Decide to engage literary giant, James Joyce

>Decide to engage literary giant, James Joyce
>Begin with one of his less dense works
>I buy a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
>I open to the first page to begin my journey in to the world of great literature
>Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo

>mfw I got memed

Who are you quoting?

It's a parody of dickens

Start with Duliners plebgot.

it's the author experiencing himself as a very young man you dip.

also the urinal scene is the best prose in that book and probably ever written by joyce

>moocow

As opposed to what? A woofcow? A tweetcow?

Pretty much this, OP. Not sure what your problem is

...

Memes aside, Joyce will throw you for a loop if you go into his books expecting them to be dour, serious affairs just because they're old and have a reputation for being difficult.

senpai I was criticizing Joyce's redundancy

It's how mothers tell stories to little boys, I guess.

The very first line of Portrait, is what that is.

I have yet to read it, but I might pick it up soon.

It's not your grandmother's type of novel that's for sure!!

I just started reading Portrait today. I love it.

lol wow this is a really good post, nice thread OP

see and

literally this

imo the opening of Portrait is like the opening of Kieslowski's Double Life of Veronique

the original Portrait (the one he burned) was better though

It's the (very) young artist synthesizing reality with musical language turd ball

Yeah, OP. it's like Beethoven

The language not only conveys the perception of a child, it also contains childish expressions. Yet it is not Stephen's language, norr is Stephen the narrator in this passage. For one thing, a baby who still wetsbthe bed (see next paragraph in the novel) is incapable of formulating complete sentences like those quoted by OP. For another in this passage Stephen is eferred to in the first person (he him), an unlikely procedure if he himself were the narrator of his story (although one could argue children often do this).

It was his father reading actually

You're better off with Dubliners if you've not read Joyce before.

But also that's a brilliant opening line: the book is a semi-autobiographical novel and the opening reflects on his childhood, even the innocent articulations he must have had as a child (hence "moocow"). It's a beautiful book but you should maybe prepare a little before reading it by reading Dubliners.

Exactly. As Stephen ages, the vocabulary used in the book expands and becomes more complex.

Stephen Hero, you mean? I can't speak for whether it was better or not since I've never read the fragmentary manuscript of it that New Directions published, but it did sound more ambitious than the version we did get and I think Portrait is Joyce's weakest work overall because he capitulated to his insecurity about being unpublished/unsuccessful too much with it by dumbing it down so it would be more appealing.

>stream of consciousness
>third person narration

What did he mean by this?

What did you meme by that?

If Stephen isn't the narrator, why does the third person narration follow his own intellectual level?

greentext is not only for quoting

>arse full of farts.

>decide to engage literary giant, virginia woolf
>download the waves
>open to the first page to begin my journey in to the world of great literature

>>‘I see a ring,’ said Bernard, ‘hanging above me. It quivers and hangs in a loop of light.’
>>‘I see a slab of pale yellow,’ said Susan, ‘spreading away until it meets a purple stripe.’
>>‘I hear a sound,’ said Rhoda, ‘cheep, chirp; cheep chirp; going up and down.’

mfw i got memed

>Decide to engage the literary giant, the Prophet Mohammad
>begin with his only work
>I borrow a Quran from my neighbor
>I open to the first verse of one of the greatest works ever written
>I begin with the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful All praise is to God, Lord of all the worlds Most Gracious, Most Merciful Master of the Day of Judgment You Alone do we worship and You Alone do we ask for help Guide us to the straight path The Path of those on whom You bestowed Your bounties Not the path of those who incurred Your wrath or those who went astray.

>mfw I got memed

How would reading dubliners help? It's more straightforward, but it's not like it's really related to portrait other than Joyce wrote them both

Who are you posting?

>It's more straightforward,
>Joyce wrote them both

Hmmmmmmmmmm, I wonder why you fucking retard?

...

I need to read this ASAP

Omnipotence of his own work.