/ssrg/ Short Story Reading Group: Araby

I'll read it later before I go to bed.

Me, I recalled those long hours in sixth grade waiting for my parents to go to my grandma's across town so I can watch pay per view German softcore porn on tv (early 90s) and have the most glorious, voluptuous orgasms I have ever had. My sex life has been but a pale shadow of my early teens fap life.

>he isnt an expert in early 20th century irish numismatics

baka senpai desu, never gonna make it

he used up most of his money on transit and cant afford anything

I think the abrupt ending achieves that feeling quite well. There's no chance to recover. The relatively slow and descriptive early part gives way to the bare bones final section at araby where everything wonderful and (to us) nostalgic is stripped away. Then it's over. The anxiety and disappointment is left untouched and we're left to keep feeling it long after we finish the story.

This story had a profound effect upon me in my youth.

It was as though Joyce was calling to me himself and reminding me of all my childhood memories.

Makes me sad that it doesn't remind me of my youth at all.

Such is a childhood of videogames.

This really does capture how the first dates in youth are completely the most disappointing experience. But isn't all "coming of age stories accepting expectation vs reality?

This was admittedly my first exposure to Joyce, but damn I have to say, this really affected me. Harkens back to those days in a young boy's life, when he was a romantic and shouldn't have been.

How did you not understand the turn regarding Mangan's sister? It's a fairly major part of the story?

.... what?

The girl that the main character is attracted to... Initially in image she appears like the Virgin Mary to him, but in the end he realizes she has manipulated him into spending money on her. When he hears the young woman at the bazaar talking about sex with the two men he realizes that he's vainly projected this image of a maiden on Mangan's sister, because he wanted to paint himself as the hero.

Thanks for the explanation. What makes you think they were talking about sex?

Also, did he no longer have enough money to buy anything?

He had very little money and the shops were closed/closing. Thus the darkness.

If you look at the dialogue between the two 'gentlemen' and the young 'lady' (terms which I think are meant to be quite ironic) before the narrator arrives, it is clear they are speaking of a subject which the woman is acting embarrassed about. Also worthy of note that the two men are sticking around at a shop stall which is soon to close, and they are not buying anything.

Also to add further, the theme of adults being secretly lusty and hiding from the children appears in other details in the story. For example, the priest who used to live in the narrator's house owned a copy of the Memoirs of Vidocq. This book is about a police commissioner who is also a thief, thus the deception, and also contains depictions of Vidocq's sexual adventures. It's an unusual book for a priest to own.

kek you're full of it my man.

fuck me is this true? Was Joyce trying to portay all this? or are you just letting your imagination run wild?

Either way any other short stories / novels about guys being infatuated with perfect girls that makes the reader fall for the girl too?

Why would he mention the book if it had no meaning behind it, you nignog?

rude, i didnt bother googling the book as i didnt know it so was gonna rely on your explanation as its late & i have a 9am :(

>rude
No, I love you.

i mean he name dropped like 3 books and a bunch of other things in the short story i was not going researching all of them, i just liked the short story for what it was

Nothing wrong with superficially liking a story, I'm a retard and consume pretty much everything I read superficially.

aha ill try harder next story i promise

Lol, isn't me. Interestingly enough, all 3 of those books have relevance to the meaning of the story when you look into them. Joyce really doesn't put anything in without meaning, and it's fantastic.

Portrait of the Artist does this in some parts. I can't think of any others off the top of my head.

Honestly, the only piece of Joyce I actually finished, and its amazing.

Especially when he describes how the light silhouettes the shape of her ass. At the end he goes to the market? and its like empty and some people are having conversation in the back. i didn't really get it. His words are old school and I'm like 2017 trying to figure out my 2k camera knawm saying my nigga
trap

hell yes my nigger, I definitely see where you're coming from.

last sentence was spoopy

Reminds me of when I try to do something nice for someone and it turns into an absolute fucking chore that I soon come to regret.

>trying to figure out my 2k camera knawm saying my nigga

I had a childhood of video games and I felt this like a kick in the gut. Had a childhood of books as well. Maybe it was the bullying that had me romanticize an ideal of a girl. I had my illusions shattered so completely that I hated women for a few years. I started to use them when I was bored or as a means more than anything. The last line made me connect the most.

Learning that girls can domineer and manipulate better than some men is harsh. I'll clarify that my experience was not so simple as rejection or even a prank. That's what I took from it. Having your romanticized vision torn up before you.

In short stories, a good author will seldom have a useless detail. I like short stories for that reason. You can find a layer of subtext under a name drop. It's been a while since I've read it, but "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is a fun read concerning the little allusions.

Why did he go to Araby alone? Why even offer?

thnks for rec i want something else that made me feel the way i felt reading this

This is the first Joyce I have read. His style captivates me in his adroit evocation of vivid imagery, and faintly reminded me of this one time when I once rushed to a college an hour away just to get a glimpse of this girl whom I fancied in a paroxysm of autism. I should pick up Dubliners some time soon.

How is he so fucking good at capturing that magical fanatic longing that one feels from time to time?

>23 posters
Power of Joyce. OP, this group might make it after all.

>OP, this group might make it after all.
Thanks. I am really glad to see the group turn around. I guess I need to pick stories I think Veeky Forums will like instead of following the book.

Despite all the bickering, the book was actually working in that we had a dedicated group following; but if I want to attract a wide new audience each week, the readings need to be more carefully selected to attract the curious yet cautious Veeky Forums.

The thing I like most about the story is how it depicts a love that is very genuine and authentic and yet completely relying on an illusion that is ultimately destroyed by the falling of the coins and the dumb chat in the end. I think most people have experienced a love like this at least once in their life and are able to identify with the main character.

In a certain way, "superficial", purely emotional reading without looking for meaning etc. can be much more fulfilling (and in a sense "deeper") than a more analytical view. That's why even great complex lit always works also on a purely emotional level, Joyce is probably a prime example of this.

I don't know, choosing something like Araby which most people have already read (or that at least has name recognition because of Joyce) is bound to get a lot of responses. I'd enjoy some lesser known stuff mixed in at least. Also more contemporary stuff, but that's harder because of copyright and so on.

I hope I'll catch the Hunger Artist thread though, one of my fav stories by Kafka.

Order Dubliners like ten days ago, still hasn't come in.

The wait continues.

innocent, ignorant hope. The confused sense of embarrassment is the realization of being shortsighted.

CAN ANYONE PLEASE EXPLAIN THE BICYCLE PUMP? THANKS.

I just read "An Encounter" (having already read Araby) using spreeder at 400 wpm. I think I understood it pretty well, though when I read about it afterword I totally missed the implication that the old man masturbated. Is spreeder good or a meme?

The snake of modernity in the garden of eden

>understood it pretty well
>misses the crux
Kids these days. I don't even want to know what "spreeder" is, I'm convinced it's just as retarded as the name implies.

It's a program that flashes words one after another so you don't have to move your eyes. I'm sorry I'm not psychic, the only implication is when Mahony says "Look what he's doing" then "He's a queer old josser" (I was unfamiliar with the word josser). None of those things would make me jump to the conclusion that he was wanking it.

I've read Dubliners some years ago and i really liked it, but it is a collection of short stories that really work better as a whole than individually.

The whole 'regionalism' of his stories, the (obvious) focus on the Dublin people are really fascinating to me, because i love 'regionalist' literature from my own country (Brasil)...

If you liked Arbys, i strongly recommend reading the whole collection.

did you not know reading is all about reading as many books as you can? Imagine actually thinking about the ideas being presented to you!

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