I'm onto Cyclops now - LOLing at the theosophical seance for Paddy Dignam parody. Quite surprised by how funny the book is in general actually.I wasn't pissed off at Joyce for it, but some of the stuff in 'Cyclops' really makes you feel for Bloom. The Citizen starts talking shit behind his back, making fun of him and saying antisemitic crap. One of the nastiest characters in the book, maybe the nastiest.
Yeah personally I got the impression that sections like that just sorta glided across all that dense logos, almost like a map that could be folded up like an accordion and traversed easily. But I do think those sections also convey that, should Joyce have wanted to and should he have spent more time, he could added another 10 pages of elaboration.Done Cyclops now,
poor old Bloom
Don't get the whingeing about the parodies and lists in this episode, they're mostly really funny (especially the seance and the boxing match ones) and you can just skim through them if you can't be arsed. In fact I don't imagine even Joyce himself really expected anyone to actually read every word, it's not at all necessary.
I've got this far before and not finished itOr that bit where it's just a legal document that takes up an entire page, you can just read the first few lines to get the idea and skip on a paragraph if you find it boring - in fact it's supposed to be boring, that's almost the point.
I thought most of the parodies were worth reading though cos they're funny, the Irish legend ones and the sports writer parody especially, and the biblical one right at the end was genius.
about 500 pagesI've got this far before and not finished it