Completely impenetrable. How do I understand it?
You don’tStudy different languages and see how he creates his portmanteau.
Why would you want to "understand" such a book if it doesn't hook you in from the first page? It's not like there's any greater wisdom to be extracted from this piece of shit anyway. Better spend brain juice reading Vico or something.
>>25216121>challenging yourself and self-discipline are le bad
if you sound it out in your head or out lout in an irish accent all will become clear
>>25216114Start with Dubliners and Portrait
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjbF3yu-CtY
>>25216114its about nappypoom and willingdone, not sure what you're not getting
>>25216114there's nothing to understand. the "book" is a joke. he wrote it because he thought it would be funny that pretentious retards would discuss what it meant in their salons for the next century. you failed an intelligence check if you kept reading after the first page.
>>25216114Read Vico's new science
>>25216169>im smart and i fit in!
>>25216171>commodius vicuskys
>>25216169That quote you're referencing is in regards to Ulysses though...he didn't say that about Finnegans Wake...
>>25216180What's the difference?
>>25216185Your whole argument was "The author views Finnegans Wake as a timewaster for Ivory Tower academics!!!" But the quote you built that entire argument upon has nothing to do with Finnegans Wake. So it completely destroys your argument.
The way to find out if some poser is claiming to have read the entire book is to ask them how it ends. **It doesn't end, it loops back to the begining.**
>>25216180you're talking to multiple different peoplei'm not referencing any quotei don't read spoilers or plot synopseseven back-cover blurbsi avoid discussions of works i haven't read and go into everything i read blind with no expectationsi arrived to the conclusion that it's a joke on my ownany reasonable person wouldif you look at the gibberish you start seeing things, "if you interpret gibberish this way, it might be an interesting exploration of obscure grammar rules" but you're giving him an awful lot of benefit of the doubt if you assume he meant any of it and wasn't just typing wordsi'm not willing to entertain him
>>25216114You don't. You put it aside, and read something else.
>>25216114Step one: contract syphilis
>>25216142Do you read books just to say "I've done it"? What's this, bungee jumping? Sherpa carried Himalayan climbing for tourists?
>>25216114Re-read everything. Read every sentence and every paragraph 3-4 times, or however long it takes until it starts to sink in. Remember that this is some of the most condensed prose ever written.>>25216169lol retard
>>25216206I've no doubt Joyce spent hours on single words and sentences. Still doesn't make them anything. Only sadder, perhaps? When I read that he was genuinely surprised at FW's poor reception, I felt so bad for him and for his delusion of this being anything more than an ego mirror for stuffy readers and skimmers.
>>25216223Are you referring to the fact this books aims to be the entire history of humankind and its arts? Do you genuinely believe it reaches its goal? What do you say to the kid who tells you he will be an astronaut, "good boy"? The book was doomed to fail with such unrealistic goals. No human can write a single book doing that. It's all just bullshit for intellectuals in the end. Constant allusions and references that only serve themselves get tiring pretty fast too.
>>25216221>loaded questionI accept the concession.
Need to join Max Lawton’s Joyce Reading Group, making literary punk cool again
Your insufferable spacing is an abomination. Go back.
>>25216263How is it loaded? Do you read books just to say you did.
>>25216275>I still concedeI still accept.
>>25216283I can see the cum stained keyboard that types this kind of hilariously misplaced smug replies
>>25216114get 50 phds, then you can tackle book one>>25216121>>25216221>>25216226>>25216235you want to sound smart SO bad lmao
>>25216289No, I just want someone to make a good point as to why this book is good that doesn't end in "read it aloud in Irish accent" or "it just is" or "it's got le everything in it!". It should be easy for all the high IQ drones of this board who basically read FW for breakfast, right?
>still concedes
>>25216114Read The Skeleton Key. Turned FW for me from a completely impenentrable unreadable mess to my favorite book of all time, not kidding. Please please please put the effort in and you will be immensely rewarded.
>>25216314Really?! Damn, I might do that myself. But how do you know it’s not just the writer’s own exegesis on it? Wouldn’t your own or getting closer to what you think Joyce was doing be more efficacious? Or is it not so subjective?
>>25216326nta but have you never read secondary lit before?
>>25216329No.
>>25216206>you're talking to multiple different people>replied to a an (OP) replyUhhh...first day on the chan? Or does your LLM bot not understand what thread history is?
>>25216326It contains a "translation" of Joyce's text into something a lot more readable, though somewhat abridged, and contains a lot of commentary and explanation from Campbell and Robinson. Campbell is one of the all-time greats though, and few people have EVER understood myth and storytelling like he did. It's worth reading.
>>25216235>this books aims to be the entire history of humankind and its artslolwut
>>25216302It's funny, inventive, clever, poetic, playful and complex to a fascinating degree. It also deals with a dizzying variety of themes.I don't know what you look for in a novel, but tha's enough for me.
>>25216333good 2ndary lit is excellent for extremely difficult passages or refining interpretations you've already come to yourself, but don't have the knowledge/experience necessary to take it to the next level. i loved ulysses, and i loved it even more after reading what kiberd and nabokov had to say about it, just to give you an idea.
>>25216463>muh monomythCampbell was a fucking hack retard.
>>25216490You make a good point. I haven’t read any secondary literature before as I said but I know I probably should, for more difficult texts that is. With Ulysses I just reread it quite often because I enjoyed it so much and felt I was finding something new in every revisit. I should probably check something out for that too though. Might find even more I missed, especially parts of Oxen. Thanks anon. >>25216463And thanks to you too, this sounds really promising. I’ll definitely give this a look into. I own FW but it’s been pretty much untouched since I got it since I consider it too daunting lol. As is my wont, if I buy a book, I will read through all of it, even if I don’t like it. But Ulysses is my favourite novel and I really admire Joyce’s language experimentation in FW even if I don’t quite get it. But I see the same amount of skill in it that I saw in Ulysses.
>>25216114>How do I understand it?You don't. You simply accept FW for what it is.
