. Just amazing.
- Frank Delaney's Re: Joyce podcast[2]. Sadly interrupted halfway through "Wandering Rocks" by Frank's death 4 years ago, it's a delightful unpacking of the novel in paragraph-to-page-sized chunks, depending on the density.
Regardless of any background material you bring along, the best advice for reading Ulysses is just to read it: Plow through the verbiage and don't take too much heed of the references or exactly who's saying what or what in the world they're talking about. Before too long you'll get to some much more straightforward but painstakingly crafted prose, and in the meantime, the flow and rhythm of Joyce's words can be appreciated on their own.
[1] https://www.rte.ie/culture/2020/0610/1146705-listen-ulysses-...
[2] https://blog.frankdelaney.com/re-joyce/