re-/reading ULYSSES

[This is in-person, but I may be adding an online alternative if demand warrants; please sign up here, and we will work out the details as the date approaches.]

Considered by many readers (not just scholars) to be the single greatest work of literature in the English language, Ulysses deserves to be read - or perhaps I should say - YOU owe it to yourself to read this!

But Ulysses is a challenge in multiple ways -

• it's lengthy (600+ pages in my edition)
• it's culturally specific to a time and place (that no one alive today is familiar with)
• it's not just erudite but often obscure
• it's stylistically challenging

These have contributed to its reputation today as a work that borders on the unreadable (without a semester-long seminar on just this novel or a PhD in literature).

But it's also funny, clever, poetic, memorable, and touching.

We're here to help you! Here's the plan:

• you can read this ANY WAY you want; I personally read a chapter naively (without looking up references, notes, etc), and then skim the annotations
• beginning in June, I will be hosting a weekly brief online meetup to talk about what we're read and what we will be reading
• my schedule is to read one chapter a week
• feel free to drop in and out of the weekly meetups as you like

The first five chapters are all relatively short (though you may need to skim chapter 3), so you can totally do this!

This 6 minute video intro (youtube: "Why should you read James Joyce's "Ulysses"? - Sam Slote") provides a good overview.

Stephen Fry (2 minutes) on why Ulysses is his favorite book.

And a review (2 min) explaining why "your Taylor Swift knowledge" won't likely help you.

The last half of the last paragraph of the final episode (7 min audio only) - Molly Bloom in bed contemplating her life (this is Marcella Riordan from the Norton reading available on Amazon & Audible).

This is a nice overview of Joyce's life & Ulysses (15 min).

Finally, a knowledge of Ulysses makes this funnier.

Selected resources:

• text online with annotations: https://m.joyceproject.com/1
• Ulysses guide https://www.ulyssesguide.com/ (in book form: The Guide to James Joyce’s Ulysses – Patrick Hastings)
• audio book online - RTE: https://www.rte.ie/radio/podcasts/series/32198-ulysses-podcast
• Ulysses Unbound – Terrence Killeen (2022 edition); short summary, commentary, notes on every episode
• Amazon / Audible: https://a.co/d/077P6rKd Norton & Riordan reading
• The New Bloomsday Book 3e - https://a.co/d/0gi1FerH - a classic work of page-by-page commentary; but both more academic & opinionated
• The original readers' guide - James Joyce's Ulysses: A Study
  by Stuart Gilbert - still readable & useful.

You do not need to attend any of the weekly sessions to come to this meetup - see you in October!