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I need to learn how to not re-read or rewatch stuff because I fear that's all I do and that's what I'm currently doing.
When I was younger, I really loved the book 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' by James Joyce and I think that's because it was published on my birthday and when I was little I thought a lot of things didn't really happen on my birthday (which now, obviously isn't true and I think I have the coolest birthday in the world). And whenever I see the book laying around, I have to read the beginning because it's one of my favorite book openings of all time I could recite it from memory ("Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down a long the road and this moocow that was coming down a long the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo"). But every once in a while, I'll re read the whole book and I guess this is one of those times.
I genuinely love this book and I think its one of my favorite books to read especially when it comes to the descriptions of things. I like how Stephen will recall a certain event and describe it once again and the feeling of that event like an actual person would and his description of being ill is how I feel when I'm sick too. It also has really good dialogue too and its entertaining like the Christmas dinner scene early in the book and how it goes on and on like an actual conversation it's one of my favorite scenes in the book. I also like how you physically see and read Stephen's devolpment and sort of maturity where he starts gaining sense of stuff around him and sort of answering questions he was asking in the beginning and then starts asking more questions and the ending where it shifts from 3rd person to 1st person, genuinely cool stuff. I also really like the hymns and songs throughout this book and pull out his eyes, apologise is a banger.
My only problem is uhm well I can't stand Stephen sometimes he's annoying. But also for some reason, I am attracted by whatever gravitational pull to read and watch things where it's a persons alter ego going through life and that alter ego may be a little annoying especially later on (example Antoine Doinel I don't really like Antoine later he's annoying and sometimes I genuinely cringe at the things he does but at the end I really love Antoine) but I think when I get really frustrated and angry is what makes it better and enjoyable. I also really don't like the lack of punctuation in this book because I LOVE punctuation and I will overuse punctuation a lot in writing stuff and I can't write a full sentence that isn't 5 lines long before putting a period at the end. You do get used to the punctuation thing though and I start appreciating it sort of. But when I first read this like a few years ago, it was genuinely making my head hurt especially because there was no quotation marks to signal to who was talking, and so you genuinely need to pay attention when reading (which I struggle with because I zone out like halfway through a page trying to visualise the story and I start picking up noises around me and disaster). But I do have to say using em dashes to signal dialogue instead of quotation marks is very pretty because I love em dashes. And I'm actually really angry at ai for using em dashes. Because everytime I use an em dash in classes now, I have to prove I didn't use ai by showing the shortcut (which I know by heart on Chromebooks) to prove I didn't use ai. Whatever.
So yeah, I really like this book and that was what I was reading a couple moments ago and I love talking about books. I also started to write more both on computer, typewriter, and pencils and pen and I genuinely hate the prices of pencils you buy in a pack. I go through pencils like crazy so I buy boxes but I don't like how a box of 30-40 pencils is $5 so I have to buy cheap pencils and I hate the way cheap pencils shine in light. I also hate notebooks nowadays it has to say notebook on the cover and some of the patterns are UGLY and the feeling is sometimes gross too. This has been a very long nonsensical blog post that I am too lazy to check for grammar mistakes because it's sort of casual, not serious.
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Dante
It's time to spend all your money on nice pencils
Reading R/pencils rn
by Dante; ; Report
I just went on there and it was taunting me that I want blackwing pencils
by Theodorus; ; Report
Wow these are fancy the keith haring one is cute
by Dante; ; Report
YES I LOVE THE KEITH HARING ONES
by Theodorus; ; Report
Dante
This sounds interesting I love dialogue that goes on and on too and playing with punctuation
YESSSS it's sooo good I highly recommend (especially if you have or want to read Ulysses because the main character, Stephen, is a character in Ulysses). It has some beautiful lines and descriptions and funny lines of dialogue especially when he's in school which is the main setting of the book. I often re-read certain paragraphs multiple times because the writing is beautiful or interesting and if you like seeing characters grow up then it's a book to defineltly read.
There's so many editions of it, but I highly recommend getting an annotated one — at least with an introduction and end/footnotes, I read a mass paperback one and it sucked and was so hard to follow omg and font. I have the Penguin Black Classics one so that's the one I'm using for this re-read but it kinda sucks because they don't have footnotes which would be helpful because this book is filled with slang, symbolism, jokes, names and etymology, and references to personal history and world history). It's also really annoying having to flip to the back of the book and back and forth for me personally. BUT it's a nice font size and easy to read it feels like and it's small. However, when I first read the book, I read a Penguin Modern Classics edition aka the light blue one and I didn't like that one because the font felt smaller than the Black Classics one and it kinda sucked but I don't think there's a difference. The Norton Critical one is good if you want to learn why Joyce wrote it and the personal and historical stuff that happened that gets mentioned and portrayed in the book, and it also has pictures, letters, a bunch of essays from scholars throught the years, and footnotes. So if you want an academic version then I would get the Norton. BUT it's a big bigger than the Penguin ones I think it has 200 or more pages, the paper could be very thin if its like my other Nortons, but I haven't read the Norton because that was one of the books I tried to order but it was canceled but I've been wanting to read it. There's also the Oxford World Classics one. It's in the middle of the Penguin edition and the Norton edition and by that I mean it's much smaller than the Norton I'd say around the same page amount as the Penguin, but it has some essays (which the Penguin does not) so it's a good one because it's a nice blend. There's also the Everyman's Library one and I like those books especially their Wodehouse series but it's similar to the Norton but it's hardcover and heavy and awkward to hold.
this is so long I just went full on rambling mode omg
by Theodorus; ; Report
OOH Omg okay very very interesting I'll definitely be taking a look thank you I appreciate the detail on the different editions cause I probably wouldn't have had any idea erurmmm also I could get the norton edition for you since they wont let you...
by Dante; ; Report
Very tempting offer you do know my address and all that jazz
by Theodorus; ; Report
Yes I do heheheh show me the photography ones you wanted too
by Dante; ; Report
beastie boys spike jonze book, the paul mccartney eyes of the storm book and the hank williams lost highway photobook but they're literally like over $100-200 together so i was trying to get them with my school money but i'd just be fine with the portrait of the artist as a young man thank you
by Theodorus; ; Report