Should I read The Odyssey before Ulysses? Does it make any difference

You should read the Odyssey before any other western book, actually.

>>8151051
Not before the Iliad though.
>>8151038
I read The Odyssey immediately before Ulysses and it let me catch some references, but I didn't find that it added much to my experience overall.

>>8151066
Should I read Illiad first or?

>>8151071

Yeah, read the Illiad first.

>>8151038
And you only really need to read the first half or so of the Odyssey to understand the big allusions in Ulysses. I still recommend reading all of it because it's an extremely useful story to be familiar with.

>>8151038
Dante and Shakespeare are good background too.

>>8151038
You can, and it elucidates things to some extent, but you really don't have to.

>>8151038
The books that I would most recommend reading before hand are Joyce's earlier works. Dubliners and then Portrait of the Artist. You can read Chamber Music if you want but I can only remember one reference to it in Ulysses so it's not that essential.

>>8151038
Reading Portrait of the Artist before Ulysses makes a world of difference. The character carries through. Odyssey isn't necessary but as others will have pointed out, there's no reaon for you not to read it for itself.

You should read
The odyssey
Hamlet
Maybe the bible
Dubliners
A portrait of the artist as a young man
You will never be able to understand every allusion though so it doesn't really matter what you read. It won't be enough

>>8152252
Chamber music as in the play set in the mental Asylum?
Im part of a production of that. Did not pick up any joyce references

>>8153201
As in the book of poems by James Joyce
His strength lies more in prose though

>>8152837
This plus Ibsen, Joyce worshiped Ibsen. Hedda Gabler and Ghosts were his favorites.

>>8151071
You don't have to but it's fun.

>>8153201
Chamber music refers to the sound a lady makes in a water closet

>>8153590
I've got a penguin collection entitled A Dolls House and other Plays.
Will that suffice

>>8153636
what happens if i don't?

>>8153655
i dunno you will just be less prepared

>>8153655
you die

>>8153655
Nothing, the allusions to other literature are superficial. If you listen to these people saying you need to read the entire western canon before Ulysses, you're just going to be desperately looking for literary references that aren't even very important, and missing the value of the text on its own

>>8151038
Read Dubliners, then Portrait, then Ulysses. The Homer is optional, especially for the first Ulysses read.

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>>8153636
Woah, Dante had a last name

>>8154422
You have a lot of work ahead of you bruh

>>8151038

If you're asking this question in the first place, you're probably not ready for Ulysses.