wow, what a dull book! sorry... but i have to read this book for a class and i actually started reading it years ago just because i related a bit to Dedalus and i wanted to know how he evolved into the Artist. but that never really happens right? this is basically just random "stream of consciousness" accounts of his childhood through his college years and nothing really happens. i mean does it? is there a plot at all here. i mean i know reading for class with a certain time frame you don't always absorb everything, but from what i read nothing happens other than him growing and meeting new people. anyway i have a thesis/outline due tomorrow and i have no frikkin clue what i'm gonna write about because what is there to write about. and i know i'm gonna be so annoyed on thursday when all the other kids are like "wow it was WONDERFUL!!!" and go on and on and on (using pretentious big words as normal) about how great the book was and i'm gonna be sitting there like... um, okay, really, is class over yet! how did you all feel about the book.
This book is essentially a Bildungsroman and focuses on the growth of Stephen as the novel progresses. So a novel like this is going to be character driven rather than plot driven. I liked the book, though I admit the passages involving the religious sermons are a tad bit long. I think you would have liked the novel a lot more if you had read Joyce's story collection (Dubliners). Joyce seems to be an acquired taste and is certainly not for everyone.
i honestly don't hate it. i think there are just a few issues that are frustrating me and mainly the time restraints... if i had the time to fully grasp everything i'm sure i'd enjoy it better. also i'm not religious or catholic and i understand that people who are and understand certain things about the religion will enjoy it more because they relate... but yeah like you said that one sermon was like "really??? how much longer is this gonna go on for" and even his later conversations were so foreign to me. i actually have The Dubliners... i got the book years ago from barnes and nobles and it's a combo. but of course for the class i had to read Portrait only. and isn't it funny that at the end he leaves college and my college professor assigns us this book. next up on the reading list: to the lighthouse, virginia woolf the sound and the fury, william faulkner their eyes were watching god, zora neale hurston lolita, vladimir nabokov the crying of lot 49, thomas pynchon *sigh i'm really hoping for the best but i have such a horrible feeling about this class.
^At least two of those books are among my favorite novels ever written. The Sound and the Fury and The Crying of Lot 49. I'm not religious either, and don't understand it either. Though, the sermon bit I found terrifying when I first read it. I thought that bit was excellently portrayed. I do think that Joyce is one of those people, you either 'get it' or don't, and every time I return to it I either am rediscovering it or learning more about it. Personally, I like it, but I can see why so many people are turned off it and Ulysses. And though I'm a big fan of Joyce, The Wake I didn't enjoy very much.
These are all awesome books, though some are tough reads (like The Sound and the Fury). Is this class only for a semester or for the whole year?
Sorry, I thought it was a schlog. I really wanted it to be a revelation but it was work to get through.
