Mr. Difficult: William Gaddis and the Problem of Hard-to-Read Books (2002)

Re:Mr. Difficult: William Gaddis and the Problem of Hard-to-... by wittierusername on Sunday February 04, 2024 @07:38PM (#39256067)

My experience with Ulysses was just reading Dubliners followed by A Portrait of a Man then Ulysses.

I've always enjoyed reading classics and "arty" books, like buying works by Salinger, Plato, Pynchon, whatever. I'm by no means an impressive reader but I like just letting them wash over me. Like sticking a great movie on - maybe I don't know all the nuances of Stanley Kubrick but it's just a movie at the end of the day. You watch it. Reading, watching, listening to "challenging" or highly rated/influential art....worst comes to it, you don't really like it.

Anyway, Joyce literally wasn't aiming to write a difficult book. He famously said "this is for them" while gesturing towards the general public in Dublin. It's an ambitious novel and a misunderstood one, but it's a funny, goofy work with something for everyone. There's dogs, pubs and trad music in it

Finnegan's wake is genuinely an essentially cryptographic novel. But I'd honestly recommend anyone who reads a lot to read Ulysses

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Re:Mr. Difficult: William Gaddis and the Problem of Hard-to-... by AlbertCory on Sunday February 04, 2024 @08:01PM (#39256166)

I can live with that. I'm not on a campaign against the book, except maybe to say, "Hey, if you don't care for it, there's nothing wrong with you."

I don't know the exact quote, but I think Joyce also said that it was just a funny book. I didn't find it all that funny, and especially, didn't find any of the three main characters at all interesting. But YMMV. Check it out.

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