Well, after a reading marathon this morning, I finally finished Ulysses. It's very difficult, as I expected, but it's also very, very good. Unbelievably so, in fact. If you decide to read it, I'd recommend getting a little help, either from SparkNotes (free!), as I did, or from a companion book of some kind, as I also did. There's just too much you'll miss otherwise.

For what it's worth, my favorite chapters were #1 Ithaca (the questions chapter), #2 Scylla & Charybdis (the Hamlet/Shakespeare chapter), and #3 Nausicaa (the Gerty chapter). I also liked Penelope a lot, which is surprising, because normally I hate the stream-of-consciousness style. I may even promote it above Nausicaa when I've had more time to think about it. Circe's good too, though loooooong. Least favorite chapter: Oxen of the Sun. I get it, but man, it's just unreadable.

A book like Ulysses, variously described as modernist and postmodernist, and really beloning to both, just goes to show how none of these terms has any real meaning at all. Modernism, postmodernism--what's the difference, really? And don't get me started on Don Quixote.

In other news, the existence of James Joyce makes me feel extremely small, and sad.