I just finished reading Ulysses for the second time. Here is the definitive ranking of the best to worst episodes. If you disagree with me you are wrong.
>proteus so low >is made up for by laestrygonians being so high
Dominic Lewis
Have to say, this is a pretty bad ranking.
Christian Jackson
cute pic
Ayden Stewart
There's some good stuff in Proteus ("Ineluctable modality of the visible" ofc) but I think structurall overall it was a bad move to put such a hard chapter so early in the book. I have met so many people who I think would like Ulysses but got stuck on Proteus. Otherwise it would be higher. Also Stephen sucks compared to Bloom.
Laestrygonians is so good, I almost made it #1. I had forgotten how many of my favorite bits in the book were from that chapter until I reread it.
Matthew Allen
post yours and lets have an insanely autistic argument about the relative merits of chapters in the best novel ever written
David James
>Hades and Telemachus that low >Oxen of the Sun dead last jeez
Nathaniel Bell
calling out everyone who should have noticed that I put "Hades" twice instead of "Eumaeus" which should have been #16
Oxen of the Sun is unreadably bad. Geniuses fuck up sometimes
Nolan Hernandez
>Reading Ulysses twice >Getting Hades twice and forgetting Eumaeus Right.
Anyway, my ranking would be: 1. Sirens (this really was the best prose I have ever read) 2. Ithaca 3. Penelope 4. Wandering Rocks 5. Nausicaa 6. Cyclops 7. Circe 8. Laestrygonians 9. Aeolus 10. Telemachus 11. Calypso 12. Hades 13. Proteus 14. Nestor 15. Lotus Eaters 16. Oxen of the Sun 17. Scylla and Charybdis 18. Eumaeus (a very mediocre chapter, and including this between Circe and Ithaca only accentuates its mediocrity)
Adam Price
good ranking and I mostly agree and in the post before yours I realized that I had totally forgotten the extremely mediocre (INTENTIONALLY??) Eumaeus
Cameron Adams
It's really not that bad user, the first 1/3 or so is rough but after that it gets easier. Besides, the subject matter is literal banter. I found it pretty funny at times
Adam Lopez
where's the chapter with deaf pat? i always remember him being an information seller, but i read it while high as heck, so i may have hallucinated a bit. also, the blind stripling, do you recall an instance where one of the character mentions the blind stripling knowing their thoughts, that thinking is loud enough for the blind to hear, and that they use their sticks to make them drunk? i've looked for that for a long time. i loved the way Joyce played around with the senses.
Aaron Lopez
ty bby Looking back, I should have ranked Circe a bit higher. It really is some of the most original literature ever.
Damn, that all sounds familiar. But it's been months since I finished Big Man Joyce's Big U.
Samuel Campbell
i'm gonna be reading through it again soon, It's been nagging at me for quite a while.
Jordan Nguyen
any joyce reader who knows what the fuck i'm talking about with the blind stripling?
Kevin Garcia
I don't remember that specifically, but from what I recall the blind stripling is given the most attention in Hades. Though it's been a while so that might not be the episode you're looking for, and there is a chance you might've hallucinated the specific line you're thinking of.
Xavier Diaz
Might've been in Lestrygonians.
Ethan Sanders
>tfw i could have hallucinated Ulysses into a better book
Aaron Gonzalez
I remember him being in Wandering Rocks and Sirens but I can't remember what you're talking about. Could have been in Circe
Ian Harris
>Hades that low >Circe not number one.
What on earth are you doing?
Carson Thomas
The Oxen of the Sun is the best episode and you should fuck yourself.
That's real satyre.
It's the episode Ezra Pound called attention to when talking about the greatness of Ulysses.
It's the episode where Joyce showed how to truly absorb literature.
It's the episode where fuckers like you get lost and go cry to mamma.
If you didn't laugh at the description of the bee, you should cut your balls off.
Hunter Sullivan
>I have met so many people who I think would like Ulysses but got stuck on Proteus
It was a right move, then. Joyce shouldn't make his book accessible to morons like you.
>Also Stephen sucks compared to Bloom
People like you should never be allowed to get a book in their hands, you little fucking bitch.
Samuel Reyes
Am I the only one who doesn't think of books and specific chapters in competition with each other?
Jonathan Jones
Oh, sure you are. I bet no one else in the world thinks that way. Congratulations, user, you've been the first.
Jayden Collins
I didn't mean that literally. I was trying to suggest that it doesn't need to be that way
Connor Reyes
Did OP hurt your special snowflake feelings by giving your favorite chapter a low rank? fuck off kiddo
Hunter Nguyen
The stripling shows up in (I believe) Laestrygonians, Wandering Rocks, and Sirens (he's the piano tuner at the start).
Cooper Harris
>15. Hades
What the fuck are you doing?
Charles Rogers
I fucked up, Eumaeus should have been 15 and Hades should be 11. A relatively average chapter in the greatest novel ever written is still really good.
If you don't think Stephen sucks compared to Bloom, or at the very least that Stephen has a lot more to learn from Bloom than Bloom has from Stephen (despite Stephen's greater formal education), then I barely believe you've read the book and I certainly don't believe you understood it.
Yes you're the only one.
It encapsulates most of the problems with Ulysses in general, ie the desire to write an "impressive" piece of work rather than an enjoyable one. Most of Ulysses is extremely enjoyable anyway. Oxen of the Sun is, for the most part, not. There's some good stuff in it though.
Brandon Peterson
I don't really see why everyone is putting Sirens near the top. Definitely the worst chapter for me. The reliance on making phrases and sentences into musical "themes" is really overdone, and the musical "structure" of the chapter that Joyce attempts just doesn't add up to anything. Also, it's just not that interesting of a scene, just characters sitting in a bar and singing. It's not a terrible chapter overall, just an experiment whose execution isn't as interesting as its concept. The ending is funny though.
Grayson Green
I'm going to go read Ulysses right now, you guys make it seem like it isn't all that hard.
Eli Garcia
It's not too bad, user. If you have trouble with something post about it here and I think there are enough non-asshole genuine fans of the book that we'll try to help you out with it. Or maybe I'm overestimating how helpful Veeky Forums is, I don't come here that often.
I love the barmaids, especially the one who that horny dude gets to snap her garter. Really all the little character detail in that chapter is so wonderful, even beyond the formal musical structure stuff.