{"id":210,"date":"2016-10-12T16:00:27","date_gmt":"2016-10-12T22:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=210"},"modified":"2017-09-10T16:11:11","modified_gmt":"2017-09-10T22:11:11","slug":"book-ulysses-1922","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2016\/10\/12\/book-ulysses-1922\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: Ulysses (1922)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><u><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/d.gr-assets.com\/books\/1416030673l\/23563658.jpg\" alt=\"Ulysses\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/>Ulysses<\/u><\/strong><br \/>\nYear: 1922<br \/>\nAuthor: James Joyce<br \/>\nLength: 1,797 minutes \/ 29.95 hours<\/p>\n<p>OK, I\u2019ll be the first to admit that perhaps the audiobook version of this story isn\u2019t the best way to digest it. While I did appreciate the Irish accent of the man who read this book, there really wasn\u2019t much of a chance to re-read sections that were quite confusing. As a result, I have no idea what this book is about or what it was supposed to convey. I had a loose understanding that it was based on Homer\u2019s <em>The Odyssey<\/em>, which helped make a few connections here and there, but I honestly can\u2019t say that this parallel between the plots of the two stories is obvious at all.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the weakness I perceive in this story is due to its status as one of the great pieces of modernist literature. If that\u2019s the case, then I\u2019ll admit that I don\u2019t understand modernist literature at all. None of it made any sense at all. I would almost wager, at times, that Joyce was merely paid by the word, thus explaining the numerous times he just listed off the names of people, synonyms of words, or just rambled on until he made a couple extra shillings. Of course, it could be that I expected a story to be present instead of a loose string of poetic and complicated words. Maybe that\u2019s the link it shares with <em>The Odyssey<\/em>: both are epic poems (but for my money, I\u2019d read <em>The Odyssey<\/em> again in a heartbeat instead of this).<\/p>\n<p>This is also not to mention the controversial topics that Joyce covers in this book. From sex to religion and back to sex again, I wouldn\u2019t say I agree with his opinions on anything. For years I\u2019ve heard that this is one of the great stories of literature, but I can\u2019t say I\u2019m impressed. None of it was particularly inspiring (the parts that made any sense, that is) and if he had a point to make, it was lost on me. Again, I might get more out of <em>Ulysses<\/em> if I was able to read it instead of listening to it, but as it stands I don\u2019t have any interest in reading this lengthy piece of nothingness after having had to listen to it.<\/p>\n<p>A disappointing and confusing piece of \u201cliterature\u201d, I give <em>Ulysses<\/em> 1.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n<h1><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/><\/strong><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ulysses Year: 1922 Author: James Joyce Length: 1,797 minutes \/ 29.95 hours OK, I\u2019ll be the first to admit that perhaps the audiobook version of this story isn\u2019t the best way to digest it. While I did appreciate the Irish accent of the man who read this book, there really wasn\u2019t much of a chance [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186,54],"tags":[187,64,55,105,190,188,8,189],"class_list":["post-210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-0-stars","category-book","tag-187","tag-audiobook","tag-book","tag-classic","tag-disappointing","tag-james-joyce","tag-review","tag-ulysses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":718,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions\/718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}