I'm so glad you're continuing to enjoy Ulysses! And that you like Bloom. :) Your posts (especially all the quotes) are making me want to read it again. I went back to find where I had typed up my own quotes, but there were a lot fewer of them than I'd remembered. Obviously I was not being very thorough. (I love some of the ones you've been picking out.) The cat was there, though. ;)
Here are the ones I had, up to the point you've reached now (split into two comments): A yellow dressinggown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him by the mild morning air
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Want to be sure of his spelling. Proof fever. Martin cunningham forgot to give us his spellingbee conundrum this morning. It is amusing to view the unpar one ar alleled embarra two ars is it? double ess ment of a harassed pedlar while gauging au the symmetry of a peeled pear under a cemetery wall. Silly, isn’t it? Cemetery put in of course on account of the symmetry
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1. I love Ulysses SO MUCH, and Bloom, and stuff like "We were always loyal to lost causes, the professor said." It gives me such joy to see people talking about it this way. :)
2. Not to butt into the conversation, but I definitely think in words. I mean, outside of specific and unusual circumstances, I have an ongoing interior monologue. I'd sort of always assumed that the fact that "interior monologue" is a widely recognized term meant that most people have something similar. (This is a pitfall that I compulsively try to avoid--"I have experienced [x], so lots of other human beings must have experienced [x]!"--but I seem to have fallen into it here.) Did your friend talk about how she thinks, if not in words?
I'd sort of always assumed that the fact that "interior monologue" is a widely recognized term meant that most people have something similar.
That's exactly what I told axmxz. Actually, that was how the conversation started (we were, in fact, originally talking about Hannibal :D). She was saying she didn't think most people had an inner monologue, and I was like, "But... but modernism? Stream of consciousness?? Ulysses???" It sounded like she had taken it that Joyce was trying to represent thought as words, but that it hadn't entirely worked (because how could it work, when thoughts obviously are not words?). She never exactly explained how she does think. She said that sometimes individual words or phrases will pop into her head -- like, if she hears something/reads something that reminds her of a particular phrase, for instance. But she said most of the time she has no words in her head at all.
This is something I actually cannot imagine. I've tried, in the past, to imagine what it must be like for animals/babies to think
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This is something I actually cannot imagine. [. . .] [T]he idea that you can be -- not just a fully functional adult human, but a highly-literate, articulate, intellectual, multi-lingual human (as she is) and yet not think in words is... like, utterly baffling to me.
Ditto. But also... I used to feel this way about people who don't have ongoing stories in their heads that they can retreat into whenever they're alone/unoccupied/bored. I used to think, "How do people like that survive?" But four or five years ago, I stopped being able to access those stories. And it's really hard to articulate the difference, to talk about the loss, while also recognizing that millions of people DO live without that and not only survive but thrive.
Humans are so bizarre and inconsistent. I think that's why I've chosen to work with non-human animals. ;)
(aww, I wish that too! Obviously LM-fans-turned-Hannibal-fans are the best people.)
(apologies from me too, hamsterwoman! I read your whole post; I just didn't
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Ulysses still majorly fails to register with my brain - it sort of just..slips. Possibly because I was never all that good with English poetry? It takes effort for me to read and appreciate, unlike Russian one.
But i was pretty amused by your review of the romance :D :D I mean, such serious treatment! :D tumblr-y should be a legit epithet *giggles*
Stupid perfect world sounds potentially very entertaining tho! *makes a mental note*
Some of the passages do just slip off my brain, and I just kind of let them, if that's what they want to do (as I tend to do with poetry).
such serious treatment!
I appear to be in a weird mood to read kidlit/silly fluff and analyze it to death :P But the Courtney Milan romance is legitimately cute, and I can totally see why people who actually enjoy romances tend to love them.
"Stupid Perfect World" was actually really fun and quick -- of the stories in that collection, I definitely recommend it if you come across it. (Westerfeld in general is pretty consistently good, though there is a definite continuum of how much I like his stuff. At this point, though, he's one of those YA authors, like Holly Black, whose new work I'm willing to try regardless of premise. Not as good as Holly Black as an author, I feel, but good enough that he gets the benefit of the doubt from me.)
I might go and dig up that story, actually! Even if I enjoy what I'm doing, I do miss reading :S And heh, analyzing light braincandy lit to death can be fun - but probably not very kind to the story :P
And aww, thank you for the present - I shall be most eagerly looking forward to it ♥ ♥ ♥ and no worries - pigeons are never late nor are they early, they come precisely when they are done pigeoning :D
It's a light, fun, quick story -- might be a good way to dip back into reading :) (Though I'm assuming you're still poring over the Greek romance :P)
Actually, I keep thinking the Werewolf Marines book may appeal to you as well, though I can't articulate why to myself. Probably for reasons different than it appeals to me... but the female lead struggling to construct/reclaim her humanity seems like your sort of character. Or maybe I'm subconsciously associating you with the very extroverted, big-hearted, cheerfully charismatic male lead, the one who is my favorite thing about this series ;P
I really liked the Brothers Sinister books. Although I agree with everything you've said about Robert, and it probably applies to the rest of the books as well. I think Robert is the most blatant example, but I could be misremembering. But I have been known to go through phases (short and rare) where I'm in the mood for meaningless and fluffy and therefore will read lots of Regency romances until I get tired of them, so I liked these for having characters that were different from the usual round. Although, yeah, more Victorian than Regency, I think.
I'm glad to hear the others are not as blatant as Robert! -- I did get the sense I would enjoy Oliver and Sebastian's stories more because of what they're like as characters vs his. And I can understand Milan's point, and would rather read about improbably modern/aware characters rather than authentically terrible ones...
Of the Brothers Sinister books, which one would you say is your favorite?
I definitely have 'meaningless and fluffy' phases, too, although mine usually have me reading cookie-cutter YA silliness :P
Ooh, I just went to look them up and there's one I haven't read! And "The Countess Conspiracy", Sebastian's story, I don't remember very well; I need to re-read that one, because in the other stories Sebastian seems like an intriguing character. Of the ones I do remember, I liked "The Heiress Effect" the best. Although there was a minor subplot that made me roll my eyes really hard, and now that I've read your remarks, I get a better sense of why. :)
Huh, why did this end up screened? LJ is so weird...
The Heiress Effect is the Oliver story, right? That one seems the most appealing overall (I liked Sebastian, but I'm not sure how he'd make the transition from supporting/comic relief to leading man). But now I'm curious about the eye-roll-y subplot :D
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Here are the ones I had, up to the point you've reached now (split into two comments):
A yellow dressinggown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him by the mild morning air ( ... )
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2. Not to butt into the conversation, but I definitely think in words. I mean, outside of specific and unusual circumstances, I have an ongoing interior monologue. I'd sort of always assumed that the fact that "interior monologue" is a widely recognized term meant that most people have something similar. (This is a pitfall that I compulsively try to avoid--"I have experienced [x], so lots of other human beings must have experienced [x]!"--but I seem to have fallen into it here.) Did your friend talk about how she thinks, if not in words?
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That's exactly what I told axmxz. Actually, that was how the conversation started (we were, in fact, originally talking about Hannibal :D). She was saying she didn't think most people had an inner monologue, and I was like, "But... but modernism? Stream of consciousness?? Ulysses???" It sounded like she had taken it that Joyce was trying to represent thought as words, but that it hadn't entirely worked (because how could it work, when thoughts obviously are not words?). She never exactly explained how she does think. She said that sometimes individual words or phrases will pop into her head -- like, if she hears something/reads something that reminds her of a particular phrase, for instance. But she said most of the time she has no words in her head at all.
This is something I actually cannot imagine. I've tried, in the past, to imagine what it must be like for animals/babies to think ( ... )
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This is something I actually cannot imagine. [. . .] [T]he idea that you can be -- not just a fully functional adult human, but a highly-literate, articulate, intellectual, multi-lingual human (as she is) and yet not think in words is... like, utterly baffling to me.
Ditto. But also... I used to feel this way about people who don't have ongoing stories in their heads that they can retreat into whenever they're alone/unoccupied/bored. I used to think, "How do people like that survive?" But four or five years ago, I stopped being able to access those stories. And it's really hard to articulate the difference, to talk about the loss, while also recognizing that millions of people DO live without that and not only survive but thrive.
Humans are so bizarre and inconsistent. I think that's why I've chosen to work with non-human animals. ;)
(aww, I wish that too! Obviously LM-fans-turned-Hannibal-fans are the best people.)
(apologies from me too, hamsterwoman! I read your whole post; I just didn't ( ... )
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But i was pretty amused by your review of the romance :D :D I mean, such serious treatment! :D tumblr-y should be a legit epithet *giggles*
Stupid perfect world sounds potentially very entertaining tho! *makes a mental note*
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such serious treatment!
I appear to be in a weird mood to read kidlit/silly fluff and analyze it to death :P But the Courtney Milan romance is legitimately cute, and I can totally see why people who actually enjoy romances tend to love them.
"Stupid Perfect World" was actually really fun and quick -- of the stories in that collection, I definitely recommend it if you come across it. (Westerfeld in general is pretty consistently good, though there is a definite continuum of how much I like his stuff. At this point, though, he's one of those YA authors, like Holly Black, whose new work I'm willing to try regardless of premise. Not as good as Holly Black as an author, I feel, but good enough that he gets the benefit of the doubt from me.)
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And aww, thank you for the present - I shall be most eagerly looking forward to it ♥ ♥ ♥ and no worries - pigeons are never late nor are they early, they come precisely when they are done pigeoning :D
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Actually, I keep thinking the Werewolf Marines book may appeal to you as well, though I can't articulate why to myself. Probably for reasons different than it appeals to me... but the female lead struggling to construct/reclaim her humanity seems like your sort of character. Or maybe I'm subconsciously associating you with the very extroverted, big-hearted, cheerfully charismatic male lead, the one who is my favorite thing about this series ;P
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Of the Brothers Sinister books, which one would you say is your favorite?
I definitely have 'meaningless and fluffy' phases, too, although mine usually have me reading cookie-cutter YA silliness :P
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The Heiress Effect is the Oliver story, right? That one seems the most appealing overall (I liked Sebastian, but I'm not sure how he'd make the transition from supporting/comic relief to leading man). But now I'm curious about the eye-roll-y subplot :D
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