Is "The Dead" by James Joyce the greatest work of literature ever composed?

You're trying way too hard. Im sorry you didn't like the story and expected something more, but the metaphor you suggest is fucking retarded.

No it's not. Have you even read the book? Do you know anything about James Joyce or ireland or ireland at the time of its writing? Dont be a dumb cunt, a horse walking around Oliver Cromwell the man who enslaved ireland (as some people would put it) despite being let free is a painfully obvious metaphor

so this is the power of autism

You make an intriguing (albeit crude) point.

Apologies. It's king William

Rolled the irish in the battle of the boyne and enstilled an English rule. This as well as what was going on at the time with ireland, just gained its independence, albeit not exactly. It's whole political mess, "the dead" perhaps being the Irish after the English rule

Apologies for being crude

The statue is of William III

The man who defeated the Irish king and ruled ireland

the autist is right

dubliners is a novel.

Which burgers probably fail to realise a ubiquitous part of irish cultural identify was skewed and off put for centuries, to which it was only finding its feet at the time of writing

This is one of the most autistic things I have ever read. Fucking ignorant burgers man.

Even though what you said was barely readable, your interpretation makes perfect sense and I'm not sure why you're being rejected

>The snow coming down is ireland almost becoming frozen, it's disparity, etc. Etc.
this is where you try too hard to find meaning
>But if you disagree youve missed the entire point of the book
>No. The dead isnt a short story honestly. By itself in means slim
Did you seriously not get much from The Dead aside from this shabby metaphor. While I do agree the statue was very deliberately placed, but it has more to do with the generational gap and Gabriel, representing the youth, being called a west briton. If you think that metaphor is what keeps The Dead from being a "glorified romance novel" then you fail to connect with this work in any emotional way.

>trying too hard

Lmfao if you can't interpret symbolism, and take everything from a book at face value, then you're literally only getting half the experience intended and shouldn't be wasting your time with something you obviously don't care about.

are you kidding? have you read ulysses? you think joyce WOULDN'T cap it off with a love story?

Are you absolutely retarded? The end of The Dead was taken from Joyce's real life and was very personal to him. The fact that Michael Bodkin (Furey) died for Nora was something that plagued him his entire life, because he felt that he would never be able to love Nora in the same way that Michael did. I think it's YOU that missed the entire point of the book. The Dead is an absolutely sublime love story; I genuinely cried during the last few pages. Jesus christ you're autistic man.

Go back to the Greeks.

best thread on Veeky Forums atm

This discussion isn't over yet.

Dubliners is fairly conventional, 19th century style realism. Joyce becomes a symbolist in Ulysses

An encounter, The araby market, and The Dead, are the stories from dubliners that haunt me the most.

The dead particularly, because I feel that I'll never be able to love a woman as much to die for her.

But also the first part, where your own culture ostracizes you because you assimilated to another culture. I'm a white washed mexican in a sea of chunties.

Oh dearie dearie me. Joyce thought there was great meaning and beauty in a little fat man having a shit. He's writing to affirm the lives and experiences of banal workaday Dubliners. This is modernism.

>By itself in means slim, if taken away separately from Dubliners the whole metaphor of the horse circling around Cromwell or whoever it is and then it snowing means slim. Which burgers probably fail to realise a ubiquitous part of irish cultural identify was skewed and off put for centuries, to which it was only finding its feet at the time of writing

That sounds potentially quite interesting; can you unpack it a bit, or restate it with greater clarity?

I love Dubliners as a whole, but have never really developed a special love for The Dead, in the way I have for A Painful Case or A Little Cloud or the story that ends with the man crying "Daybreak!"

am I the only one who thinks Joyce looks fuckin hot in this pic

>By itself in means slim
This is where he's just wrong. Yes the statue is significant, but does the story rely on that symbolism? of course not.
Also A Little Cloud is the second best story
It's a great picture

this has been discussed several times

no

Punished Joyce
A man who will never love his wife as much as the boy who died for her

Who'd win in a fight, jackie chan in a ladder factory , or james joyce.
Jackie has an ass full of farts

Oh no, I meant 'crude' as in a bit slipshod (but hey, it's /lit, haha...).

I really don't know much about Irish history apart from what I've read in Joyce, and The Dead I always thought to be very beautiful. It's been some time since I read Dubliners, perhaps I ought to re-read it soon. The image of the horse-drawn carriage moving round and round the statue hadn't stood out to me before you brought it up here, and, as far as I can tell, your interpretation certainly is congruent with what Joyce appears to have thought to be the Irish condition of his day.

why do Americans read james joyce?
this man, in my country, he is nothing

If your country is Ireland, that he is nothing there should not be surprising, considering Joyce wasn't very fond of the place.

If your country is anywhere else, then the reception is about identical to any other country: Joyce is nothing everywhere.