[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

Congratulations Sun Surfer. I read Ulysses straight through shortly after I graduated college and worked for a few years before returning to graduate school. I was working in a very small town in South Carolina, and while the job was enjoyable and challenging, life outside of work was like being in a state of stasis. It took me almost six months to get through it and while I had already read Homer in college, much of Ulysses was lost on me. I consider that I am fairly well read, but not literate enough for Ulysses I guess. I fought Ulysses to the conclusion, but did not conquer it I'm afraid .

Thanks Hamlet53, and good on you for taking it on yourself and completing it at what sounds like a young age. Similarly I have just read the Odyssey and the Iliad within the last few years (the group reads here at MR actually), and studied them so to speak, and I agree they don't help all that much in understanding Ulysses. A basic understanding of the Odyssey did help - it clued me in to chapter names and certain structures and story turns - but there's just so much else going on in the book as well.

I don't know if anyone is really "literate" enough for Ulysses without "studying" it. It's just so dense and complex. I think only by some people going line by line and researching and discussing with other scholars and writing annotations and comparing notes have people begun unravelling everything in the book. You may have lost the battle of understanding parts of it, but you won the war of finishing it.

Originally Posted by BelleZora

I agree that Don Quixote is not difficult. It is entertaining and often funny. I once read the Bible cover to cover. Leviticus and Deuteronomy were where I learned perseverance.

My formal education was sporadic and limited, although I have a life-long love of books. I don't think I realized what I was missing in academic discipline or even the ability to cogently discuss what I read until I found MR (and in discussions with my granddaughter who is a PhD candidate at Princeton). I appreciate that what binds us is simply a love of reading and that no one is turned out while learning from others...

Now I have the opportunity to turn the tables and tell you that I'm impressed that you read the Bible entirely. I have tried before awhile ago and gave up a few books in. I still hope to one day.