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Comment by fergie | Hacker News Reader

Joyce's books are, in a real sense, "unreadable", and thats to some degree what the attraction is.

Unreadable, but very very listenable. These books are amazing on audio tape and fantastic to listen to when going on hikes or runs or whatever. I find there is a very pleasant atmospheric lyricism to Joyce's work that paints a very particular picture of Dublin that is quite fascinating and enjoyable.

Art sometimes is best absorbed rather than understood. Great art can reveal when pressed, but I usually only do that randomly to ensure that there is substance there, and there usually is.

Yes. I only read Finnegans Wake by reading it aloud to myself. I can hear a lot more of the puns and word enjambnents auditorally than I can see them visually.

Having said that, I am still reading the book only a few pages at a time every other week or so. I’m 25 years in and not even close to being done. I’m ok with that.

I think (for me at least) it's best approached as a kind of wild, surreal poetry with mythological themes and scope.

I've never read it end to end, and I probably never will, but there are passages I have memorized just from rereading them so many times.

huh? In a very real sense I read Dubliners last month.

That is by far his most readable work. And his earliest. He became steadily more impenetrable over time.

TIL- will check it out

I love Dubliners and reread it all the time. Shows what Joyce could have produced if he stayed in that style, but then again he may not have become Joyce.

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