Pete olson tries to read Ulysses

[dethtron5000]

I've started Ulysses (by James Joyce, you're thinking of the Odyssey) no less than four times and never made it more than about 20 pages in. I started it again today and dammit I'm going to slog through it. (and, Pete, none of this reading-Gravity's Rainbow-over-a-course-of-a-year bullshit either...you're going to finish this in a timely manner).

The last time I wrote a journal about accomplishing something (my one-man-show journal) I got it done. Granted, it took me forever, and no one liked the show, but gosh darnit, it got done. So there's a good precedent.

Day one -
42 pages (a personal best). 3 subway rides (to work, to writers' group, home), 1 subway foul up (r went express at pacific street, lengthening home ride).
Quote of the day:
"Have you read his F? O yes, but I prefer Q. Yes, but W is wonderful. O yes. W."

 

[dethtron5000]

Ok so I'm about 250 pages in.

• When there's dialogue, it's a good bit easier to follow then when there's just description of what's going on, because the description of what's going on has very little to do with describing what's going on.
• There was a long diatribe about shakespeare. I think.
• Ulysses was banned in America for vulgarity after it's initial publication. Damn, but they were tight-assed in the ninteen-teen's. I think I saw the word 'cock' once, but he may have been referring to a rooster.
• Incedentally, the judge that ruled that Ulysses should be published in the US said that the 'vulgarity' was understandable because "the people are Celtic and the season is Spring."
• If i lose my place I just have to pick an arbitrary starting point on the page and read from there. I don't feel i'm losing much by doing this.
• A lot of what makes this readable at all is that large sections of it are people standing around and bullshitting with their friends, which is what I would do if I lived in Doublin.
• And I had friends.
• I was going to do a quote of the day thing, but it's unrealistic to set the expectation that this is going to be updated daily.