I'm hit by an urge to read lots of classic and modern literature. Shakespeare, Pynchon, and that godforsaken mess of infinite recursive reference that is Joyce. Maybe I'll start from the shallow end.
10 months ago · 👍 m0xee, userfxnet, bavarianbarbarian
@five_over_four With Ulysses don't push yourself too hard and do not attempt to grasp all the details and all references in one go — just take it as it goes. When I read it for the first time I don't think I "got it" — to me it was an impressive stream of consciousness thing with neat using language as medium tricks, it was more than a decade later when I stumbled upon analysis of it in another book and I realized how well-structured it is, even though I sure knew about Odyssey references, I didn't get it. Now I understand why despite the way Joyce did things he's still considered modernist. His novel works on so many levels! · 10 months ago
don't forget clausewitz. 1984, brave new world, sun tzu and goethe/schiller/lessing... · 10 months ago
if you head into joyce, go deeper and verge into the postmodern with the likes of kerouac, burroughs, and yes thomas pynchon is great for that realm of literature as well as brion gysin · 10 months ago
@m0xee I found something absurd: there is a Finnish radio play of Infinite Jest. I started listening and it's so well done. Great music and sound design overall. Ulysses I don't dare read without having read the Odyssey, frankly. Gargantuan work, I've seen what Joyce's more complex prose looks like. I don't think I'm ready for it at this time. · 10 months ago
Good strategy!
After Ulysses reading other fiction would feel kinda pointless — at least to me it did. I eventually came over it, but it took me a few years. · 10 months ago