For a non-native English speaker, is it a shame that I can't understand almost 90% of Ulysses?

For a non-native English speaker, is it a shame that I can't understand almost 90% of Ulysses?

I thought my English was good enough, am I wrong? Or should I just drop it and come back to me later? It feels pointless to keep reading it when I have no idea what's going on.

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joyceproject.com/
modernism.research.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/Category:James_Joyce
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The whole book's a mess. Don't waste your time reading a meme.

keep reading, it will all make sense at the end

I'm a non-native English speaker as well and i think i'll buy the translated version of Ulysses because i'm afraid i'll not understand it.

This fucking guy.

Have you read other books in english?
How were your experiences back then?

Have you actually tried first? As a native French speaker there was very little I had to look up, language-wise.

I started Dubliners and i'm doing fine but a friend of mine showed me a few pics of the first pages of Ulysses and i couldn't understand a thing, a lot of words i've never seen before.

But I meant apart from Joyce and all. Which language do you usually read in? Your native?

I'm curious because as a native spanish who can understand english pretty good (i'd say) I often find myself on the dilemma of which language to read on when reading books.

For example, recently I have started reading the english translation of Clarice Lispector's last novel instead of the spanish translation. I feel it's better translated in the english version, idk

As far as Joyce goes (and personal troubles apart) : i'd say his writing in general is pretty weird because he was trying to more or less come up with a language of his own rather than writing in english, so lots of references are made up words or combinations of words, etc. so in translations they might fix some stuff but you won't get it anyways in the sense that it's weird and hard even for native speakers...

I haven't read it, I started to read it a few years ago and set it aside to come back to it.
The fact that the prose is so unusual, even to a very experienced reader makes it very meme worthy for people, these people knowing themselves that they can't decipher it fluidly and completely at first read. It's a tough book to conquer but I've heard is worth it.

I've started reading it last year and dropped it at chapter 3. This year I've returned to it and read it completely. It took me 17 days (one chapter per day, save for the first day where I've read two chapters + analysing the read chapter). It was time consuming, because not only does it take time to read a chapter, but also to decipher it (I remember spending a long amount of time checking out the locations near which the carriage from chapter 6 passed by, for example). It's ultimately an extremely rewarding experience, I recommend you give the book another try.
joyceproject.com/
modernism.research.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/Category:James_Joyce
These are useful links, especially the first one, which has lots of useful annotations which can help you understand the book. You can also use google to find adequate maps, or certain other analyses of chapters, you can never be short of those.

Read more books wrote in the Victorian Era and you'll expand your vocabulary

Dude, you should read Clarice in portuguese, being a spanish speaker...

As a brazillian i always try to read latino authors in spanish, it's realy easy...

Best advice I can give everyone reading Ulysses for the first time is to read the plot summary of the chapter on wikipedia before reading each one. Once you know the gist of what is happening the book is immensely easier, and it's sort of a plotless novel so spoilers don't matter.

>i'd say his writing in general is pretty weird because he was trying to more or less come up with a language of his own rather than writing in english, so lots of references are made up words or combinations of words, etc. so in translations they might fix some stuff but you won't get it anyways in the sense that it's weird and hard even for native speakers...
Ulysses is mostly written in stream of consciousness. So it's fragmentary, but not unnatural or weird to read for the most part (although some sections are quite hard for native speakers).

Is this a joke

No, why would you think it is?

This guy's got it

Good advice.
Works for Shakespeare as well.

lame, better read the summaries/notes after each chapter while coming back to the key events.

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