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> Admitting that I may be self-consciously afraid that I lack the education to “get” Ulysses, I also wonder whether works of art should be considered greater on

> Admitting that I may be self-consciously afraid that I lack the education to “get” Ulysses, I also wonder whether works of art should be considered greater on account of the complexity of their allusions. I’ve read Ulysses twice - painstakingly, once on my own, and once in a course in college from a well known Joyce scholar. It was tremendous having help from an expert. In the end I don’t know if I enjoyed the book so much because of the amount of effort it took, or because of the merits of the artist behind it, but I’ve definitely concluded that Finnegans Wake just isn’t worth it. Either way, I hadn’t seen this website and I’ve been thinking about reading it again, so maybe I will with this as my guide.

aasasd 5y ago
> concluded that Finnegans Wake just isn’t worth it I thought it's still not deciphered to the same extent that you would expect to grok ‘Ulysses’?
mordechai9000 5y ago
My experience is exactly the opposite. I've never been able to get into Ulysses. I enjoy the Wake for the poetic language and imagery, and the incredible scope of it. I don't worry too much about the allusions and puns, they are kind of a bonus. I first read the Wake with Joseph Campbell's "A Skeleton Key to Finnegan's Wake" as a companion, and I've used other texts, too. Maybe I should revisit Ulysses.