I've just submitted my master's, and want to read either of these over the holidays. Which one...

I've just submitted my master's, and want to read either of these over the holidays. Which one? I know Ulysses looks worn, i've had it for ages.

I've read both Dubliners and Portrait by Joyce, and Hideous Men by Wallace.

Have you read the Odyssey?

Ive read all of Infinite Jest and anout 3/4 of Ulysses. Infinite Jest is very enjoyable, I think it'd be more fun for you. One of my favorite books. Ulysses is pratically incomprehensible at some (if not most) parts. That's just me though.

Even though I really did not comprehend a lot of Ulysses, I enjoyed it more. The experience after having read it is very enjoyable, I didn't feel that I got much out of it while reading it, but afterwards it was really rewarding. Reading english literature after that will rarely feel the same

Nope, not in its entirety.

>just submitted my masters

You dont have any more 'holidays'

read ulysses OP. nothing can compare to it.

>Infinite Jest more enjoyable

>Enjoyed Ulysses more

I'm back to start :/

Hah, true, but I look for jobs and read at the same time!

I've read both, IJ was indeed enjoyable, but if you had to choose between the 2, ulysses is the way to go, it is simply amazing, reading it is an experience like nothing I've felt reading another book before. In fact, I liked so much, I read dubliners, portrait and ulysses before, and in the past couple of weeks I've read literally all works attributed to joyce up to ulysses (chamber music, dubliners, stephen hero, portrait, giacomo joyce, exiles), and next week I will start re-reading ulysses, and finish with pomes penyeach, finns hotel and finnegans wake.

its a great book, and for me, much more enjoyable (from the first to last page) than IJ (which only gets really good drom page 500 on)

I would have to say IJ is enjoyable, sure, but it is so incredibly long, and a lot of it also gets pretty dull. Another reason to pick Ulysses, I guess

read Infinite Jest
as a white college educated male it will do more for you than Ulysses will at this time

Ulysses is a greater "work of art" but will be much less comprehensible to you without annotation or secondary literature

IJ will be something you will actively seek out to read on a day by day basis (once you get past the first 100 pages or so), whereas Ulysses will be a hard push all the way through

IJ will be a much better read for the holidays

what did you do your master's in?

Thought that was Infinite Jest on a Nintendo DS from the thumbnail.

for you ulysses may have been a hard push, for me and many other people, it was not.

>much less comprehensible to you without annotation or secondary literature
this hardly even matter, it is immensely enjoyable reading the text alone, and it has much more value than IJ. Not to mention if OP never had any modernism, he will be lost in the "devices" used by dfw, and he may not be able to go through the first 100~300 pages which are, probably intentionally, a complete mess.

ulysses is also a book that, if you enjoyed it, it will get better each time you re-read it, and trust me, if you liked it, you will want to re-read it, so you may regret waiting too long to read it, and I think its the opposite, having more time on holiday to focus on it is way better, whereas IJ is a book that can be read whenever

did you just assume i'm a white male???? well, you're not wrong...
history and pol. science. yeah yeah, it's useless, but i'm norwegian and the climate is somewhat different here. not gonna pursue work academically, just find a comfortable desk job as a adviser or consultant i guess

it's almost 50/50 in this thread with ulysses or IJ now. wow, doesn't make it easier :/

I've read both. Jest is certainly not as difficult, but equally enjoyable and most likely more "fun" for most readers. And if you aren't familiar with Odyssey and Hamlet IJ is the obvious answer.

mate, people made their points about each book, but we can't choose for you. Read 5 pages of each, if you can't decide, read more 5. And more 5. Keep reading the one you enjoyed more. If you have read 15 pages of each and still can't decide, then I don't know what to tell you, 10 pages should be more than enough to see if you like a book or not

Fair enough.

I advocate for ulysses, but I've enjoyed both, just a piece of advice

>IJ
don't give up before page 400, it is intentionally messy and you won't understand whats going on. After that, characters will have more depth and history will develop better, after page 500, it is really, really good.

>ulysses
don't worry about getting references, if you ever do it, do it after the 2nd, 3rd reading, on the first, just sit on the window and enjoy the ride, don't take it too seriously.

see
>"The pity is the public will demand and find a moral in my book — or worse they may take it in some more serious way, and on the honor of a gentleman, there is not one single serious line in it."

you are good with either books.

If you haven't read the Odyssey then don't read Ulysses, you probably won't "get it"
If you have the time to read both the Odyssey and Ulysses then you definitely should because Ulysses is 10 times more acclaimed and well known than Infinite Jest.

>hurrdurr maybe Ulysses was hard for YOU but for me and many others it was not

I am literally irish and you're a fucking liar
you understood maybe 60% of the text on the first read through
yeah sure its fine on rereads but IJ is clean sailing from the very get go

OP there are posters in this thread spamming Ulysses for troll purposes

read infinite jest its much more enjoyable, nowhere near as dated, much more relevant and not as pretentiously hoisted around by milquetoasts with dinner party kitsch tastes

you will have fond memories of IJ and may even happily discuss it with people you meet, you will never have that with Ulysses as much as tryhards will pretend otherwise

could you please attach a screenshot pointing out where I said it was hard for you and not for me? I never said that, little monkey. What you said is that reading ulysses, for your, was a hard push. I understand 'hard push' as it as hard to get through it. For me it wasn't. For me it was a delight to read every single page of it, and when you enjoy something, it is easy to do this thing.

I never claimed to have understood X% as you pointed out, I never said for me it was easy to understand all of its complexities, quite the opposite, I said that EVEN not understanding 100% of it, it is still quite fucking enjoyable.

>I am literally irish and you're a fucking liar
because of this you are instantly some sort of expert on joyce and can tell that people are lying, even though you put the lies on my mouth yourself, huh?

fuck off back to r eddit faggot

you seem really upset
yep

Ulyssesfags are trolling you OP