Who's reading what?

[David]

I'm currently reading the Odyssey (in the recent Fagles translation) side-by-side with Ulysses - alternating a book / chapter at a time. It's proving more rewarding than I could have hoped. Reading them together is almost like reading a new text, it's fantastic.

Wow. Fantastic project. But are there exactly the same number of chapters?

[k-j]

I'm currently reading the Odyssey (in the recent Fagles translation) side-by-side with Ulysses - alternating a book / chapter at a time. It's proving more rewarding than I could have hoped. Reading them together is almost like reading a new text, it's fantastic.

Wow. Fantastic project. But are there exactly the same number of chapters?

No! 18 chapters in Ulysses, 24 books in the Odyssey. And Joyce jumps around quite a bit (or perhaps it's Homer who jumps around and Joyce who tries to make some sense of it all).

So far I've gone Odyssey 1&2, Ulysses 1, O3, U2, O4, U3, O5, U4, O6, O7, O8. I think I'm going to read books 9 through 12 of the Odyssey (aka the Apologoi, where Odysseus is telling his tall tales to the Phaeacians) before going back to Ulysses 5.

It's been some years since I read Ulysses, otherwise I might just read the relevant chapters of Ulysses out of order, following along with the Odyssey.

[David]

There's a Richard Ellmann guide to Ulysses - Ulysses on the Liffey - that's very good, and it has those famous concordances as an appendix.

[Raisin]

On to a comparitive essay for english, which means I have to look at Rebecca, Wuthering Heights and Othello, but I'm enjoying it really Although I'm finding Wuthering Heights impossible to write about.

[Wabznasm]

Raisin, the readable introduction to Wuthering Heights in the modern penguin edition is an excellent place to start reading about academic writing and that book.

[Raisin]

Cool, thanks very much

[David]

And then there's always Kate Bush.

[Raisin]

Kate Bush is amazing I prefer Babooshka to Wuthering Heights, but the video for Wuthering Heights does make me giggle.

[Select Samaritan]

Just finished Schindler's List. Any thoughts?

[Select Samaritan]

Fuck you.

[Raisin]

I can't give any thoughts on Schindler's list I'm afraid, haven't read it yet but it sounds great. What did you think?

Raisin

[Select Samaritan]

Yes, I suppose I approached this arse up, didn't I?

I'll think on my own thoughts.

[brianedwards]

Schindler's Ark is a fantastic book,
Schindler's List is a Spielberg movie.

Just finished Nicola Barker's Darkmans ---- flagged at the end a bit, but overall I thought it was inspired.
And I thought BritLit was ShitShit.

B.

~

[Select Samaritan]

American release is List. As is the post film re-release in certain countries.

[brianedwards]

Didn't know that SS, thanks. Are you American?

[brianedwards]

My point, of course, though, was that book and film are quite different . . . .

[Select Samaritan]

Of course.

And no, I'm Canadian.

[brianedwards]

A Canuck. Didn't know.
My best friends are Canucks.
No. Really.

[David]

I read Schindler's List / Ark years ago, before Little Stevie got his hands on it. I remember thinking it was very good, but it pales in comparison to the books of Primo Levi that I discovered later - especially If This Is A Man. Give that a go if you feel like it, Trav. It isn't so uplifting, but it's the true tale of a survivor of Auschwitz (who unfortunately never got over the guilt of having survived).

[Select Samaritan]

I might. Won't be for a while though.

As for Schindler's...thingy...I wasn't overly impressed in a literary sense. I can construct better sentences than Keneally in my sleep. Although like most who are published, there are those requisite gems scattered throughout.

Keeping up with the all the characters was a task too. Combine that with some weird sentences and the book would at times demand too much concentration where such mental flexing shouldn't be needed. My brain was already occupied by the wonderfully disturbing way in which the holocaust was humanized. And so the people and the passages became an even bigger nuisance.

Nothing worse than to start getting into a section, just becoming absorbed when suddenly you're reminded that you're still in the room where you started and that that last sentence was god fucking awful.

[brianedwards]

Do you write much Prose SS? Would love to read some.

B.

~

[Select Samaritan]

Not really. But I appreciate the interest.

I used to, and still pick at it every now and then. But I waste more time than God Himself. Like, seriously, a full fucking week to create the Universe? He's omnipotent for fuck's sake!

And when is Jesus coming back?!?

Bastards.

EDIT - I guess it was only 6 days. Excuse my Genesis.

[brianedwards]

Not really. But I appreciate the interest.

I used to, and still pick at it every now and then. But I waste more time than God Himself. Like, seriously, a full fucking week to create the Universe? He's omnipotent for fuck's sake!

And when is Jesus coming back?!?

Bastards.

EDIT - I guess it was only 6 days. Excuse my Genesis.

Oh I dunno, I quite like Jesus. The fucking Catholic Church though --- now there's a set of bastards.

[Select Samaritan]

Response #1 - Fair enough. It wasn't Jesus who beat the face off Sodom and Gomorrah.

Response #2 - Then again, it so was. It's the Trinity! Dig it bitch!

Jokes aside, the Red Letter type of approach to the teachings of Jesus is probably a truer way of going about following his example. This philosophy is of course congruent to the angle you took in defending the man. And the beauty of it is that one doesn't have to be religious. One can just reference the simple awesomeness that is his don't be a pretentious asshole school of thought and then move on, all the better a human being for it.

It's a pack of shit in a larger sense of course, but going there results in losers on all sides and a feeling of wasted time when it's all over, no matter how good the arguments and such were.

[GONE AWAY]

I cannot just read one book at a time, I have to have at least six on the go at once, it infuriates most people, and yes I can keep up with each story. Three fiction books I am reading at the moment are: 1) The Luck of the Bodkins, by PG Wodehouse; 2) The Prisoner of Zenda, by Anthony Hope; 3) Tyrant, by Christian Cameron.
The other books are: Norton's Anthology of Poetry; A Life in Letters of Thomas Merton. Then there are my subscribed magazines: Poetry Review; Poetry Wales; and Poetry London.
I just enjoy reading, because it feeds my imagination, for my poetry and short stories. Do I have favourite authors yes loads: JRR Tolkien; John Buchan; PG Wodehouse; Robert Louis Stevenson, and many many more.
All the best
Ian.