Notebook - Life After Joyce

Notebook
Is there life after James Joyce? Now that I’m almost done reading Ulysses — the last sixty or so pages consists of a single sentence without punctuation, by the way — it’s time to ask that question. One of the first things I intend to do after I finish is to write down my impressions and present them here on the site. I need to do this right away, while I’m still under the book’s spell, because it will be easier to convey the spirit of the writing. This is especially important, because in the case of Ulysses there has already been a mountain of commentary and criticism published about it — a great deal of which, it seems, either confuses, paralyzes, or chases away new readers of the work. At the same time, I am faced with a choice: do I seek out more of Joyce’s work (besides Ulysses, I’ve read only his early collection of short stories, Dubliners), or do I move on to other books and authors? Frankly, I’m tempted to tackle the last book Joyce wrote, Finnegans Wake. Every time I’ve picked it up in a book store, I’ve wondered about the gibberish it contains — gibberish that took him sixteen years to write. I’d really like to know, is it magnificent gibberish, or is it the author’s final attempt at chasing away his loyal readers? On the other hand, it might be wise to move on to some of the other books that have been stacking up around here: short stories, novels, poetry, plays. In the time it takes me to read Finnegans Wake, I can probably finish the large international collection of short stories I bought at a used book store last year. That way, I’d be sampling the prose styles of more than a hundred authors instead of just one. This knowledge could come in handy at cocktail parties — if I went to cocktail parties. (I hear you have to be invited. Maybe I should give one of my own. . . . Hmm. . . . I wonder if I’d attend?)	Also by William Michaelian POETRY Winter Poems ISBN: 978-0-9796599-0-4 52 pages. Paper. —————————— Another Song I Know ISBN: 978-0-9796599-1-1 80 pages. Paper. —————————— Cosmopsis Books San Francisco Signed copies available Main Page Author’s Note Background A Listening Thing Among the Living No Time to Cut My Hair One Hand Clapping Songs and Letters Collected Poems Early Short Stories Armenian Translations Cosmopsis Print Editions Interviews News and Reviews Highly Recommended Let’s Eat Favorite Books & Authors Useless Information Conversation Flippantly Answered Questions E-mail & Parting Thoughts
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