Comments on: The Hero with a Thousand Faces http://www.anamchara.com/2008/08/02/the-hero-with-a-thousand-faces/ Carl McColman ~ The Fullness of Joy is to Behold God in All Tue, 22 May 2012 04:20:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: knightofswords http://www.anamchara.com/2008/08/02/the-hero-with-a-thousand-faces/#comment-4036 knightofswords Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:56:57 +0000 http://mccolman.wordpress.com/?p=1012#comment-4036 I've been waiting for this book for a long time since my original copy (published in 1968 at $3.95 per copy before there was a Luke Skywalker!) has had such a great impact on my life. Let's hope the new edition brings others into the influence of its roadmap. Malcolm I’ve been waiting for this book for a long time since my original copy (published in 1968 at $3.95 per copy before there was a Luke Skywalker!) has had such a great impact on my life.

Let’s hope the new edition brings others into the influence of its roadmap.

Malcolm

]]> By: Carl McColman http://www.anamchara.com/2008/08/02/the-hero-with-a-thousand-faces/#comment-4035 Carl McColman Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:16:02 +0000 http://mccolman.wordpress.com/?p=1012#comment-4035 Ned, I studied Joyce in college, so I do think it's helpful to read him in a group or class context. If that's not possible, then at least read him chronologically: the collection of short stories called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679600493/earthmystic" rel="nofollow">Dubliners</a> is easily his most accessible work, but filled with Irish humor and ironic insight. Then move on to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0142437344/earthmystic" rel="nofollow">A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man</a>, a semi- autobiographical masterpiece in which Joyce unpacks his odyssey from provincially-minded Catholic Irishman to a more universally-inspired acolyte of Art. From there you jump into the deep end of the pool with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0141182806/earthmystic" rel="nofollow">Ulysses</a>, which is part love song to the city of Dublin, part comical reimagining of the Odyssey in modern form (a literary conceit which the Coen brothers raised to sublime farce in <i>O Brother, Where Art Thou?</i>) and part breathtaking tour through the major elements of western knowledge. Whew! Finally, if you're a real glutton for punishment, try wading through <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0141181265/earthmystic" rel="nofollow">Finnegans Wake</a>. I've read the entire thing (and have the book, filled with marginalia and underlining, to prove it) but I doubt if I "got" 1% of it. Filled with puns that hop from language to language in such a multi-layered way that the entire text winds up being dense if not impenetrable, it nevertheless has an almost otherworldly poetic beauty to it that cannot be "understood" so much as merely "experienced." Kind of like mysticism. Incidentally, the name of my archives page — <a href="http://anamchara.com/hob/luck/" rel="nofollow">House of Breathings</a> — comes from an image in <i>Finnegans Wake</i>. Happy reading! Ned, I studied Joyce in college, so I do think it’s helpful to read him in a group or class context. If that’s not possible, then at least read him chronologically: the collection of short stories called Dubliners is easily his most accessible work, but filled with Irish humor and ironic insight. Then move on to A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, a semi- autobiographical masterpiece in which Joyce unpacks his odyssey from provincially-minded Catholic Irishman to a more universally-inspired acolyte of Art. From there you jump into the deep end of the pool with Ulysses, which is part love song to the city of Dublin, part comical reimagining of the Odyssey in modern form (a literary conceit which the Coen brothers raised to sublime farce in O Brother, Where Art Thou?) and part breathtaking tour through the major elements of western knowledge. Whew! Finally, if you’re a real glutton for punishment, try wading through Finnegans Wake. I’ve read the entire thing (and have the book, filled with marginalia and underlining, to prove it) but I doubt if I “got” 1% of it. Filled with puns that hop from language to language in such a multi-layered way that the entire text winds up being dense if not impenetrable, it nevertheless has an almost otherworldly poetic beauty to it that cannot be “understood” so much as merely “experienced.” Kind of like mysticism.

Incidentally, the name of my archives page — House of Breathings — comes from an image in Finnegans Wake.

Happy reading!

]]> By: ned http://www.anamchara.com/2008/08/02/the-hero-with-a-thousand-faces/#comment-4034 ned Sat, 09 Aug 2008 20:50:51 +0000 http://mccolman.wordpress.com/?p=1012#comment-4034 Carl, I'm wondering if I dare attempt a reading of James Joyce. I tried the other day and was quite intimidated by the prose! ;-) Any tips for someone starting to read Joyce? Does one have to get into an altered state to understand what he means? ;-) Carl, I’m wondering if I dare attempt a reading of James Joyce. I tried the other day and was quite intimidated by the prose! ;-) Any tips for someone starting to read Joyce? Does one have to get into an altered state to understand what he means? ;-)

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