EC in his much younger days (8 years ago to be exact with bad hair and worse glasses) standing at the top of Martello Tower outside of Dublin with his completed copy of Ulysses.)
So last week I was allowed to write all of the categories for trivia. It’s a long story, and yes I could have probably have publicized the game here, but for now I want to raise to attention one of the few questions that I asked that no one answered correctly. Now to put this in context, three teams knew that Jabba the Hutt’s sidekick / court jester is named Salacious Crumb. But the following question had no correct responses.
“How many sentences are in the last chapter of James Joyce’s “Ulysses”?
No one answered it correctly. The most important book in English literature and the most famous chapter and no one could recall how many sentences it contained. That just astounds me. I knew the answer not just because I wrote the question but because I read the book. And I didn’t even read it for a class.
(The answer is 8 by the way.)
Since today is Bloomsday I feel as if I might as well give some of my recollections on reading James Joyce and what his works mean to me. Now I’ll be honest, he isn’t one of the easiest writers to grow accustomed to. I think it took me nearly ten years to read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. It was the ultimate challenge for me. I just could not make it through this one section. But I’m glad I did.
The earliest place to start is his short story collection of Dubliners and specifically his masterpiece The Dead. If you can only bring yourself to read one of his stories choose this one. It is a snapshot of life in Dublin and of those moments of self-doubt and self-awareness that plague us all. There is also a funny drunk guy, which is a nice addition, and an ending that has stayed with me to this day. And I’ve stood where Michael Furey stood in Galway, gazing up at the window of his true love.
Maybe that is what I can use as an example of what Joyce means to me. I’ve traveled Ireland to just stand in the places where his stories occur. I know that sounds strange and it probably is. It just felt important to me to be where these characters theoretically stood. It helped to make the works more real and after spending time with the characters they were real people to me. I want to walk where Bloom walked and stand where Stephen Daedalus, maybe my favorite name in all of literature, stood.
There is an immense power to Joyce’s writing but it is a hidden one. People tend to be scared off either by the size or the nature of his work. They try to start with Finnegan’s Wake, a book where if you read three pages a week and understand them you are doing a good job. Or they see the size of Ulysses and begin to flinch. But that isn’t where the power is hidden. It is in the words and the poetry and the little flourishes that catch your eye. You truly can’t experience everything on the first read. Even a story like The Dead, which I have read numerous times, still catches me by surprise.
Yes, I’m a bit of a book geek. Joyce is not an easy read. I’m not sure if you would even call it a fun read. But it is an enlightening read. One can’t find genius without putting in a little effort. Read Joyce and you will learn about what it is like to be human. To see how flawed we all are. And to learn that every person is their own epic story. It’s an amazing thing.
So last week I was allowed to write all of the categories for trivia. It’s a long story, and yes I could have probably have publicized the game here, but for now I want to raise to attention one of the few questions that I asked that no one answered correctly. Now to put this in context, three teams knew that Jabba the Hutt’s sidekick / court jester is named Salacious Crumb. But the following question had no correct responses.
“How many sentences are in the last chapter of James Joyce’s “Ulysses”?
No one answered it correctly. The most important book in English literature and the most famous chapter and no one could recall how many sentences it contained. That just astounds me. I knew the answer not just because I wrote the question but because I read the book. And I didn’t even read it for a class.
(The answer is 8 by the way.)
Since today is Bloomsday I feel as if I might as well give some of my recollections on reading James Joyce and what his works mean to me. Now I’ll be honest, he isn’t one of the easiest writers to grow accustomed to. I think it took me nearly ten years to read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. It was the ultimate challenge for me. I just could not make it through this one section. But I’m glad I did.
The earliest place to start is his short story collection of Dubliners and specifically his masterpiece The Dead. If you can only bring yourself to read one of his stories choose this one. It is a snapshot of life in Dublin and of those moments of self-doubt and self-awareness that plague us all. There is also a funny drunk guy, which is a nice addition, and an ending that has stayed with me to this day. And I’ve stood where Michael Furey stood in Galway, gazing up at the window of his true love.
Maybe that is what I can use as an example of what Joyce means to me. I’ve traveled Ireland to just stand in the places where his stories occur. I know that sounds strange and it probably is. It just felt important to me to be where these characters theoretically stood. It helped to make the works more real and after spending time with the characters they were real people to me. I want to walk where Bloom walked and stand where Stephen Daedalus, maybe my favorite name in all of literature, stood.
There is an immense power to Joyce’s writing but it is a hidden one. People tend to be scared off either by the size or the nature of his work. They try to start with Finnegan’s Wake, a book where if you read three pages a week and understand them you are doing a good job. Or they see the size of Ulysses and begin to flinch. But that isn’t where the power is hidden. It is in the words and the poetry and the little flourishes that catch your eye. You truly can’t experience everything on the first read. Even a story like The Dead, which I have read numerous times, still catches me by surprise.
Yes, I’m a bit of a book geek. Joyce is not an easy read. I’m not sure if you would even call it a fun read. But it is an enlightening read. One can’t find genius without putting in a little effort. Read Joyce and you will learn about what it is like to be human. To see how flawed we all are. And to learn that every person is their own epic story. It’s an amazing thing.
1 comment:
I read a lot of books, and I can't tell you how many sentences are in any chapter - - not the first one, not the last one - - of any book I have ever read.
IF someone in your trivia group had read Ulysses, what makes you think they would have remembered that the last chapter had 8 sentences? If it was something memorable like one sentence, that might be different. But 8? I don't remember how many sentences I read in the newspaper this morning, let alone a book I read a long time ago.
Tough question. Trivia? More like trivial.
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