Joyce intentionally created somthing to be puzzled over and studied for centuries. The form is everything.

The story is of a man lamenting the infidelities of his wife while engaging in a few of his own...all the while strolling the streets (and pubs and brothels) of Dublin.

The novel is structured to mirror Homer's The Odyssey, except the incidents in this novel aren't epic...the prose is.

One section is written as a play with stage directions. Another HUGE section is written with less than a handfull of punctuation marks. Yet another section about the birth of a child is written as a punny evolution of the english langauge, starting in Anglo-Saxon and Latin then leading to Middle-English then contemporary (for turn-of-the-century) Irish slang.

Points of view shift (and the theme of parallax is explored in depth), characters hallucinate, the church is mocked and anti-semitism is confronted... all with an odd comedic touch.

It is a novel that also revels in an accute awareness and acceptance of human sexuality - this coming from Ireland in the early 1900s - that was a precurser to Henry Miller's sexually charged prose.

it is far from my favorite novel, but as a point of study it is fascinating and as a landmark in modern writing it is unparalleled.

I can't believe I missed this! One of my favorite books ever. The Walpurgisnacht section was a big influence on horror and the concept of the night journey at large. Joyce has influenced my writing more than any other writer besides Burroughs and F. Scott Fitzgerald. I'll make sure to open my copy today. Thanks Joyce, Rod, Leopold, Stephen.

iwillmakeallmypoststomdaywithoutanypunctionuationi ncelebrationofagreatirishnovel

I want to read "The Dead," by Joyce. It's based entirely on Irish mythology. The Goddess features prominently, but only as Joyce understood Her, not as She is understood today.

Thanks for this thread, Rod. Sounds like a literary adventure that one will have to partake when school is over.

on eof my favorite authors ..

i collect his books, the older the better.

I have the origional 2nd,3rd,4th,5th tarzan books in hardcover. (1st editions)

not mint - none have dust covers, but still pretty cool to have

That's sounds rather interesting, Rod. I had heard of the book before, but didn't know anything about it. I'll have to check it out on my next library run.

William not Edgar Rice. But the Tarzan books are great golden age pulp.

i wondered how exactly ER would have been an influence ..

i have a signed william s burroughs 1st edition as well ...
probably my best find of all times

Wow. That's really cool. What book is it?

Cities of the Red Night ...


if it was NAked Lunch it would probably be worth a small fortune.


(not that i would ever sell it)