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Ulysses
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The Ulysses Reading Support Group
Hahaha...may incentive to finish :P
Episode 1, Telemachus:I've been bombarded with too much information by the lengthy introduction that I decided not to finish it and get a start on the novel's text. I was quite bored, mostly because I am expecting to get bored.
We read about the morning rituals of Stephen Dedalus, the protagonist of A Portrait whom I hate with such intensity. He eats breakfast with a cantankerous guy and a guy who annoys him. He thinks about his mother's recent death. He is asked of his theories on Hamlet. I haven't read Hamlet.
I've only read a digest of Odysseus. Edith Hamilton's. I barely remember it. Good grief, I think this will be a hard reading.
Holy S*$& this starts today, right?? Hahahaha...I kinda forgot about it :D Sya...mamaya pa ako makakapagbasa...BTW...I still haven't read the introduction hehehe.
I had a feeling that you were waiting for me to post something, haha, yun pala hindi ka pa nagstart. :D
Haha, actually I was looking forward to it during the Holy Week..then I forgot about it, and just remembered yesterday. I will read later when I get home and post something tonight.
April 10 naman ang start, yun lang ay I am no longer online during evenings, and I am a night reader so I read one night early.
Binasa ko yung buong chapter...alam ko naman ibig sabihin ng karamihan ng mga words...pero..bakit hindi ko naintindihan yung chapter? HAHAHAHA. WTF!?Dedalus watches Mulligan shaving, then eats breakfast with him and Haines. Remembering his dead mother and maybe feeling guilty that he didnt grant her last wish, or Mulligan making him feel guilty. They order milk from a woman...they take a walk to the ocean, where they meet some young men, talk about some bawdy women, and then later, go swimming? Or...Mulligan goes swimming...
Did they trick Stephen into giving them his keys (to his room) and money before leaving?
Who is the narrator, Stephen?
WHo is the usurper?
Episode 2, Nestor:Here's a novel that talks of Anti-semitism. Like I care about that. Forgive me, but I just can't understand why there's so much hatred toward the Jews. Should I blame myself or should I blame the absence of Jewish culture in this country?
There's also something about misogyny here. The contrast of Stephen's thoughts about his mother, and a mother's love in general, and the schoolmaster's prejudice against women is presented here. There's also some talk about history, about teaching and learning, and what else?
About saving money. I think I should start working seriously on that. I have paid my own way. Will I ever be able to say that, especially in this country where reciprocity, or debt of gratitude, is an unshakable virtue?
Episode 3, Proteus:
Gawd. Gawd. I have to admit that I largely depend on the dialogues to understand what's going on, but with the scarcity of talking in this part, I didn't get anything. I think I hear something melodious here and there, but I fail to catch what it's trying to say.
All I know is that Stephen is thinking of random things, looking at random things, and what else? Watching a dog smell the carcass of another dog, contemplating of going to the dentist, picking his nose, and looking at a passing ship.
So far, in the three hours of the novel, Stephen shaves, eats breakfast, goes to work at school, gets his salary from the schoolmaster, visits his uncle, stares off to the sea. This ends the first part of the novel, and there's nothing promising about it. Novels that deliberately make the text hard to understand just for the sake of being hard to understand do not garner my respect.
Hahaha, ang hirap pa nga minsan ma-identify kung ano ang dialogue eh. Wala namang quotations, meron lang yung dash before the start of a "dialogue" but then it runs in with thoughts and actions.....Oo nga...Joyce deliberately made this novel incomprehensible para daw it will take literature majors/professors a lifetime to decode it. Baliw.
Pati ang point of view ay nagshishift from third to first person. Ewan ko. I'm definitely not enjoying this. Buti at kaya ko namang magbasa ng other books aside from this. I'm just a monobookist by choice.Sabi dun sa introduction ko, to say that this book is a hard book is like saying that Mt. Everest is not possible to conquer. Well, there are a lot of other mountains to conquer! War and Peace is a mountain range, but I conquered it. Jeez!
Mt. Everest ha, more like Mt. Doom! (Lord of the Rings volcano where Frodo has to throw the ring into - para sa mga hindi geeks) hahaha.Sinasabayan ko rin ito ng Wolf Hall. Baka ma loka ako kung Ulysses lang ang babasahin ko for one month!
Word of the day: contransmagnificandjewbangtantiality!
Episode 4, Calypso:I like Leopold Bloom better than Stephen Dedalus. I usually like moody, depressing characters, but reading a difficult book makes me want to see something positive in it. And Bloom acts as that one who would also counterbalance the traits of Stephen.
The opening of Part II is more promising than that of Part I. Perhaps this is due to my hatred for A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Stephen is the protagonist there, and I think Ulysses picks up around two to five years after the events of the former novel.
Both Bloom and Stephen are eating breakfast, so I guess it is right to assume that this episode and the first episode occurred at the same time. Instead of the wife preparing the breakfast, Bloom does it all, even the shopping and picking of letters. And oh, I quite cringed at that part about Bloom defecating. Is it necessary to count the number of attempts to get the turd out of your bowels?
Will catch up on Episode 5, I fell asleep. I'm also trying to catch up on Jane Eyre, malapit na ang F2F eh.
Hahahaha. First time ko bisitahin itong thread ninyo, kasi nakita ko yong Pffft na yan that Veronica quoted doon sa Anniv thread.Ayaw kong mag-comment. Ayaw ko.
Hay nako...di ko rin natapos yang episode 5 kahapon. I could barely keep my eyes open through episode 4...pinilit ko lang talaga tapusin. Mamaya ko na lang babasahin yung ep 5 and ep 6 (the reading for today). Malamang eextend yan up to the weekend.Mejo mas matino nga konti (konti) lang ang first ep ng Part II, starring Leopold Bloom. Ganon pa rin naman ang style, hindi lang sya ganon ka incomprehensible hehe. At least it's mostly in English!
KD: Bakit, ano ba icocomment mo? Mag comment ka na....
Ayaw ko. Sigurado akong co-contrahin ni Angus ang sasabihin ko hahahaha.
Kuya, parang hindi na nga kumpleto ang araw ko kapag hindi tayo nagkontrahan eh, hahaha. Itong librong ito, parang Tropic of Cancer siya sa akin.
Fishing!!!!!Ayaw kong mag-comment hahahaha.
I think you like this HEAP OF DUNG. Ito na ang pinakanakakatamad na reading buddy ko.
Bawal mag comment ang hindi nagbasa or nakatapos nito :P
Episode 5, Lotus Eaters:I sort of appreciated that part where Bloom is nursing thoughts of his penpal while inside the church. That seems to me yet another proof of religion as an opium, either an addictive or mind-numbing substance. Or both. I am not too sure if the church service is for the funeral of poor Dignam. Everyone seems to call him that, and what is so poor about him? Is he literally poor or is he poor because he's already robbed of his earthly existence?
Another thing that I liked is the flower language, where parts of the letter that Bloom received from his penpal are replaced with names of flowers. The type of flower that you give someone speaks a lot of your motives, whether intentionally or not. I just don't know yet what the pressed dried flower, smelling nothing, symbolizes. Probably a relationship that would never prosper?
Bloom and his wife are in a kind of infidelity game. The husband is entertaining an unseen penpal while the wife is, or was, flirting with her manager of sorts. That I only gathered from the introduction of my edition.
H: Kaya nga hahahaha.
haaay...ano ba 'to? Tanga ba ako!?! Hahahaha!
H: Bakit? Ikaw lang ang makakasagot nyan ahahahaha.
Mayroon din ako nito. Parang one year na sa currently-reading folder ko. Di ko matapos-tapos. Maraming sumisingit na books eh hahahaha.
K.D. wrote: "H: Bakit? Ikaw lang ang makakasagot nyan ahahahaha."
Kasi di ko talaga ma-gets ang point ni Joyce!!!
H: Kaya nga may cheat sheet (book) na ako hahahaha. Yon palang asaran nila sa Ch 1 (Telemachus) parody pala ng Holy Mass!!! hahaha.
huh? Knowing that doesn't make me understand it any better hahaha.
Hey, pause muna ako. I need to finish Jane Eyre, sa Sabado na iyon. Habol na lang ako (gulp).
Hahaha sige lang...take your time :D
Angus: Gusto mo mag change tayo ng reading dates and resume after you finish Jane Eyre? Ok lang sa akin kasi behind din ako sa reading ko eh...2 days behind :P
Ok lang din, hahaha. Works for both of us. Ano ba yan, pampagulo ng buhay ang Ulysses!
Hay, nako, sinabi mo! Since reading Ulysses, I've begun to question my intelligence hahahaha.Sa Ep. 6 ako nagstop eh. Just let me know when we're picking up again and kung saan tayo magstart. Saan ka ba tumigil?
Episode 6 rin. Di ako masyadong nakabasa kasi nga nung Sunday nag-anniv then nung Sat ang daming errands. Tapos si Jane Eyre may natitira pa akong mga 150 pages. Konti na lang naman. Sa Monday kaya na ba? You're with Thomas Cromwell pa naman diba? :D
Hahaha..yeah...binabasa ko rin yon eh pero, mejo delinquente din ako sa Wolf Hall hehe. Weekends din talaga di ako masyado nakakapag basa. Nasa Clark ako last Saturday eh...Ok pala selections ng booksale sa SM don...ang layo nga lang!Ok na ako with next Monday, if tapos mo na ang Jane Eyre by then.
H, Malamang tapos ko na siya nun, even by Friday. Sa SM Clark ko nabili ang Knut Hamsun books ko. Dapat pumunta ka na rin sa SM Pampanga/Robinson's Starmills. May Book Sale outlets din dun.John, you can try Book Depository. There's a $5.00 edition there.
John: Wala ba sa NBS?Angus: sige, next time...sa Clark kasi yung punta namin talaga, so sa SM Clark lang ako nakapag gala. Ang dami ngang magaganda, kaso meron na ako. Meron ding hardbound ng Freedom ni Franzen for P50. Di ko lang binili kasi di ako fan Jonathan Franzen.
Speaking of Franzen, wala na akong nakikitang The Corrections na TP. Huhuhu.
Hahaha...kala ko ba pakalat kalat lang yon? :P Meron akong nakikita, kaso nga, hindi P45. Tp ba yung mejo malaki ang size? P115 ata ang last kong nakitang copy non somewhere...
Bibili na ako ng P115, tutal wala na akong mabili masyado sa Book Sale. :(
Oo nga eh, nakakalungkot pumunta sa BS na walang mabili :(
John: Tiga saan ka ba? Wala bang NBS or Booksale na malapit sa 'yo?
Ganon ba? Parang ang saklap naman non.. :(
Haaay Ulysses....nagkita nanaman tayo hehehe.I just read the first few pages of this last night (ep 6). Mukhang mejo promising in terms of coherence hahaha.
Go na ba tayo ulit nito starting today?
Hi H, nabasa ko na ang Episode 6. Uhm, may sasabihin ako.Currently, I am not enjoying this novel. Fine, ililibre na kita kung matatapos mo siya. What I am thinking is pasulpot-sulpot na lang ako rito. I intend to finish it naman, pero hindi ko na mamimeet ang reading sked. Baka one or two episodes a week lang. Nakakahinayang kasi, feeling ko nasasayang ang oras ko trying to focus on this book. Kasi kapag ito ang binabasa ko, 20 pages lang ang nagagawa ko. Dalawang araw ko kayang binasa ang episode 6, hahaha!
Hahahaha...hay nako, wag ka nang manlibre...tingin ko 'di ko naman din sya matatapos! Actually...sayang nga ang oras magbasa nito (para sa akin) kasi most of it hindi ko naman talaga naiintindihan....
Pero nasasayangan din naman ako na hindi sya tapusin. Naisip ko kasi, if ever matapos ko man sya, parang masasabi ko lang na nabasa ko sya pero wala naman talaga akong maiintindihan sa kanya, kaya yon, sayang lang din talaga ang panahon.
r.a. wrote: "Angus wrote: "Hi H, nabasa ko na ang Episode 6. Uhm, may sasabihin ako.Currently, I am not enjoying this novel. Fine, ililibre na kita kung matatapos mo siya. What I am thinking is pasulpot-sulpo..."
You know..I don't like Ulysses, pero I don't want to give it away or trade it kasi, it's an important literary work, and it's kinda hard to find....
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And oh, this buddy reading has a twist. Non-finishers will treat the finishers at the end of the reading period. So if you are brave and confident enough, join us!
Here is the reading plan.
Part I: The Telemachiad
Episode 1, Telemachus (Apr 10)
Episode 2, Nestor (Apr 11)
Episode 3, Proteus (Apr 11)
Part II: The Odyssey
Episode 4, Calypso (Apr 12)
Episode 5, Lotus Eaters (Apr 12)
Episode 6, Hades (Apr 13)
Episode 7, Aeolus (Apr 16)
Episode 8, Lestrygonians (Apr 17)
Episode 9, Scylla and Charybdis (Apr 18)
Episode 10, Wandering Rocks (Apr 19)
Episode 11, Sirens (Apr 20)
Episode 12, Cyclops (Apr 23)
Episode 13, Nausicaa (Apr 24)
Episode 14, Oxen of the Sun (Apr 25)
Episode 15, Circe (Apr 26, 27, 30) - kanya-kanyang division na lang ito.
Part III: The Nostos
Episode 16, Eumaeus (May 1, 2) - same with Episode 15.
Episode 17, Ithaca (May 3)
Episode 18, Penelope (May 4)