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/lit/ - Literature

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11149880 No.11149880 [Reply] [Original]

Never read Ulysses or Odyssey. Am I missing out on anything?

>> No.11150100

Why don't you read them and find out?

>> No.11150107

>>11149880
absolutely not. they're slogs and incredibly dull and torpid. don't say I didn't tell you so when you try to trek through them because mentally weak /lit/ sheep call you a brainlet or post image macros at you

the same goes for 90% of the "classics" /lit/ recommends. masturbatory reading for pseuds

>> No.11150127

>>11149880
If you're not reading Ulysses with literary aspirations or for its prose there's literally no point. It's better written than Gravity's Rainbow or Infinite Jest though and besides Don Quixote it's the best written novel ever. No other work derives so much emotion and thought, and it's literally just about a dude who's wife is fucking another guy.

The Odyssey is fun if you pick and choose

>> No.11150142
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11150142

>>11150127
Is Ulysses about a guy being cucked by his wife?

>> No.11150167

>>11150107
6/10

>> No.11150246

>>11150107
Bad bait. Could have put in more effort desu

>> No.11150253

>>11149880
>Am I missing out on anything?
Oh nothing of worth for sure, just the texts who invented literature as we know it looool

>> No.11150254

>>11150107
This

Most "essentials" are fucking chores to read and are only read for name sake

>> No.11150260

>>11149880
nah reading books is for fags

>> No.11150375

>>11149880
Yes, the Odyssey is the foundation for storytelling and thematic development as we know it today in film, literature and video games. It's a very essential text and plus it's just a joy to read, a fun thrill ride.

Ulysses is a beautiful exploration of what language can offer, on how varied literary form can be and it's one man's encyclopaedic literary mind condensed to create his magnum opus. You might not enjoy it or even understand much of it though if you haven't read the KJV bible, Dante, the Sumerians, The Greeks, The Metamorphoses, Virgil, Paradise Lost and even potentially parts of The Quran. It requires a lot of preparation if you want to understand every reference, every subtextual meaning, every creative motivation that James Joyce takes with that book. It's incredibly dense and rich. Worth reading blindly without all that foundation - in your 20s - just so you can revisit it in your 50s and have a key epiphany moment. It's going to feel like meeting God.

>> No.11150393

>>11150375
So is Ulysses the prose version of the waste land?

>> No.11150426

>>11150393
I get why you might say that and maybe it is to an extent, but Ulysses isn't entirely prose either. There's chapters written like a play and there's definitely verse in there too. It really wants to explore the medium of the novel in ways that are actually very appropriate for the subject tackled in those chapters.

It's a real treat to read but it's also immensely frustrating and challenging if you haven't built up a foundation of understanding for its wealth of resources which it takes inspiration from.

>> No.11150478

Odissey? No. You just need to know the synopsis. Don't listen to the start with the greeks meme

Ulysses? Yeah, that shit's hilarious

>> No.11150510

>>11150478
> "Don't listen to the start with the greeks meme"
> one of the most enjoyable eras of literature
> tells people not to start it

You're a dumb-dumb. It's only a meme because once you start you'll never truly finish.