John’s Comments (group member since Mar 20, 2018)

John’s comments from the Spring Is in Bloom: Ulysses at the Wild Detectives group.

But of course what is “real” in the book is what Joyce thinks is real, so it’s of limited use trying to draw comparisons with what we see as “real”. ;-)

IMO, so far the easiest weekly reading. He does break into lists a few times, but it’s not too bad. It’s good to keep in mind that Stephen has been drinking absinthe, at the time well noted for its hallucinogenic properties (now thought to have been exaggerated).

I'm not taking the time to make all the connections. At some point I may go back and look (I have an entire book of annotations for the text, and it appears to cover nearly everything) at some point. For now, I think that doing that interferes with my experience of reading the book. I feel like I need to pay fairly close attention to the text on the page.

I might be interested to read how each episode is connected to the Odyssey before I read each one, but it doesn't seem critical.

The attendance was pretty good - I counted about thirty people at one point. Not sure how many are serious, but I think we’re off to a great start.

For those who would like some Dublin atmosphere to go along with the read, here are some links:

https://www.bookstr.com/follow-james-...

https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/...

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.28846... (The tower itself)