...to all of you who, like me, never got past page 3 of Ulysses. Don't feel too bad; it's a daunting monstrosity and there are plenty of other good books to keep you occupied. And besides, you'll never read all of the classics anyway. As a friend of mine once said, "Life is short and art is long." So relax; read something you enjoy.
If you insist on tackling James Joyce, however, here's a tip from someone who hasn't gotten very far with any of his work: read it as part of a class. Joyce was a Modernist, which is code for "impenetrable." I learned this last summer when I took a class in Modern Art. It was a great course and I learned a few other things as well. The first is that Modernism wasn't created for people like you and me; it was created for the cognoscenti. And secondly, you need an interpreter.
After 8 or 10 sessions and two trips to local museums, I now hope to someday know about one-tenth of one percent about Modern Art. But having a teacher explain what exactly it was we were looking at (and some of it was really Modern; see Koons, Jeff) made me realize the futility of trying it on my own. I decided that going to a museum by yourself is like walking down a street in a foreign country and thinking you can understand what is being said around you. (Although I do remember a time once in Garmisch-Partenkirchen when I recalled just enough of my high school German to understand one of the locals. He appeared to be pointing in my direction and, while nudging his friend with his elbow, said something to the effect of "Check out that #&$%!" I never did find out who he was talking about.) So go ahead and read Ulysses if you must, but do yourself a favor and do it in the context of a class.
Oh, and as for those famous (and valuable) drip paintings by Jackson Pollock, I finally summoned the courage to ask the instructor, "Couldn't anybody do that?" His response, "Yeah, but they didn't!"
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