‘Ulysses’: The Intricacy of James Joyce

Buildings constructed out of words, characters made with such complexity that they can jump out the pages and stories so vivid, it feels like one is reading an epic. These words describe James Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses. Ulysses follows three characters and their daily life over the course of one day, yet, the detailing of that day spans nearly 800 pages. One may wonder, how is it possible for an author to convey just a single day over so many pages? What is so fascinating about our characters that makes them compelling enough to be followed in such a seemingly ordinary journey?

YANDAVA | Fictions of the Self

“Write what you know” is one of the writing clichés I have come to despise. Often, I find that I don’t know what I think or feel until I write, and even then, in the very moment of writing, I have a vague sense that perhaps I am only making things up, only pouring my experience into the mold of a voice congealed out of everything I’ve ever read or watched or heard, that none of this is really “me” at all, and in the last analysis, I am forced to concur with Montaigne: Que sçais-je?