Post by Hughes.Post by DBSnappaPost by Hughes.Post by DBSnappaPost by Hughes.Post by Charlatan FestoonPost by Hughes.Sweathair Mohher
Hello Joyce.
Why hello Hughes! I'm just putting the finishing touches on Ulysses 2.
Hurrah!
I assume this is based on Homer's lesser known, unfinished text,
Odyssey II, in which Odysseus takes Telemachus, Laertes and
Penelope to the beach?
Then again it may be the follow up to James Joyce's book? Hmmm? 24
hours in real time and it takes three million years to write.
Which is why I said "based on" just as Joyce's Ulysses was based on
the original Odyssey.
Alright you, I wasn't dissing your reading habits ;o)
Actually, I haven't read Joyce's book, but I did make the mistake of
reading Homer's The Odyssey and believe to this day, that if the book
ditched the mandatory and very dull revelatory introduction to every
character whenever they surface in the plot, it would have been about
1/5 of the length. Early Greek version of the unskippable cutscene,
anyone?
I have also read it (Homer's one, not Joyce's), and am of the belief
that the ending at Laertes place was tacked on at a later date, quite
clumsily too. Better than the Iliad though, which I found too boring to
get past the first couple of chapters.
Yes. I have heard that the Iliad is excruciatingly dull as well. I can't
help feeling that they need to be re-written in a style approaching
acceptable to the common man nowadays. I'm obviously not referring to txt
speak or anything else too common denominator... you get my drift. Maybe
Brian Bolland and Alan Moore could do something!
Post by Hughes.One day I'll finish it, maybe.
Don't bother. Life is too short to read books that you *wear*
Post by Hughes.Same goes for the bunch of classics on my shelf I haven't even started
yet, like Plato's The Republic. Let's face it, when there's free
internet porn and Calvin Hobbes books to compete with, they don't
stand a chance.
There is a line between reading for entertainment and reading for
learning/enlightenment. I pretentiously oscillate between the two. My main
problem is that some academic books, and some classics are so badly written
that you spend too much time analysing them rather than simply 'getting'
them. Not all of us have the luxury or the time to spend pursuing a study of
a particular genre. Maybe that's an indication of my gameplaying morass...
when you get older, you become more aware of two things; how little you
know, and how little time you have.
Check out Joseph Campbell's 'Hero with a thousand faces'. It is the
definitive study of mythology, religion and storytelling, but is also
extremely dry and academic (AKA hard reading).
--
DBSnappa
ICQ 109045511
GamerTag DBSnappa
No god is a philosopher or seeker of wisdom, for he is wise already. Neither
do the ignorant seek after wisdom. For herein lies the evil of ignorance;
that he who is neither good nor wise is nevertheless satisfied with himself.