Welcome!

Welcome to the official blog of the Ulysses Men's Book Club. I thought I'd lay out some ideas and offer some suggestions and see what people think.

1. Meetings: As I said in the evite, I hope to meet every month at an Irish bar to discuss the book. I'd propose the 3rd Thursday of each month, unless that proves to be a conflict for anyone.

2. Schedule: This is a long and difficult book. My proposal is to aim for our last meeting to be held on or around St. Patrick's Day 2011. The book consists of 18 "chapters," about 800 pages. Figure on an average of 60-70 pages per month. I'll have a reading schedule worked out for the first meeting. Obviously, I'd like to talk some Joyce at the meetings, but I'm fine with discussions eventually getting to the great issues of our day as well: Sox vs. Yanks, Dems vs. Reps, WH vs. Avon, Guinness vs. Murphy's, etc.

3. Difficulty: As you probably know, this is a notoriously difficult book. For my money, it's also the most rewarding book I've ever read. My advice: Don't get bogged down, keep on plowing through, and don't be shy about getting "help." (See my next post.)

4. Homework: If possible, try to read the first chapter of Ulysses for the first meeting, Thursday 4/15 at the Half Door at 7:00. If you don't get to it, don't sweat it. I'd be happy to provide some background info re: Joyce, his first novel (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man), and the organization of the novel.

"You should approach Joyce's Ulysses as the illiterate Baptist preacher approaches the Old Testament: with faith."

-- William Faulkner

Keeping Professors Busy

Yes, Joyce is one cocky son-of-a-bitch. He once said, "If I gave it all up immediately, I'd lose my immortality. I've put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that's the only way of ensuring one's immortality."

That said, you may wish to consult another book (or two or three) in order to enrich your reading of Ulysses. Below are a few suggestions:

James Joyce's Ulysses (Stuart Gilbert) - one of the first book-length studies of the book; very helpful in terms of situating the Homeric episodes, as well as other schematic possibilities; a LOT of reproduced text here, I think because Ulysses was still banned in the U.S. when Gilbert's book was first published

Ulysses Annotated (Don Gifford) - one monster of a book! Gifford is so detailed, so precise, so pedantic, at times it's like reading Ulysses itself. Nevertheless, if you're OCD and/or want to get as many of the references (biographical, historical, cultural, mythological, religious, etc.) as possible, this is the book for you.

The Cast of Characters (Paul Schwaber) - I read this book because the author (a Wesleyan professor) gave a guest lecture in the class I took. This is a psychoanalytic take on the book, and on Stephen in particular. It's pretty good, though if I recall correctly, it's a bit too "clinical" at times for my liking.

Ulysses on the Liffey (Richard Ellmann) - Ellmann is well known for having written Joyce's biography, which many consider to be the finest literary bio ever written. (Alas, I still haven't read it.) I recall this book as being short (less than 200 pages), highly readable, and very insightful. For my money, the best bang for your buck.

ReJoyce (Anthony Burgess) - The section on Ulysses is less than 100 pages, but is engaging and very fun to read. In his stylistic prose, Burgess seems to be having as much fun as Joyce himself in Ulysses.

I have two other books - Hugh Kenner's Ulysses and Stanley Sultan's The Argument of Ulysses - that I'm going to try to read this time through. I'm also going to read some of Vladimir Nabokov's lecture on Ulysses.

Finally, I have a series of very engaging, lively audio lectures in MP3 format by Dartmouth Professor James Heffernan. Let me know if you'd like these. (http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/CourseDescLong2.aspx?cid=237)