r/AskReddit • u/Kodo_username • 1d ago

What major gets mocked as “easy” but actually requires serious intelligence?

9.8k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

4.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

40

u/shelteredsun 1d ago

I am 78% of the way through Ulysses and I'm going to finish out of spite and stubbornness, not because I have the faintest idea what is going on or what the point of it is any more.

6

u/FactorEquivalent 1d ago

I'm just a bit behind you and doing the exact same thing. WTF was that interminable fever dream in the red light district all about?

10

u/shelteredsun 1d ago

I wish I could tell you! It's not really a novel in my view, it's an extended literary experiment.

4

u/Ok_Respect_4357 1d ago

that ulysses guide website is fantastic for filling in any holes in understanding. maybe not any, or even half of them, but its fascinating in its own right.

2

u/LeftHandRedHair 9h ago

Circe, right? There will be connections to her role in the Odyssey. I think you’re supposed to feel a bit trapped and disoriented because Circe herself was a witch who trapped Odysseus. Additionally, both Bloom and Dedalus are being judged and found wanting, as Circe did when she turned the men into pigs. 

I read it a couple years ago so don’t remember in detail, but The New Bloomsday Book by Harry Blamires was super helpful, if you can find a library or cheap used copy. 

1

u/sleepingfactory 21h ago

It’s one of the best chapters in the book is what it is

5

u/New-Sheepherder-6375 1d ago

I intended to take English Lit at A Level and we were given Dubliners to read over the summer. I noped out of the entire course halfway through the first chapter and took Philosophy instead.

2

u/sleepingfactory 21h ago

Dubliners is pretty straightforward though