So I tried reading a few James Joyce books a couple decades ago and I was so bored with both of them that I haven’t gone back, this is the first Joyce I’ve read since then.
And holy cow, was I bored.
Can you shed some light as to what I missed regarding the point or emotional impact of this short story and in general why so many people love his writing?
The way he’s talked about, I assume I’m missing something.
So sorry I wasn’t on Lemmy for a while, so didn’t see this comment. Honestly I don’t think anyone should force themselves to like an author or a style, that’s what leads to people reading less. Read what you enjoy and occasionally venture further and try smth new.
As for why people love Joyce, the one important reason imo is how he essentially created stream of consciousness as a writing style which is an immersive way of writing and you get sucked into a characters mind. It can be taken for granted now since many have done it since and we got used to it, but it was as a revolutionart technique.
Then there’s his precise lyrical prose. This could be subjective but most people do tend to enjoy the powerful prose he writes.
I wanna say symbolism too, but everyone does that. But you will definitely have a more rewarding experience if you remember Joyce purposefully uses symbolism, and uses it well.
If and that’s a not if, you want to retry Joyce go for Araby or Eveline, smth short.
Both short, both powerful.
Summary: potential spoilers
Araby: ‘Araby’ is narrated by a young boy, who describes the Dublin street where he lives. As the story progresses, the narrator realises that he has feelings for his neighbour’s sister and watches her from his house, daydreaming about her, wondering if she will ever speak to him. When they eventually talk, she suggests that he visit a bazaar, Araby, on her behalf as she cannot go herself.
The boy plans to buy her a present while at Araby, but he arrives late to the bazaar and, disappointed to find that most of the stalls are packing up, ends up buying nothing.
Eveline: Eveline is a young woman living in Dublin with her father. Her mother is dead. Dreaming of a better life beyond the shores of Ireland, Eveline plans to elope with Frank, a sailor who is her secret lover (Eveline’s father having forbade Eveline to see Frank after the two men fell out), and start a new life in Argentina.
With her mother gone, Eveline is responsible for the day-to-day running of the household: her father is drunk and only reluctantly tips up his share of the weekly housekeeping money, and her brother Harry is busy working and is away a lot on business (another brother, Ernest, has died).
Eveline herself keeps down a job working in a shop. On Saturday nights, when she asks her father for some money, he tends to unleash a tirade of verbal abuse, and is often drunk. When he eventually hands over his housekeeping money, Eveline has to go to the shops and buy the food for the Sunday dinner at the last minute.
Eveline is tired of this life, and so she and Frank book onto a ship leaving for Argentina. But as she is just about to board the ship, Eveline suffers a failure of resolve, and cannot go through with it. She wordlessly turns round and goes home, leaving Frank to board the ship alone.
I could’ve sworn I had read this before, but I can’t be certain. Getting an odd sense of deja vu here. Maybe heard it on the podcast in the background and didn’t concentrate well enough?
For me part of why I like this one is because it’s nice and short so it was easy to get through the first time. I can’t put into words why I like the story itself though :)
Curious to your favorite short stories, as you appear to have excellent taste and I would love to read more of what you enjoy. Personally my favorite is “the last question” users.ece.cmu.edu/~gamvrosi/thelastq.html if you haven’t read it please take a peek, it’s a ten minute read, that blows anything before or since out of the water imo
I wish he could’ve lived to see where we’ve gotten to with Moore’s law. It was well on its way when he passed, but he wrote that before there were humans in space.
My wife’s favorite movie as well, at least in her top 3.
It’s my favorite alien first contact movie since independence Day. First time I read the story I was amazed at how much the movie nailed it, it definitely helps that it’s such a short story (I highly suggest everybody read it), the few parts that were dropped were highly conceptual and the movie was already bleeding edge conceptual. It’s far and away the most realistically written human reactions to first contact.
It has set the bar for what I want to feel from the “project hail Mary” movie. Another book that should be read by fans of quasi realistic science fiction.
I did have one issue with the movies ending, it completely flipped the philosophy of the story imo. What was meant to be an acceptance of fate and a deterministic view instead offered free will. Its still my favorite movie lol but that change makes it different.
I have somehow not yet seen indepemdence day! Will get to that too. Would love to hear you top 3, movies and short stories.
Oh I forgot, Ryan Gosling is gonna be in the project hail mary movie isn’t he. I wouldn’t expect much from it.
One should never expect much from movies based on books, but let’s not write off a movie because of it’s lead, Jim Carrey did eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind, and did it pretty well despite that definitely not being his style going into it.
Independence Day is a different take on the alien invasion, it’s nowhere near as philosophical or nuanced as arrival, but imo it’s another valid take about how it would be going down. There’s a “throwaway” line that got cut that really hurts the plot, but I’m not sure how to convey it without risking spoilers (something I’m highly adverse to)
Top 3 movies of mine would have to be: ‘the usual suspects’, ‘love actually’ and … Hmmm, ‘my cousin Vinny’ a very 90s set of movies, but I’m a child of that era.
Short stories are going to be ‘the last question’ ‘the story of your life’, and ‘i don’t know Timmy, being God is a big responsibility’ (although the boy who predicted earthquakes hotly contends spot 3). All 3 are easily consumed in a short break, and provoke substantial thought.
Oh no I seemed to have misphrased my original statememt. I font think the lead changes much barring the potential to get funded and marketing. And I do like Gosling. The reason I dont ecpect much is bc it appears to be a cash grab more than a project on it’s own.
Tho I will say I also loved External Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Truman Show and never liked any Jim Carrey movie.
I do like your choice of short stories, though I haven’t read ‘I don’t know timmy …’. Really think you would lobe Borges. You ought to search borges in this community and you’ll find some of his stories I’ve posted.
That’s funny, I was just talking about how the Usual Suspects has aged yesterday with a friend. That really is a very era specific taste!
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