Trainspotting

This is one of the better things I’ve seen on a litblog recently: An Exercise in Comparative Literature, pitting a modernist novel against a train schedule and fighting it out to a draw. If they’d put a good box of breakfast cereal or a bottle of shampoo up against Ulysses, though, the novel might not have made it to the final round.

Oh yeah, and it’s James Joyce’s birthday today.

3 Responses

  1. That is pretty funny!For some
    That is pretty funny!

    For some reason, the scene I always think of when someone mentions Ulysses, is when the three guys are at the castle on the seashore, and Dedalus looks out at the ocean and sees a seal raising its head up out of the water, and Dedalus thinks the word, “Usurper”…(because someone else moved into the castle and more or less pushed Daedelus out).

    The thing is, I understand what Joyce was doing and I admire him for his ability, but I also like to make fun of him. It’s done out of fondness.

  2. Yeah, that’s good. And his
    Yeah, that’s good. And his med student roommate going on about Dedalus’s dead mother. And the weird brothel scene (if it is indeed a scene).

    A good friend used to say that Joyce was a writer that you needed a support group to read. With or without a support group, I’m a big fan.

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