/lit/ - Literature

>inb4 muh the dead snowflake

>>17371956
If you're getting filtered by Joyce's easiest book, you might need to read pic related.

>>17371956
you're not ready for it yet, just move on and consider coming back to it later

>>17372008
How can you not be ready for Dubliners?

>>17372028
Every story has had nothing happen to its flat characters except a wink and a nod at the very end. His prose isn’t even very interesting either. The whole book so far has been “a catholic walks into a bar” without the punchline.

>>17371996
I mean, The Dead is pretty fucking amazing.

>>17371956
>Dublin
>podunkville

>>17372052
>His prose isn't even very interesting either
Quit reading and find a different hobby, dude. If the scene in "The Sisters" of the Priest dropping the cup and going mad, or the young boy in "Araby" with his naive views of love, or Little Chandler's in "A Little Cloud" being crushed aren't "interesting" or "written well" to you, just stop reading.

>>17371956
yeah this was probably the worst book i have read.
its a pseud test- well done you have passed.

Its easy to expect something much different. I loved it - the stories are relentlessly mundane and character oriented. Great stuff, particularly eveline, boarding house, a little cloud, a painful case, counterparts etc. Maybe 3 stories i find truly flat in there.

>>17372103
>relentlessly mundane
I think I wasn’t expecting this and that’s why it’s proving difficult.

>>17372052
>a catholic walks into bar
>then walks home and beats his kids
I liked that story, it was good.

>>17372028
By being stupid or a teenager. The first time I read it I only liked 1-2 stories tbqh, now I like 90% of them but I think it just has to do with not being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes

>>17371956
are you serious? Dubliners is incredible. I read it this summer and it made me see my whole life differently. Did you try to read it with any critical commentary/notes? It's all about the paralysis of habit and routine and how this slow death is inescapable for most people. Maybe it's something zoomers don't understand yet.

>>17373408
>It's all about the paralysis of habit and routine and how this slow death is inescapable for most people.
Nice summary. I am 20 and having a slight quarter life crisis over this desu. Ever since I read The Waves. The time slips, like rope it burns my hands but i cannot cling on i cannot hold it.

>>17373408
>>17373424
Mann talks a lot about that in The Magic Mountain. How boredom stretches the hour into eternity, and then how the monotony of a life lived according to habit, with few new experiences, makes the years blend together, reducing them to a grey mass.

>>17373450
I should read it then. At once, I both seek order and regularity in my life, to live in harmony with the hours, to do things with a precision and a purpose; but I also recoil from the prospect of allowing the time allocated to me to so easily collapse upon itself. Is it better to seek perfect contentment, to enjoy the same food every morning at the same time, to wear the same clothes, to quietly delight in perfect and virtuous regularity - or should one seek endless novelty, knowing that it will stretch time out as taught as it may be pulled, but suffering by consequence the restlessness and angst of one far from contentment and likely never to find it?

>>17373408
>I read it this summer and it made me see my whole life differently.
how so and why?

>>17373476
The cursed destiny of man, anon. I am mid-20s and might start studying to become a physician by the end of this year; desperately hoping that it will give my life a sense of purpose, even the grey days of habit.

>>17373501
I hope you find purpose. I am trying to throw myself at my degree without much luck. Even this feels benign and futile. I want to be a great man. I want to be a good man. It all feels so meaningless.

It's all Here

https://youtu.be/93yhVbtec2I

I'm so bored of all these "my attention span sucks!" threads. Go play video games. Literature is not for you.

>>17373450
Another of my favorite books. Interesting to see that theme expressed via a microcosm of pre-WWI Europe versus a microcosm of self-absorbed Dublin. That theme comes across much better in Joyce because you really feel the desolation and hopelessness of the characters' various situations. Whereas TMM is surprisingly comfy and dreamlike.
>>17373480
The stories underscore the basic fact of life that the decisions you make in your youth haunt you forever. Your own habits, even the most benign, will become a self-tailored prison. Regret is inevitable no matter how you choose to live but it's best to either build yourself the kind of life you enjoy, or to get damn good at convincing yourself you're on the right path. The goal is to steer yourself instead of letting circumstances shape your habits, and letting your habits steer your soul. It's unclear from Dubliners whether it's possible to take the reins in this way. The characters all fail.

>>17373512
Same to you, anon. Knowing that Schopenhauer was a great influence on Mann (and Wagner), I might read him next. I need some sort of philosophical direction; I find it difficult to believe in anything at all.

>>17373525
>Another of my favorite books
As it should be. Say, do you know if Joyce's musings on life/time had their source in some great influence of his, or is it mostly original? Of his works I've read only Dubliners and Portrait, and very little about the man himself.

What are some other stories/books like Ivy Day? I love how it's just a bunch of dudes sitting around talking and people walking in and out.

>>17373525
>The stories underscore the basic fact of life that the decisions you make in your youth haunt you forever. Your own habits, even the most benign, will become a self-tailored prison. Regret is inevitable no matter how you choose to live but it's best to either build yourself the kind of life you enjoy, or to get damn good at convincing yourself you're on the right path. The goal is to steer yourself instead of letting circumstances shape your habits, and letting your habits steer your soul. It's unclear from Dubliners whether it's possible to take the reins in this way. The characters all fail.
I wish I could have read this as a teen. ;_;

>>17373553
I don't think I'd have understood it as a teenager. Chances are you're still young; young enough to change course. I'm 26 and constantly feel like I've missed the boat, and it's only through talking to older adults (and reading) that I've come to realise I'm full of shit.

>>17373548
Flaubert and Ibsen were big influences on him, especially Ibsen. I recommend reading a biography of Joyce, he was a bizarre guy.

>>17371956
it's stylistically trash but everyone praises it because James Joyce meme. Every other one of his books is a better read.

>>17373570
That's fortunate as I'm about 200 pages into Madame Bovary (which I picked up because of Proust, another author who really had an effect on me). As for Ibsen, it's a bit shameful that I haven't read any of his works, seeing as I'm scandinavian. Thank you, anon.

>>17373569
I'm 29. I've missed the boat already.

>>17373599
If I haven't missed the boat, then I doubt you have. Though I don't have anything to offer you but clichés like "you'll be 35 anyway, might as well do X or Y" etc.

>>17373599
stop comparing yourself to 25 year old mommy's-special-boys who have had every advantage in the world. Plenty of people find "success" later in life, even those who were dealt shit hands. Unless you've committed a homicide or SEVERELY fucked up your finances, you have plenty of chances left. There will always be those who seem to be ahead of you, that's just life.

this book is a major blackpill.

if you're past 23 years old you are quite literally set in your ways. it's fucking over.

>>17373623
>>17373644
Thanks anons, I didn't know /lit/ could be so nice and helpful.

>>17373646
>>17373644
2 kinds of people huh

>>17373646
shut the fuck up you literal child

>>17373646
it's a work of fiction he wrote at 30 years old. you think he had all the answers about life?

>>17373659
I sincerely believe my point about older adults. Maintaining acquaintances and friends only within one's age group is severely limiting, I think. One should have both older and younger friends to maintain a perspective on life.

>>17373689
No worries, that is not the case for me, I have no friends at all.

>>17373693
I hope you make some, anon. If not "IRL", as ridiculous a term that is nowadays, then at least online.

>>17373702
Thanks fren.

>>17372002
I see this book a lot is it really that good? My favorite 2 books are Moby Dick and 100 years of solitude of that means anything.

>>17372072
I mean he should just change what he reads for now not stop c’mon.

>>17371956
Filtered by the comfiest Joyce. Sad desu

>>17375309
I mean, I’m gonna finish it. And this thread has opened my eyes to some of the themes I hadn’t put much thought into.

>>17373644
>>17373646
Duality of man