How to listen to Ulysses

Hey, like tracks in fresh snow, I get the first comment. Too bad all I can say is, "I don't get it."

(or will someone post at the speed of light while I am still typing?)

Maybe you are laughing at multi-tasking.

I don't do audio books because I don't like to multi-task. At home I read books on paper, but not during talk radio, nor music with lyrics, nor good instrumental classics. If I chose to have sound as I read, then it will be—believe it or not—ambient music.

And say, if good fiction is like a vivid continuous dream, then how can people listen to stories while in their car? I would swerve off the road if the hero opens the forbidden door, or a ghost appeared, or a woman said, "Guess what, we're pregnant!" But maybe that's just me. ... Of course, I do hear stories about Los Angeles traffic being as slow as a herd of constipated turtles...

Derek,

I wish you had published this about 5 years ago. I had never thought to listen to Ulysses. I wanted to chew on every word Joyce had served up. It turned out to be the longest and toughest meal I ever laid my eyes on. I often thought what could Sylvia Beach have found so intriguing about the book. I did all the reading surrounding the novel, and I often reread passages to make sure I was "getting it." It took a month and a half to digest the whole thing and I still came away feeling a little hungry.

Don't know if I am hungry enough to try it again even on audio.

Cheers! Joe

Or maybe, don't.

Life is too short for books (or anything) you don't love easily.

I really like the idea of asking an AI questions about books you DO enjoy though.

That’s an ambitious reading mission. I did listen to that Claire Danes reading of The Odyssey- it made a great compliment to CIRCE by Madeline Miller.
Interestingly I was also just writing about Odysseus- and his various movie appearances. You can check that out here if you’re curious. plugoarts.com/blog/odysseus-sword-sandels/

I’m also curious about the follow through- what happens after you’ve dead your questions and observations into the AI?

This may be one my favourite blog post – on the internet. Thanks.

That sounds like an amazing way to do it.

We actually just got back from Istanbul... and I've been learning to speak Bengali for about a year. I'm hoping to head to Kolkata at some point in the near future to immerse myself a little more in the language.
!! — Derek

While in college my friend and I both fell in love with Joyce and Ulysses. She even joined the Joyce Society. Years later we decided to re-read it but I wanted to hear the "music", (such a musical narrative) SO I bought and shared the wonderful audio (unabridged) by NAXOS-- 22 CDs. We read and listened AT THE SAME TIME....The reader,Jim Norton, has the astounding ability to voice ALL the characters in Ulysses. Marcella Riordan is the incomparable Molly Bloom. Joyce was so musical and listening his masterpiece while re-reading it revealed more of his genius.

Thanks Derek
love your posts and books.
Thanks for the recommendation! I'll find that recording. — Derek

Wow, and endeavor for sure... not for the faint of heart, but I love the thoughtful detail.

Currently, I'm reading each book in order from author
AMANDA EYRE WARD. She and I both have connections to Savannah Georgia, Italy, Montana, Austin Texas and New England so i feel a kinship.

Then i'll get around to a little light Odyssyel reading. ;) - Cheers, Nelson

Now THIS is a vacation 🙌🙌🙌

There's also a fantastic streamable version of Ulysses on Spotify by Irish voice actors on RTÉ Radio 1: open.spotify.com/show/4wntQzELHUc6US7lHcdRlS

Btw Derek, I would love to see another one for Dubliners, perhaps for a walk through Dublin itself!
Dublin was my first thought, of course, but my hunch is it would over-emphasize his specifics (1918 Dublin, 7 Eccles Street, this pub, that brothel) instead of catching the themes and making new references. Kolkata and Istanbul seem like places that would also embody the book’s themes. — Derek

You’ll need to end this trip with a visit to Ithaki (Ithaca) Greece. The home of Ulysses!

This is like an immersive solo literary/walking holiday experience. I love it as a concept. The possibilities are endless of places to see and books to listen to (but never get around to).

So Derek where are you going to listen to Infinite Jest?

I have a tinge of regret every time I hear of Ulysses because I got in on Audible, and after 3 hours, I couldn't take it. I just wasn't interested in tracking so many different characters weaving in and out. But, I feel somehow less "intellectual" not having read it. Is it really worth spending so many hours reading? I guess it must be somehow--millions of people can't be wrong.

When I was in my teens, I made friends with a lot of bridge players from Bengal. They are some of the kindest people I have come across. (And they were 30-35 years older than me). I have lost touch with most of them, but I cherish the time I spent with them at bridge tournaments.

Can you recommend the two aidio books and share yhe links?

I tried reading a few books that were called so called classics but couldn't force myself to read more than a few chapters. Sometimes I am wondering if we are doing a disservice to ourselves by forcing ourselves to enjoy something we don't. People are different. Times change. Cultures change. Language changes. Why do we have the need to force enjoyment?

This is an interesting way of really understanding a book. I’m working my way through the 500 greatest books of all time. Ulysses is number two, and is quite a daunting prospect…as is La Recherche, which is number three. Perhaps you could do something similar in Paris for that.

Great! I'm going to do this over Lent. I won't make it to India or Turkey, but I will listen everyday while walking my dog.

If you like Ulysses, you'll love Molasses, who lived in the same tent his whole live, a site that (centuries later) became known as The Museum of Jurassic Technology.

After learning more about the classics (currently listening to Michel de Montaigne's Essays <3 <3 <3), I feel like we've figured everything out about the fundamentals of our condition more than a thousand years ago, but we keep repeating this stuff to each other as if it's something we just discovered! Like when I reread one of my old journal entries or blog posts and I go: whoa! I knew that back then yet I'm still behaving as if I hadn't made that discovery. How to take one's own advice?

I noticed you take voice notes. I came to recommend this app that I had been using to record notes: whispernotes.app/en. It transcribes and it's offline.

Hi Derek

I love your out of the box approach. I’ve been spending the past two years trudging through U with an annotated U book for both moral and emotional support. I still finding myself rereading passages but liken the experience to a Japanese Misogi.

Cheers,

Rob

Why not listen to the Odysey on greek island, and to Ulisses im Dublin? You can even walk the same streets and eat the same sandwich as Bloom in Dubln

I read Homer's "Odessey" in high school.

I wanted to 2nd this comment - sive.rs/ulysses#comment-85665 as I was going to share the same.

I've done Bloomsday in Dublin, it's a pretty incredible experience that I would recommend. I'd like to go back and do it with a friend, I did it by myself which likely wasn't the most optimal.

Your post reminds me of an exercise I did around 10 years ago with some friends in different cities around the world. I got inspired by an idea in the Lonely Planet Guide to Experimental Travel (unlike all their other books, imagine someone writing a travel guide by way of the Cacophony Society).

We explored our various cities picking a starting point at random, but using a map of Venice. So my friends in Chicago would explore Chicago using a map of Venice, I was in Montreal, etc. We'd try to navigate to a place on the map of Venice in our own city. It was quite revelatory in the way that it forced us to view our own city with new eyes, lenses, and experiences. This reminds me of that.

Certainly seems like the best possible way to do it to me! Quite an imaginative initiative!

Super to spend time in traveling and also learning something simultaneously.
Do you need any suggestion of books from us --- I read about 60 books a year and after COVID slowed down, hence have some lists for My Core Profession, Business, Technology, Leadership and Spirituality books, will be happy to share the best in my list

VN

Well, I've never read or listened to The Odyssey, but I did read enough of Finnegan's Wake to retain strong, lasting impressions of it. After reading the first two chapters, I got curious and went to the end of the book and read the last two pages, only to discover that the last sentence circles around and flows straight into the first line of the book, completing the circuit. So, in a way, I feel like I have read the entire book. Every once in a while I'll go back and read a section of it out loud, laughing, because when pronouncing it exactly the way it is written, I find myself speaking with an Irish accent.

Seems like a great plan. Can I do it with you this year?
I just quit my job last week and have a lot of time this year.

Actually, I really think this book is tough for me to understand. I've heard about it for ages, but when I gave it a try, I found the story a bit too complex to grasp. Derek, though, gave me a great approach to starting a book or learning something new. His steps were really detailed. If you follow them, you can fully understand what the book's about. It makes me recall a question I once pondered: it's not the quantity of books you read, but the quality of understanding. You can truly get the gist. So, for certain books, especially those meaningful, inspiring ones, I believe we should do in - depth reading rather than just skimming through. It's definitely more worthwhile and meaningful.

Pretty hard to read Ulysses. But it's a nice challenge, life is wonderful for a amount of challenges. Enjoy!

And on the flight home, watch "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" for a Depression Era Odyssey-inspired film that's quite enjoyable!

Or listen to the new online musical "EPIC".

Odysseus... seen Ralph playing him in "The Return"?

But to add to John's idea of reading in 'the' location... I have done so with benefits for 4 books, Tan Twan Eng first two books over two trips to Malaysia - Malacca and KL, and then Robert Gerwarth's bio, "Hitler's Hangman", and Laurent Binet's novelisation of the assassination both finished in Prague the bio was finished looking at St Cyril and Methodius pocked mark wall around the memorial plaque leaning on the building across the road... powerful stuff.

As always, have fun be safe...

The Other Tim
I LOVED “The Return”! — Derek

very interesting idea :D
i did like something similar with Athens but just a virtual tour in the agora area ( their ancient market place ) was pretty revealing !

BUT its super cool idea to take memos with questions because you are usually dont remember those

Don't do it! :D. It's like exposing yourself to narcissistic abuse voluntarily.... It reminds me of post-modernism. I felt lonely in my opinion about post modernism until I found Noam Chomsky's.

Great post!

Regarding The Odyssey, I recently read the graphic novel version of Sapiens, where humans surpassed Neanderthals because we could share "fictions" to regulate our behaviour, fictions that people we have never met would share.

Note: Mowgli was taught to say, for meeting various animals, "We be of one blood, you and I."

The shared fiction, or culture, in The Odyssey was to be hospitable to strangers. I guess this allowed trade and commerce.

Speaking of classics, I found The Iliad so moving that I did a Remembrance (memorial) Day piece on it for my essay blog.
Note: There is no Trojan Horse in The Iliad. The tragedy ends with the war still raging.

Derek, you may not know how much Hollywood war movies are despised by nonAmericans for having too much glory and for implying that the US won various wars (almost) all by themselves. For example, a D-Day movie will not say that the next beach over was assaulted by Canadians.

Maybe all cultures have media like that.

In contrast, as Simone Veil points out in her very thin book, The Poem of Force, neither side, Greek or Trojan, is glorified. From the story you cannot tell which side wrote it, or which side wins.

We have a James Joyce pub downtown. Wouldn't it be nice if a corner had the audio book always softly playing? But no, that would be like playing Star Trek instead of sports on the big screen: people wouldn't drink enough beer for the bar to make a profit.

In Greek, the Latin name Ulysses is Odysseus. I just viewed the Christopher Nolan movie where they kept talking about "Zeus's Law" to encourage hospitality: surely to allow trade. The epic takes place during the Bronze Age, before folks discovered iron. Before that, in the Hunting and Gathering Age, they must have had a similar shared law, because around sacred Stone Henge the archeologists have discovered one or more pretty things, such as a plate, that had come all the way from Germany. (I saw the Stone Henge exhibit at the British Museum)

I like free trade, not for transactional reasons or for making tedious individual deals, but as wide spread common sense. Late in the movie it is implied by Queen Penelope that the Sea People would come and destroy trade leading to a Dark Age.