For some odd reason I appear to be catching up with myself at the moment. I am knitting things I queued years ago and I am reading a book I have been meaning to read for at least ten or twelve years: James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Once upon a time I sort-of specialised in Modernist literature – early 20th century experimental literature, if you like, which broke away from realist modes of expression. I mainly focused on Modernist poetry (I had major problems with prose at the time and abandoned fiction for several years – it’s a long and dull story why) so I have big gaps where you might expect otherwise. Hardly any Virginia Woolf, very little James Joyce, just a smattering of DH Lawrence and no Djuna Barnes or Marcel Proust. I have been playing catch up ever since I rediscovered prose.
So far I am really enjoying Ulysses. I used to be slightly frightened of the novel – it is the big mythical beast of 20th century English-language literature after all – but I am relaxing into it in a most enjoyable way. A not-so-small part of me is itching to sit with a concordance and jot down marginalia as I slowly work my way through the book, but I am mostly just enjoying the reading experience. It is a more immediate way of reading the book and while I know I am missing layers of meaning, I like this informal way of reading. Because I was trained to read in a methodical, almost-clinical manner I am sometimes struggling to connect with some books, and I really enjoy when I can lose myself in a book.
(I did put an exclamation mark next to the bit which I’m convinced Ezra Pound “borrowed” for his Cantos. You know, just for old time’s sake.)
Wholly unrelated, but then again: The Best & Worst Job Prospects in the Urban Fantasy Economy for 2011. Years ago I kept borrowing books from friends hoping that I could get into genre reading – specifically urban fantasy, supernatural romance and Celtic fantasy (the genres most popular with my friends) – but I struggled to get past the clunky writing. I still remember reading Laurell K. Hamilton’s Guilty Pleasures (which came highly recommended to me) and being unable to get past the sentence: “He laughed bitterly, like shattered glass”. When I learned that Guilty Pleasures were supposed to be the best book Hamilton has ever written, I twigged that I should probably just go about reading the kind of books I like and stop trying to emulate others’ reading patterns.
I continue to be wary about reading recommendations, but Five Books looks useful: “Every day an eminent writer, thinker, commentator, politician, academic chooses five books on their specialist subject.” I thought these looked intriguing: Sara Maitland on Silence, James Meek on The Death of Empires, Rebecca Goldstein on Reason and Its Limitations and Thomas Keneally on Russia.
I’m a total Modernist Miss. I love those guys. Except DH Lawrence. I do not care for him.
I must tell you about the time I walked the route Bloom takes in Ulysses some time.
Oh yes, I am a wow at parties, thank you for asking :)
The two-volume copy of Ulysses I borrowed from my mum is still just standing there on the shelf… I’ll get there someday…
Which bit is that? (re Ulysses and Pound … I recently started reading a bit of Pound again, just for old times sake *grin*)
And yeah, genre fiction … as with all definitions things get very blurry really quickly, so maybe you can find some bright spots there yet ;) What is considered genre is, as everybody knows, always moving, and who is considered genre as well. And, its being more and more absorbed into the mainstream and the “accepted as good reading/art/whatever”. Just look at China Mieville or Cory Doctorow … hell, a Frank Frazetta (the guy who did the iconic Conan pictures) painting just fetched 1,7 mill. dollars at an auction.
Ah, this is an old conversation isn’t it? I’ll stop rehearsing old stuff now :D
@Mooncalf: I’m a barrel of laughs too ;) “I’m really into early 20th C avant-garde graphic art .. and Star Wars.”
@Birgitte: In translation or not? It’s one of those books (alongside Tristram Shandy) that I feel vaguely guilty about having begun but not finished. So this time I’ll finish.
@Darth: Canto II. The bits about the seals. To me, you’ve always had a edgy taste in genre fiction and if you were to recommend an author, I’d be more likely to pick up the book than not. Besides, you were not the one who lend me the Anita Blake books .. ;)
I’ve read some China Mieville and liked it. D. is absolutely into his stuff now and was thrilled when Mieville answered his question in a Q&A. Would you really call him mainstream? Who would you say is still outside the mainstream?
It’s funny how we can become daunted by a BOOK, isn’t it! I was almost afraid to read Moby Dick, but once I began reading it I couldn’t stop. And then I couldn’t read anything else for a while, because it was just so amazing and whole. My favorite line in all of English literature comes from Ulysses: the heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit. I’m glad you’re enjoying it as a reader, even if the old critic requires an occasional exclamation point in the margin. :) My old academic self does my own version of that.
Good luck with Ulysses – I only got halfway through it (I liked it though).
Ulysses is on my shelf as well, a very nice paperback edition… I was an English lit student not so long ago as well, so I know well the little giggle and thrill that comes with putting an exclamation point next to a reference I recognize! :) Tristram Shandy I tried once, and never got past 20 pages, though my professors swore it was a masterpiece… About Ulysses I’m not sure if I should go for an annotated version or not, but there is one piece of work which I am waiting to read until I have the proper time to devote to it and follow up every annotation – Paradise Lost. I read a few excerpts (with annotations) in university and it blew my mind!