I read the book when I was very young. Now, as a still-young but already seasoned middle-aged person :), I think I have to read it again. It must be a different experience when you read this work at this stage of your life, a point when you have already abandoned any hope for immortality, have a long relationship behind you, have children to take care of, and know that having them means, at the same time, happiness and entering the world of those who have a lot to lose. You also know, for certain, that you will have to make concessions, that you won't be a hero, and that you have nothing under control. I have to read this great work again. This is a great channel. Please do more content like this. The world needs it.
I'm 77 and have read it 3 times each time I read it, it was different. You read it and don't think you understand it. (And you don't) if you persevere you're drawn in and it doesn't matter that you are not parsing every word... You are reading at a different level.
It is important for a new channel that you please leave a comment (what book are you reading now? What is your favourite book etc), as it helps promote the channel! I REALLY appreciate your continued support - and WECOME to Great Books Explained!
As a lover of books and art history I am so hyped! Books id love to see a video on: (just a whole list of my favourites 😭 classics and non-classics) Never let me go - by Kazuo Ishiguro Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood The Heart’s Invisible Furies - John Boyne The Book Thief - Markus Zusak Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger The Odyssey - Homer Giovanni’s Room - James Baldwin The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka Dune - Frank Herbert I’m currently slaving through Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre.
Wonderful. I am a high school dropout, who has always yearned for the spark, I knew these books possessed. This channel, has reignited that spark. At 62, I have the time and now, the impetus to follow that old desire. Cheers!
Are you by any chance me? I started Ulysses at 62 when I suddenly found myself with a lot of time on my hands. My process and my advice was to go very slowly and try to decode and deconstruct everything I possibly could. I wrote book reports as I went even though I wasn't sure if anyone would ever read them. I wanted to be able to explain it to somebody else when I was done. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made to read it. It was an amazing year.
@@annwright1858 Because each time I read it, I interpret the story a bit differently because my life experience is different. I read it first when I was 18 and lived with my parents. At 28, I had an education and started to work. At 38, I was married and had a daughter. At 48, I worked in France. At 58, I was in Switzerland, and now I'm back in Denmark, retired. So, my perspective has changed.
Thank you for your reply and I can understand where you are coming from. For me, there are so many books out there, I want to try and read as many of them as possible and haven’t got time for repeats! I am in my seventies, thankfully still healthy. We are forever changing though so I take your point.
Now, as a newly retired teacher (kindergarten), I have time to read. I am hoping this channel will help me make good decisions about what to read next.
It's a difficult book to read, but it's a terrific book to listen to. It really is musical. For anyone interested, try the BBC's James Joyce collection.
Naxos has it on 22 CDs. I bought it about twenty years ago and listen to it on my daily commute once a year. It is complete, unabridged, and very good.
This was the hardest to read book I ever picked up. The changing writing styles was difficult to adjust to. Thank you James for making the book more understandable.
While I thank you for this video, at the same time I find it interesting that in fact the book isn't, "explained" at all. You outlined it's orginization, talked about what various reviewers thought of it at the time, it's historical context or place in the history of literature, antecedants or source material (namely Homer's 'Ulysess') and even included a short bio on Joyce, but no explanation about the 'meaning ' as far as I could see/hear or intuit. Well, about 100 yrs ago (or so it feels to be) I/we had to read this for an English Literature class. At the time I remember thinking it was interminably long, and I remember also thinking that it didn't matter much if I accidentally placed the bookmark incorrectly, because each time I returned to the book I might as well have been starting something completely new, and my memory of the previous concepts, occurences, and situations covered, was vague and ephemeral at best. Only by leafing back through the various sections searchingly was I able to answer the questions the instructor posed about various ideas/aspects, and to write an essay that probably garnered me a 'B' or 'B+' grade. Upon laborious conclusion of Ulysses, oh joy, because the Instructor was such a huge Joyce fan, the next book we had to survey was, 'The Dubliners' ! Seriously? Another'doorstop' of a book in extremely dense language/prose that tries to be absolutely everything, say absolutely everything and cover absolutely everything that the characters, are seeing, thinking, hearing, feeling smelling , tasting, sensing, imagining, etc. In my opinion,there is a way to have depth in a narrative develop characters, and still be readable, succinct and to the point. Give me a Steinbeck or Vonnegut , a Hemingway, or even a Dostoyevski please. Joyce was a chore.
You should read Stuart Gilbert's study guide. He worked closely with JJ before he died. The schema alone is mind-bogglingly complex. Then, try Finnegans Wake.
@@j.h.2944 Yikes. Not sure I still have the patience or fortitude, as I said, lighter fare/short stories seem to be where I feel most comfortable anymore. Just started a 325pg. history and after the first 30-40 pgs. was already questioning myself. Take care.
You have no idea how much i loved this. I am an avid reader and have been my whole life and listening to smart people discuss the classics, well, is there anything better?
I'm saddened by having read so many books and forgotten so much until a title or comment comes up. Too much life and possibly a bit too much bumping around has disorganized the library in my head. Helps a lot to see so many great works come up and remember them and fit them back on the shelves of the mind.
What a wonderful introduction to a book - with music, images and narration all combined to deepen the experience. Thank you for this brilliant multimedia synopsis.
I am excited for this new series! I read Ulysses for the first time in High School, and hated it. But my English teacher told me to please reread it later on. I’m So glad that I have ❤ I found that once I had a truly open mind that this masterpiece became much more enjoyable. I also have written notes each time (over 30 years), and go back occasionally to see my growth as a reader- and as a Human.
Using the rite of spring periodically was a genius move! In terms of its critical reception, it's almost like the ballet/symphony version of Ulysses. Both works were lambasted when they first appeared and were the subjects of massive public outcry but a small few groups of people then and many more now were and are able to see them for the innovative masterpieces they are. Great work!
I am ecstatic that you have expanded. I am a casual appreciator of art and literature, and you have shared so much knowledge and joy with me through your videos. I look forward to more to come!
Love your expansion to exploring books! Making artworks accessible, and divulging their secrets through your own brand of storytelling, research and editing is valuable work. Big thanks!
I really do wish that I could see what you and many others see in "Ulysses". I read it in ten days of hard graft as an undergrad, because I had to, and hated it. Twenty years later I tried again, and it was the same. The strongest impressions I received were of the author's freezing contempt for his characters, and for humanity generally, combined with his overpowering need to congratulate himself on his cleverness, knowledge and sensibilities. I must be wrong about that. Many good judges tell me so. The antipathy seems to be visceral - there are parts of "Ulysses" that make me physically nauseous. But whatever the cause is, I won't open a work by Joyce, ever again. It's no use telling me that "Dubliners", or "Portrait" is much easier. After my experience, all I'd like to do with Joyce is to get my hands around his neck - which, given that he's been dead these eighty years, is foolish or worse. Still, there it is.
@@davesblasting7457 I have tried him. I am glad to say that, not having been born over a grave, I am unqualified to appreciate the glories of Beckett's works, despite the satisfaction and peace that they brought him, which is so evident in his face.
In my experience, it's a "thing" that some (mostly snobs) academics think they need to find appealing to find approval of their colleagues and that they "get it". Joyce was probably a narcissist, mentally ill, and had a disgusting habit of "undressing," manipulating for his own writing exercise, and criticizing everyone from his perch on the Director's chair. His daughter was committed and no wonder. The biography, Nora, was good and explains a great deal.
@@merrim7765 I don't hold his daughter's schizophrenia against him, absent real evidence that he caused it, of which there is none. I do decry the conscious artifice and self-congratulation that I find in "Ulysses". In chapter 14, "The Oxen of the Sun", the language recapitulates the development of English prose, starting before Chaucer and moving through Spencerian and Shakespearian forms to approach modern English. Why? What purpose is served? It only foregrounds the prose itself, which is to say, the writer, his delight in what he takes to be his own cleverness, his reading, his scholarship. It's nothing but egotism, and I can't for the life of me see why anybody would commend it.
Outstanding clear engaging introduction to this seminal novel …inspiring me to go and reread Ulysses again after more than 4 decades… many many thanks. PS Praise also to the editor who assembled the wonderfully apt sequences of visuals of real content and quality
What a way to start another SUPERB channel!!!, mighty Ulisses . . . and the production! as with Great Art Explained, you are impeccably perfect in your analysis and synthesis. Humble thanks, another way of delivering your absolute talent for teaching and communication. Sincerely, Esperanza, a mexican in Canada
Love Joyce and one day I will get through the first chapter of Ulysses, out of the Martello tower and enter the extra worlds. For now Dubliners, his earlier work always resonates because I am a Dubliner in exile and I can relate to the dialect, history and passion of those short stories. The Irish are formidable story tellers for aeons and that is what it means to be Irish, miserable, dark, euphoric, loving and knowing a gobshite. I would have loved to walk the streets of my beloved home with Joyce at my side with a few swift pints in the pub to wet our whistles.
We all have to thank you for your amazing, spectacular work of spreading knowledge in a so captivating and riveting way. I barely can imagine how search and readings you do in order to create such insightful videos. Seriously, thank you so much, you've made me a better person and I think the world should have more humans like you!
@saluki, I read all of Dostoyevsky 's novels bar one: "The Idiot", but it is on my TBR so looking forward to it. Here is a question (sorry for digressing): for those who have read The Brothers Karamasov.; why do you think Zosima's body leaves such an awful smell ? As a medic, I understand putrifaction/heat etc , but a lot is made of stench. Do you think there is a hint regarding his "saintly character vs his actual one ? Well, the Devil leaves a stench wherever he goes so..... 🤔
Thank you so much for this! James Joyce: the master monster of English literature! Every word a treasure - and you have made Ulysses understandable. I can't wait to see what you do next - and this a perfect mate to your other channel.
The soliloquy of Molly Bloom impressed me greatly. I have never read the whole book from beginning to end, but you said that one could "wander through Ulysses" maybe I have done that. I read " A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" when I was a teenager, and I enjoyed it like hell. The book gave me the idea that I should be writer. "Dubliners" is also a great collection of stories. 📚🍀
Those who attempt to read it sequentially like a normal novel, have failed to grasp what it actually is, in my opinion. They remain stiff minded in the face of a quite different, still radically new style of literature, and struggle with it under false premises instead of taking it on for the monument to language and literature that it represents and which should become obvious without secondary exegesis by about the third 'chapter'
So excellent thank you so much I myself seem to have a gift for stream of conscious talking I appreciate learning about James Joyce and his beautiful book extraordinary book Ulysses
Good job! I read it probably 15 years ago with a group from the local library. Someone from Northwestern University (local school) gave an introductory lecture. And I had a friend from the office do it with me. That way, whenever either one of us flagged and was ready to drop out, the other was there to encourage them. Possibly one of the few books that can benefit from having a reading buddy. It was a great book.
I've read and loved Dubliners though am fascinated by the mysterious Ulysses and Finnegans Wake while never cracking the surface. This has given me new inspiration to dive back in!
I feel as if, being here, listening to the wonderful analysis of great literature, I've cheated life somehow. I should be in a college class I've paid for. Very enriching. Thank you so much. It's really added to my life.
Thank you so much for this video. In a wonderful synchronicity I just finished reading this book about a week ago and absolutely loved it's Can't wait for your next video! Maybe you can do one on Moby-Dick, my all time favorite book.
The greatest novel of the 20th century & my personal favourite of all time. Until I tripped over Joyce & Ulysses I never realised that people could do such beautiful & profound things with language. The wandering, the poetry & the commentary all tightened up into a perfect package of ordinary nothingness. It’s just humanity laid bare & it’s fucking amazing. Ulysses is the only book I own which is a genuine first edition & I treasure it. Thank you so much for making this video James!👏👏
First time I ever subscribed to a new channel, sight unseen, without even listening to a minute. If its associated with Great Arts Explained, that's more than enough for me.
This was rather an excellent wink to the rumpous scrumptious luscious lettering digestions and abyssal impregnations that Joyces Ulysses daily delivers to those who read it 🎉 fine good video my dawg yeeeee
Well, thank you so much for this analysis. You have given me about eight inches of space on the top shelf of one of my six foot bookcases. Forty years ago I bought from the monthly book club, 3 of Joyce's novels and started Ulysses and read about five pages and then started working long hours, and had to stop. I always thought i would get back to Ulysses because back then the writing seemed very unique. But, now, your review has made me rethink that and I will not waste a minute on what sounds like an utter waste of time. ...thanks very much. Ugh.
This book is incredible. Strange to read after never studying it and tasting the modernist style of literature through people born in the 70s and 80s. I came to this fresh and I think it made it so much better. There are parts that challenge and others that are hard to swallow whether it's the complex disregard of the lower classes and immigrants, but the wholly human interpretation of prejudice. The use of offal in early passages is some of the most beautiful writing I've ever absorbed. But it still holds these people in awe and deconstruction, and to dip in at any point is to find some of the greatest prose ever written. It's a book you can read out of time and out of context. This is why it's a work of pure art and human expression. There are few capable of doing this. The length of the book is a problem in modern times but as someone with a short attention span but a love of knowledge this is the greatest there has ever been. If you want any post Joyce recommendations I would read Alex Trocchi, Elfriede Jelinek, Olga Tokarczuk and Jon Fosse. Lovely vid. I hope more people read this.
Unreadable. Pretentious. Tried to read it for ten years & could not get past the third page. On the other hand, read Louis-Ferdinand Celine's 592-page tome Journey to the end of the Night in about three days. Difference? One was a true genius, the other a pretender. Never cared for Catcher in the Rye either.
@@kirkalex5257 I highly.recommend Joseph Campbell , He have book call the skeleton key to Finnegan's Wake. It will have you navigate that Finnegan Wake
I had never been into art but your channel enriched my life and knowledge more than o could ever think of ..and now you are doing books aka my life source. ..paint me obsessed!
Thanks for explaining Ulysses! It was always one of those books that scared me with its length, importance, and, tbh, modernism as an on-and-off reader. My favorite book is the Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.
It was a great book, I realized recently I don't have my old copy and I must get a new one. Isn't Elton John's sing "Rocket Man" based on one or two of his stories?
@nathanbarber, Have you read Rainbow's Gravity ? It has been said that it can be as awkward to read as Ulysses. Personally, this is not my type of book, but there is a Joycean touch.
Ulysses is one of those books that just seems so daunting to pick up, but after this I might give it a shot! Currently reading Children of Ruin, book 2 in Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time series. It's a great sci fi page turner!
You made me so curious about this book, even when I know what a challenge it is. Also excellent choice of music. "Ulysses" is like the book counterpart to Stravinsky's masterpiece "The Rites of Spring".
So many years ago I was supposed to read this for a college lit course, and I tried. I tried skimming here and there and failed again. In my 30s I tried again. It still gave me a headache, so I decided that having read “Portait…” and The Dead, I didn’t need to try any more James Joyce. There are many Irish writers I enjoy reading so I do not miss this one.
Ulysses is my favourite novel. I always joke that it's only difficult the 1st three times you read it. Then you're fine. I've just finsihed memorising the opening chapter of Finnegans Wake, which was a challenge, but makes Ulysses seem simple by comparison. One quibble with the video: it includes the same mistake many people make of showing a picture of Joyce with his daughter, Lucia, but saying it''s Nora. Other than that, excellent. Looking forward to many more videos.
@@ahnmensch3115 "alone along aloved alas riverrun past eve and Adams by bend of bay to swerve of shore to howth castle and environs sir lancelot d'abrey.....something something" That's what I vaguely remember eithout memorising - no doubt quite flawed but the phraseology stuck. Joyce has mulled over every word and rhythm and that makes it memorable. "This is the way to the Willingdone museyroom mind your hats goin in ... this is wellington on his big white harse" Good writing being more easily memorable is paralleled by how relatively easy it is to copy the distilled essence of great works of art in a drawing and get it quite right, whereas it is virtually impossible to get the flavour of the cheap commercial art of any particular period with all the strange mannerisms of the trivial fashions of the time. It can't really be done as far as I've ever seen
Fascinating to hear this breakdown of Ulysses. It was required readings in my English Lit class in college. I had a difficult time putting it all together, but now I am excited to read it all over again. Thank You
Already 1k+ views! There are so many life-long learners who enjoy an intro to a challenging work. I just finished Joseph Conrad's "The Shadow Line". Any Conrad is a good discussion book. My favorite novel is "As I Lay Dying" by Faulkner.
I've had a copy of Ulysses for years and have read most of Joyce's other novels. I've always intended take this on but have always found excuses to keep putting it off. No more! This excellent video is the push I've needed. My thanks.
I’m so sad to just be discovering this channel as I’ve been a follower of your other art channel since you started. I used to be an avid reader, but busy mom life kind of stole that away from me. I’m currently reading Fifth Business, a Canadian classic alongside my son, who is studying it in his grade 12 English. I loved it the first time I read it but couldn’t recall at all what it was about so I decided to try it reading it again. I’m dedicating this year to go back to one of my first loves, reading.
I'm reading it now. It's great to hear such positive experiences. Hard books can be so rewarding. I found Catch 22 very difficult to read, but it's one of the best things I have ever read, and one of the funniest.
“…you'll have to figure out your local time” Actually, you don't. RUclips automatically displays your local time and date for you. It's pretty convenient.
I would love to hear you speak on Miller’s Tropic of Capricorn.🙏 I truly enjoy all of the content you produce. Having access to entertainment of this high calibre keeps me sane.
As a non-native English speaker I often find it daunting reading "great" English novels. They're often so full of words, phrases, structures I've never come across and there's often this aura of importance around them. As if I'm about to have to understand something very profound. I've never read Ulysses, and to be honest, I probably won't. Of course I've often heard of the book, but I've never known what it's about and why it is deemed so important in English literature. So thank you so much for this explainer!
Trust your instincts. Ulysses is a pile of unreadable trash that appeals to fake intellectuals because they think it makes them sound educated and superior to others.
Had this channel recommended by a friend. Always thought (though I’ve never read it) of Ulysses as just a nonsense book, experimentation for the sake of experimentation, but this video gave me newfound appreciation for it.
Lovely video, wonderful idea, great community. So I'm game to share. I've been reading Ulysses ever since a trip to Dublin, when we did a tour of the book's locations with an Irish actor who brought the spirit and art of it to life. Sometimes I listen to an audible and let it wash over me. I can't remember how often I break out into roaring laughter and then go searching through my dog-eared text to slow it all down. It's a relationship with a book like no other, though I've both read and heard Anna Karenina as well. (Maggie Gyllenhaal's recording is brilliant.) Between my Odyssean wanderings I've enjoyed "Lessons", "The Leopard", "Nothing to Worry About" and "Remains of the Day", jumping between new releases and old classics. Now reading the astonishing scholarly work "Anti-Judaism". Now I need to search your catalogue for the Great Gatsby and Don Quixote, the first being a book I thought wildly overrated and the second being one I simply can't get to page 100 let alone finish.
What a great addition to youtube Mr. Payne! I have a masters degree in German Literature and am very thrilled for the future of this channel.Yesterday I just finished Richard Brautigans "Trout fishing in America" and fell in love with the writing of this novel. After that one I'll probably start Ulysses and break away from all these years of procastinating :P I hope to see a video about Kafka or Hesse in the future. Only if it fits the time table. Great work as usual. I am never disappointed in the work you do Mr. Payne! Thank you!
Amazingly interesting production. It left a deep imprint on my mind.
I read the book when I was very young. Now, as a still-young but already seasoned middle-aged person :), I think I have to read it again. It must be a different experience when you read this work at this stage of your life, a point when you have already abandoned any hope for immortality, have a long relationship behind you, have children to take care of, and know that having them means, at the same time, happiness and entering the world of those who have a lot to lose. You also know, for certain, that you will have to make concessions, that you won't be a hero, and that you have nothing under control. I have to read this great work again.
This is a great channel. Please do more content like this. The world needs it.
So true and thoughtful. I'm 72 and can vouch.
All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream...
Let keep us men and women of good will keep lifting the rock of Sysiphus, remembering Joyce's words:
"In the particular is contained the universal".
@@javelinpixVouch ahead. Maybe you can help me understand the above word salad?
I'm 77 and have read it 3 times each time I read it, it was different.
You read it and don't think you understand it. (And you don't) if you persevere you're drawn in and it doesn't matter that you are not parsing every word... You are reading at a different level.
It is important for a new channel that you please leave a comment (what book are you reading now? What is your favourite book etc), as it helps promote the channel! I REALLY appreciate your continued support - and WECOME to Great Books Explained!
Reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley for the first time.
@@landontalkington230 Frankenstein is being researched now!
Try some Dostoevsky. Or Kafka.
Maybe do The Little Prince.
Either way, I will be following this channel.
As a lover of books and art history I am so hyped!
Books id love to see a video on: (just a whole list of my favourites 😭 classics and non-classics)
Never let me go - by Kazuo Ishiguro
Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Heart’s Invisible Furies - John Boyne
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
The Odyssey - Homer
Giovanni’s Room - James Baldwin
The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
Dune - Frank Herbert
I’m currently slaving through Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre.
@@DuckduckduckgivemeapickleThe Book Thief is my favourite book! I'd be overjoyed if it was ever covered on this channel!
Wonderful. I am a high school dropout, who has always yearned for the spark, I knew these books possessed. This channel, has reignited that spark. At 62, I have the time and now, the impetus to follow that old desire. Cheers!
good on you. it's never too late to reignite that fire. good luck!
Ulysses is the most boring, tedious book I’ve ever tried to read.
Good luck with Ulysses. And acquired taste - and you’d have to be starving. Try lord Jim by Conrad.
Have a nice trip 🙂
Are you by any chance me? I started Ulysses at 62 when I suddenly found myself with a lot of time on my hands. My process and my advice was to go very slowly and try to decode and deconstruct everything I possibly could. I wrote book reports as I went even though I wasn't sure if anyone would ever read them. I wanted to be able to explain it to somebody else when I was done. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made to read it. It was an amazing year.
I read this book every 10 years. I've read it five times so far, and I hope to accomplish at least one more before it's time to say goodbye
I make my children read Animal farm an 1984 every 5 years 😅
@@nicholacousins8563 That sounds good!
Why?
@@annwright1858 Because each time I read it, I interpret the story a bit differently because my life experience is different. I read it first when I was 18 and lived with my parents. At 28, I had an education and started to work. At 38, I was married and had a daughter. At 48, I worked in France. At 58, I was in Switzerland, and now I'm back in Denmark, retired. So, my perspective has changed.
Thank you for your reply and I can understand where you are coming from. For me, there are so many books out there, I want to try and read as many of them as possible and haven’t got time for repeats! I am in my seventies, thankfully still healthy. We are forever changing though so I take your point.
I'm reading Ulysses right now. Strange book. This talk is bringing clarity. Thank you.
This is a book I thought I would never want to read but now I do. Your channels are so life enriching.
Thanks!
for me it is the opposite, I was planning to read it but now I realize that this book is overrated
@@vanjaw1146 You need to read it to experience it.
I doubt you will finish it. I will be surprised if you go past the half way mark.
I read it twice
I love the way, James Joyce, writes I love the stream of consciousness. I loved it in high school. I love it today.
William Faulkner is also a stream of consciousness writer too
You've done it again, James. Opened my eyes to more wonderful things.
Now, as a newly retired teacher (kindergarten), I have time to read. I am hoping this channel will help me make good decisions about what to read next.
It's a difficult book to read, but it's a terrific book to listen to. It really is musical. For anyone interested, try the BBC's James Joyce collection.
Naxos has it on 22 CDs. I bought it about twenty years ago and listen to it on my daily commute once a year. It is complete, unabridged, and very good.
The Irish national TV network did a superb version that is available for free
Thanks for the suggestion about listening to it. It’s worth a shot!
Agreed . Listen first to fall in love and read annotated version to better understand. John Lee's performance on the audiobook is masterful
This was the hardest to read book I ever picked up. The changing writing styles was difficult to adjust to. Thank you James for making the book more understandable.
Glad it was helpful!
Reading Absolam Absolam by William Faulkner prior made Ulysses easier for me but it was still challenging
Infinite Jest is harder
Try Finnegans Wake
Please please do crime and punishment by Dostyoesky
Thanks for all your hard work. I’ve adored the topics and evolution of this channel. It’s exactly what the world needs.
💗
While I thank you for this video, at the same time I find it interesting that in fact the book isn't, "explained" at all. You outlined it's orginization, talked about what various reviewers thought of it at the time, it's historical context or place in the history of literature, antecedants or source material (namely Homer's 'Ulysess') and even included a short bio on Joyce, but no explanation about the 'meaning ' as far as I could see/hear or intuit. Well, about 100 yrs ago (or so it feels to be) I/we had to read this for an English Literature class. At the time I remember thinking it was interminably long, and I remember also thinking that it didn't matter much if I accidentally placed the bookmark incorrectly, because each time I returned to the book I might as well have been starting something completely new, and my memory of the previous concepts, occurences, and situations covered, was vague and ephemeral at best. Only by leafing back through the various sections searchingly was I able to answer the questions the instructor posed about various ideas/aspects, and to write an essay that probably garnered me a 'B' or 'B+' grade. Upon laborious conclusion of Ulysses, oh joy, because the Instructor was such a huge Joyce fan, the next book we had to survey was, 'The Dubliners' ! Seriously? Another'doorstop' of a book in extremely dense language/prose that tries to be absolutely everything, say absolutely everything and cover absolutely everything that the characters, are seeing, thinking, hearing, feeling smelling , tasting, sensing, imagining, etc. In my opinion,there is a way to have depth in a narrative develop characters, and still be readable, succinct and to the point. Give me a Steinbeck or Vonnegut , a Hemingway, or even a Dostoyevski please. Joyce was a chore.
Thank you, this is my experience of trying to read this gobbledygook masterpiece.
You should read Stuart Gilbert's study guide. He worked closely with JJ before he died. The schema alone is mind-bogglingly complex. Then, try Finnegans Wake.
@@j.h.2944 Yikes. Not sure I still have the patience or fortitude, as I said, lighter fare/short stories seem to be where I feel most comfortable anymore. Just started a 325pg. history and after the first 30-40 pgs. was already questioning myself. Take care.
Yes!
I'm really into art and literature so these two channels are just perfect! Will try to support you in the future! ❤
Thanks for the support!
So happy you decided to create this channel on top of the great art channel. Can’t wait to watch it!
Join us for the live! ruclips.net/video/0EblOaE1wNU/видео.htmlsi=o8H1AbMj8KzIlD_O
Excellent 👌 more!!!!!!!
My father, a WWII surgeon, a genius in his own right, memorized this. Unbelievable.
Asperghers
memorized Ulysses?
But why
That's very impressive. It took me ages to just memorize Episode 18
(looks like a bot account)
You have no idea how much i loved this. I am an avid reader and have been my whole life and listening to smart people discuss the classics, well, is there anything better?
The only thing better than reading a classic is rereading a classic. You may quote me.
better to live a classic
@@dgarzaart2000 oooh, I love this!!!!
OMG, I can't wait. I think this might be the best channel on youtube! ❤️
I love Joyce, a true master. Took language to such a level that all that was left was Beckett. Joyce’s successor and Void.
Great comment thanks 🙏
Absolutely agree! Fantastic appraisal. I felt that Melville was his ancestor in this regard, as was the fertile mind of the Bard himself …
LOL!... AGAIN, LOL!
What is language if not communication? Ulysses does not communicate ...... just a diarrhea of words.
Steinbeck was twice the writer with 1/50th the words.
I'm saddened by having read so many books and forgotten so much until a title or comment comes up. Too much life and possibly a bit too much bumping around has disorganized the library in my head. Helps a lot to see so many great works come up and remember them and fit them back on the shelves of the mind.
What a wonderful introduction to a book - with music, images and narration all combined to deepen the experience. Thank you for this brilliant multimedia synopsis.
I am excited for this new series! I read Ulysses for the first time in High School, and hated it. But my English teacher told me to please reread it later on. I’m So glad that I have ❤ I found that once I had a truly open mind that this masterpiece became much more enjoyable.
I also have written notes each time (over 30 years), and go back occasionally to see my growth as a reader- and as a Human.
Always proud of the Irisher's way with words, he was high on a coupla things and had the inner strength to finish this classic...Bravo!!!
Using the rite of spring periodically was a genius move! In terms of its critical reception, it's almost like the ballet/symphony version of Ulysses. Both works were lambasted when they first appeared and were the subjects of massive public outcry but a small few groups of people then and many more now were and are able to see them for the innovative masterpieces they are. Great work!
Thanks for noticing - I spend a lot of time getting appropriate music!
@christanmaster5374: I’m glad you were able to point out how thoughtful the music choice is.
big difference is "The Rite of Spring"" was never censored. you couldn't own a copy in the US until almost ten years after it was published.
Great use of music indeed. What is the last musical peice? With the choir? It's very nice.
Fixing drywall here in Jersey... Tuned in and taking notes!!
Clean the house here,
"And yes" Beautiful
Brilliant! Thanks for bringing great literature back to life!
Thanks Jodie!
This gave me such a better understanding of an overwhelming work. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
I am ecstatic that you have expanded. I am a casual appreciator of art and literature, and you have shared so much knowledge and joy with me through your videos. I look forward to more to come!
I read Dubliners last year. I'm looking forward to reading Ulysses.
I will let you know, they're quite different.
I love Dubliners. For me there are so many hidden ideas that I can relate to in stories that initially appear somewhat ordinary. Yet to read Ulysses.
Love your expansion to exploring books! Making artworks accessible, and divulging their secrets through your own brand of storytelling, research and editing is valuable work. Big thanks!
Lifelong learner here now I’m 83 but still learning
Yessss!! It really is the best channel on RUclips
I am so ready for this!
So impressive how you distill much of this heavy tome's most important tropes and Joyce's life in such a short space. Thank you so much.
I really do wish that I could see what you and many others see in "Ulysses". I read it in ten days of hard graft as an undergrad, because I had to, and hated it. Twenty years later I tried again, and it was the same. The strongest impressions I received were of the author's freezing contempt for his characters, and for humanity generally, combined with his overpowering need to congratulate himself on his cleverness, knowledge and sensibilities. I must be wrong about that. Many good judges tell me so. The antipathy seems to be visceral - there are parts of "Ulysses" that make me physically nauseous. But whatever the cause is, I won't open a work by Joyce, ever again. It's no use telling me that "Dubliners", or "Portrait" is much easier. After my experience, all I'd like to do with Joyce is to get my hands around his neck - which, given that he's been dead these eighty years, is foolish or worse. Still, there it is.
I fully agree.
What about Samuel Beckett ? Would you try him?
@@davesblasting7457 I have tried him. I am glad to say that, not having been born over a grave, I am unqualified to appreciate the glories of Beckett's works, despite the satisfaction and peace that they brought him, which is so evident in his face.
In my experience, it's a "thing" that some (mostly snobs) academics think they need to find appealing to find approval of their colleagues and that they "get it". Joyce was probably a narcissist, mentally ill, and had a disgusting habit of "undressing," manipulating for his own writing exercise, and criticizing everyone from his perch on the Director's chair. His daughter was committed and no wonder. The biography, Nora, was good and explains a great deal.
@@merrim7765 I don't hold his daughter's schizophrenia against him, absent real evidence that he caused it, of which there is none. I do decry the conscious artifice and self-congratulation that I find in "Ulysses". In chapter 14, "The Oxen of the Sun", the language recapitulates the development of English prose, starting before Chaucer and moving through Spencerian and Shakespearian forms to approach modern English. Why? What purpose is served? It only foregrounds the prose itself, which is to say, the writer, his delight in what he takes to be his own cleverness, his reading, his scholarship. It's nothing but egotism, and I can't for the life of me see why anybody would commend it.
Outstanding clear engaging introduction to this seminal novel …inspiring me to go and reread Ulysses again after more than 4 decades… many many thanks.
PS Praise also to the editor who assembled the wonderfully apt sequences of visuals of real content and quality
What is a book YOU would like me to consider for Great Books Explained?
Madam Bovary
Le Petit Prince
One of my favourite books of ALL time! @@heociel
I know many people will pick older, legendary books and authors. But the Shining would be my pick. Maybe the most terrifying work of art ever.
Shining is on my list! @@kushmon9992
What a way to start another SUPERB channel!!!, mighty Ulisses . . . and the production! as with Great Art Explained, you are impeccably perfect in your analysis and synthesis. Humble thanks, another way of delivering your absolute talent for teaching and communication. Sincerely, Esperanza, a mexican in Canada
Congratulations, James! I'm following your journey almost since your first video with @greatartexplained. Keep it coming- I'm so excited about it!
Thanks for your continued support!
Love Joyce and one day I will get through the first chapter of Ulysses, out of the Martello tower and enter the extra worlds. For now Dubliners, his earlier work always resonates because I am a Dubliner in exile and I can relate to the dialect, history and passion of those short stories. The Irish are formidable story tellers for aeons and that is what it means to be Irish, miserable, dark, euphoric, loving and knowing a gobshite. I would have loved to walk the streets of my beloved home with Joyce at my side with a few swift pints in the pub to wet our whistles.
We all have to thank you for your amazing, spectacular work of spreading knowledge in a so captivating and riveting way. I barely can imagine how search and readings you do in order to create such insightful videos. Seriously, thank you so much, you've made me a better person and I think the world should have more humans like you!
Trying to get myself to read crime and punishment at the moment. Super excited for the new channel!
@saluki,
I read all of Dostoyevsky 's novels bar one: "The Idiot", but it is on my TBR so looking forward to it.
Here is a question (sorry for digressing): for those who have read The Brothers Karamasov.; why do you think Zosima's body leaves such an awful smell ? As a medic, I understand putrifaction/heat etc , but a lot is made of stench. Do you think there is a hint regarding his "saintly character vs his actual one ? Well, the Devil leaves a stench wherever he goes so..... 🤔
Your content is a delight! Thank you for the dedication you put into it 💚
Thank you so much for this! James Joyce: the master monster of English literature! Every word a treasure - and you have made Ulysses understandable. I can't wait to see what you do next - and this a perfect mate to your other channel.
Agree, English is my 4th language, and it is difficult to understand writing of JJ and others writers at the same period
The soliloquy of Molly Bloom impressed me greatly. I have never read the whole book from beginning to end, but you said that one could "wander through Ulysses" maybe I have done that.
I read " A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" when I was a teenager, and I enjoyed it like hell. The book gave me the idea that I should be writer. "Dubliners" is also a great collection of stories. 📚🍀
Those who attempt to read it sequentially like a normal novel, have failed to grasp what it actually is, in my opinion. They remain stiff minded in the face of a quite different, still radically new style of literature, and struggle with it under false premises instead of taking it on for the monument to language and literature that it represents and which should become obvious without secondary exegesis by about the third 'chapter'
I’m reading it at the moment and halfway through… it’s wonderful! Thank you for such a lovely piece on this amazing book!
Wonderful!
😅😅😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊⁸the u😊😊😊😊😊😊@@greatbooksexplained371
Haven’t seen it yet and already know it’s going to be quality content. Keep it up!!!
Hope you enjoy it!
So excellent thank you so much
I myself seem to have a gift for stream of conscious talking
I appreciate learning about James Joyce and his beautiful book extraordinary book Ulysses
Good job! I read it probably 15 years ago with a group from the local library. Someone from Northwestern University (local school) gave an introductory lecture. And I had a friend from the office do it with me. That way, whenever either one of us flagged and was ready to drop out, the other was there to encourage them. Possibly one of the few books that can benefit from having a reading buddy. It was a great book.
Great one, James! Congratulations on your new channel! 😊
I've read and loved Dubliners though am fascinated by the mysterious Ulysses and Finnegans Wake while never cracking the surface. This has given me new inspiration to dive back in!
Great!
Hard read. Can you suggest an audiobook?
I feel as if, being here, listening to the wonderful analysis of great literature, I've cheated life somehow. I should be in a college class I've paid for.
Very enriching. Thank you so much. It's really added to my life.
Thank you so much for this video. In a wonderful synchronicity I just finished reading this book about a week ago and absolutely loved it's Can't wait for your next video! Maybe you can do one on Moby-Dick, my all time favorite book.
Moby Dick is on the list!
❤
What a gift to all of us this channel is!🙏👏🥰
The greatest novel of the 20th century & my personal favourite of all time. Until I tripped over Joyce & Ulysses I never realised that people could do such beautiful & profound things with language. The wandering, the poetry & the commentary all tightened up into a perfect package of ordinary nothingness. It’s just humanity laid bare & it’s fucking amazing. Ulysses is the only book I own which is a genuine first edition & I treasure it. Thank you so much for making this video James!👏👏
First time I ever subscribed to a new channel, sight unseen, without even listening to a minute. If its associated with Great Arts Explained, that's more than enough for me.
Fantastic! I thoroughly enjoyed this episode and am excited to return for more! Congratulations 🎉🍾
Thanks Mindy! Alice next!
This was rather an excellent wink to the rumpous scrumptious luscious lettering digestions and abyssal impregnations that Joyces Ulysses daily delivers to those who read it 🎉 fine good video my dawg yeeeee
Well, thank you so much for this analysis. You have given me about eight inches of space on the top shelf of one of my six foot bookcases. Forty years ago I bought from the monthly book club, 3 of Joyce's novels and started Ulysses and read about five pages and then started working long hours, and had to stop. I always thought i would get back to Ulysses because back then the writing seemed very unique. But, now, your review has made me rethink that and I will not waste a minute on what sounds like an utter waste of time. ...thanks very much. Ugh.
Yay! First video on the channel! I look forward to all the future ones and wish you a lot of success!
Thank you so much!!
Wonderful to see you branch out into literature as well. Great topic for the first video, and great companion piece to your recent video on Magritte!
Glad you spotted the cross references!
This book is incredible. Strange to read after never studying it and tasting the modernist style of literature through people born in the 70s and 80s. I came to this fresh and I think it made it so much better. There are parts that challenge and others that are hard to swallow whether it's the complex disregard of the lower classes and immigrants, but the wholly human interpretation of prejudice. The use of offal in early passages is some of the most beautiful writing I've ever absorbed. But it still holds these people in awe and deconstruction, and to dip in at any point is to find some of the greatest prose ever written. It's a book you can read out of time and out of context. This is why it's a work of pure art and human expression. There are few capable of doing this. The length of the book is a problem in modern times but as someone with a short attention span but a love of knowledge this is the greatest there has ever been. If you want any post Joyce recommendations I would read Alex Trocchi, Elfriede Jelinek, Olga Tokarczuk and Jon Fosse. Lovely vid. I hope more people read this.
So excited for the new channel! I’d love to see a video on Oscar Wilde eventually
Oh that will happen!
Your work is one of the shining lights on this platform, thank you for all of your effort
The most unread book in the English language
No Finnegan's Wake is most difficult novel in English.Language. I read FW.
Have you ever pick it up?
Ulyeeus is not comparing to Finnegan's Wake
Unreadable. Pretentious. Tried to read it for ten years & could not get past the third page. On the other hand, read Louis-Ferdinand Celine's 592-page tome Journey to the end of the Night in about three days. Difference? One was a true genius, the other a pretender. Never cared for Catcher in the Rye either.
@@kirkalex5257 I highly.recommend Joseph Campbell , He have book call the skeleton key to Finnegan's Wake. It will have you navigate that Finnegan Wake
I had never been into art but your channel enriched my life and knowledge more than o could ever think of ..and now you are doing books aka my life source. ..paint me obsessed!
Not sure if it’s a preview but excited about the books you focused on in the intro! Great work yet again! 🙏
Alice is next!
@@greatbooksexplained371 yoooohoooo! 🐇😵💫🫖🐭🤪🎩😸🐛🌹♥️…in no particular order 😄
Wow! Beautifully done, thank you! Another great series you have hatched. Congratulations!
Thanks for explaining Ulysses! It was always one of those books that scared me with its length, importance, and, tbh, modernism as an on-and-off reader. My favorite book is the Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.
That’s a great book - I love Bradbury!
It was a great book, I realized recently I don't have my old copy and I must get a new one. Isn't Elton John's sing "Rocket Man" based on one or two of his stories?
@nathanbarber,
Have you read Rainbow's Gravity ?
It has been said that it can be as awkward to read as Ulysses.
Personally, this is not my type of book, but there is a Joycean touch.
Great start to a channel we have been thirsting for!
I have started and stopped Ulysses a few times. Hopefully after this I will give it another try! Thanks James for this wonderful video.
You can do it!
Thank you so much for creating this channel, on top of your art-analysis one! Truly appreciate your hard work James!
Ulysses is one of those books that just seems so daunting to pick up, but after this I might give it a shot! Currently reading Children of Ruin, book 2 in Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time series. It's a great sci fi page turner!
I’m super excited about this channel, thanks!
This is my favorite channel 🤓
Thank you ever so much for your channels. I adore them both. Can't wait for what comes next!
You made me so curious about this book, even when I know what a challenge it is. Also excellent choice of music. "Ulysses" is like the book counterpart to Stravinsky's masterpiece "The Rites of Spring".
Appreciate you noticing!
So many years ago I was supposed to read this for a college lit course, and I tried. I tried skimming here and there and failed again. In my 30s I tried again. It still gave me a headache, so I decided that having read “Portait…” and The Dead, I didn’t need to try any more James Joyce. There are many Irish writers I enjoy reading so I do not miss this one.
Ulysses is my favourite novel. I always joke that it's only difficult the 1st three times you read it. Then you're fine. I've just finsihed memorising the opening chapter of Finnegans Wake, which was a challenge, but makes Ulysses seem simple by comparison.
One quibble with the video: it includes the same mistake many people make of showing a picture of Joyce with his daughter, Lucia, but saying it''s Nora. Other than that, excellent. Looking forward to many more videos.
wait, you memorized the WHOLE opening chapter of Finnegans Wake? Like, the entire 25 pages or something? How do you even do that?
@@ahnmensch3115 27 pages. It's insanely difficult and took me 3 attempts. You have to remember where every word is on the page to avoid missing bits.
@@robmaher42 That is an immensely impressive achievement. I don’t think I’d manage to do that, even if you gave me unlimited time.
@@ahnmensch3115 "alone along aloved alas riverrun past eve and Adams by bend of bay to swerve of shore to howth castle and environs sir lancelot d'abrey.....something something"
That's what I vaguely remember eithout memorising - no doubt quite flawed but the phraseology stuck. Joyce has mulled over every word and rhythm and that makes it memorable.
"This is the way to the Willingdone museyroom mind your hats goin in ... this is wellington on his big white harse"
Good writing being more easily memorable is paralleled by how relatively easy it is to copy the distilled essence of great works of art in a drawing and get it quite right, whereas it is virtually impossible to get the flavour of the cheap commercial art of any particular period with all the strange mannerisms of the trivial fashions of the time. It can't really be done as far as I've ever seen
Fascinating to hear this breakdown of Ulysses. It was required readings in my English Lit class in college.
I had a difficult time putting it all together, but now I am excited to read it all over again. Thank You
As an author, seeing this makes me so happy! And I can't wait for what's to come.
You had me at Rite of Spring...
Thank you for another great piece!
Already 1k+ views! There are so many life-long learners who enjoy an intro to a challenging work. I just finished Joseph Conrad's "The Shadow Line". Any Conrad is a good discussion book. My favorite novel is "As I Lay Dying" by Faulkner.
I've had a copy of Ulysses for years and have read most of Joyce's other novels. I've always intended take this on but have always found excuses to keep putting it off. No more! This excellent video is the push I've needed. My thanks.
Good stuff. Looking forward to more 📚
I’m so sad to just be discovering this channel as I’ve been a follower of your other art channel since you started. I used to be an avid reader, but busy mom life kind of stole that away from me. I’m currently reading Fifth Business, a Canadian classic alongside my son, who is studying it in his grade 12 English. I loved it the first time I read it but couldn’t recall at all what it was about so I decided to try it reading it again. I’m dedicating this year to go back to one of my first loves, reading.
This is the greatest book I have ever read. Probably the hardest but the most rewarding.
I'm reading it now. It's great to hear such positive experiences. Hard books can be so rewarding. I found Catch 22 very difficult to read, but it's one of the best things I have ever read, and one of the funniest.
I learn more about the arts here than in any of my classes !! Ty!!!
Let's watch together - this Friday at 8.30pm (UK time - you'll have to figure out your local time) - I hope you can join in the chat.
“…you'll have to figure out your local time”
Actually, you don't. RUclips automatically displays your local time and date for you. It's pretty convenient.
Good to know! @@jeff__w
I love that you’re branching out to books! Love the Art channel 🤌🏼
I would love to hear you speak on Miller’s Tropic of Capricorn.🙏
I truly enjoy all of the content you produce. Having access to entertainment of this high calibre keeps me sane.
I’ve read over 4000 books in my life but not this one. Yet. But I will now. Thank you.
As a non-native English speaker I often find it daunting reading "great" English novels. They're often so full of words, phrases, structures I've never come across and there's often this aura of importance around them. As if I'm about to have to understand something very profound. I've never read Ulysses, and to be honest, I probably won't. Of course I've often heard of the book, but I've never known what it's about and why it is deemed so important in English literature. So thank you so much for this explainer!
Trust your instincts. Ulysses is a pile of unreadable trash that appeals to fake intellectuals because they think it makes them sound educated and superior to others.
Finally a channel about literature that's not by a booktoker i have waited for years
*booktuber
I love Frankenstein, Candide, a Christmas Carol and The Trial.
Had this channel recommended by a friend.
Always thought (though I’ve never read it) of Ulysses as just a nonsense book, experimentation for the sake of experimentation, but this video gave me newfound appreciation for it.
I dislike Joyce's works very much but this video definitely taught me a lot. I am currently reading The Brothers Karamasov
Amazing! I’m thank you for all you do ❤
The BK. Worlds most boring book.
@@redtobertshateshandles well its a character study mostly and I find it quite interesting.
Lovely video, wonderful idea, great community. So I'm game to share. I've been reading Ulysses ever since a trip to Dublin, when we did a tour of the book's locations with an Irish actor who brought the spirit and art of it to life. Sometimes I listen to an audible and let it wash over me. I can't remember how often I break out into roaring laughter and then go searching through my dog-eared text to slow it all down. It's a relationship with a book like no other, though I've both read and heard Anna Karenina as well. (Maggie Gyllenhaal's recording is brilliant.) Between my Odyssean wanderings I've enjoyed "Lessons", "The Leopard", "Nothing to Worry About" and "Remains of the Day", jumping between new releases and old classics. Now reading the astonishing scholarly work "Anti-Judaism". Now I need to search your catalogue for the Great Gatsby and Don Quixote, the first being a book I thought wildly overrated and the second being one I simply can't get to page 100 let alone finish.
What a great addition to youtube Mr. Payne! I have a masters degree in German Literature and am very thrilled for the future of this channel.Yesterday I just finished Richard Brautigans "Trout fishing in America" and fell in love with the writing of this novel. After that one I'll probably start Ulysses and break away from all these years of procastinating :P I hope to see a video about Kafka or Hesse in the future. Only if it fits the time table. Great work as usual. I am never disappointed in the work you do Mr. Payne! Thank you!
Thanks 🙏 and Kafka is planned!
@@greatbooksexplained371 Splendid!