A portrait of the artist as a young man

>>9404612
nice insights thanks for sharing

I kind-of got stuck with the prose and dropped it about a 100 pages in. I did find some moments emotionally gripping, but it just seemed fairly aimless.

>>9404612
Coming of age novels suck. Idgaf about some spoilt fucks awkwardness around girls

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>>9404612
The prose is beautiful, and not given enough praise. I love how the language Joyce uses evolves as Stephen Dedalus grows older.

The novel starts with:

>Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo...

And ends with:

>Old father, old atificer, stand me now and ever in good stead.

I find that revolutionary and extremely beautiful.

>>9404612
>and the Stephen character to be pretentious and annoying
As Joyce intended. Wait until you meet the prick in Ulysses ...

>>9404612
I thought it was worth reading for the Priest's sermon alone.

Stephen is supposed to be pretentious and annoying. Much like Holden Caulfield, your enjoyment of the book seems to hinge on how easily you can distance yourself from them.

>>9405740
>>9405962
>he's supposed to be pretentious and annoying

Is it wrong that I found him to be extremely relatable? Somehow Ulysses furthered that feeling for me. Am I pretentious and annoying?

I adore the beginning and then found it quite boring after around a third of the way it. The rest of the book didn't have what I love about Joyce: the playful approach to language. The beginning was written in a lovely blend of babytalk and Irish slang and bedtime-story prose but once the character matured it was just straight forward. Dubliners didn't play much with language either but at least the stories were comfy and made you think without blatantly telling you to do so

>>9406642
>Is it wrong that I found him to be extremely relatable?
Not at all. So did I, when I read A Portrait aged 21. There's a lot to admire in Stephen, but he's sorely lacking in life experience and comes across as something of a poseur. It is implied that he will go on to be a revolutionary artist, but not before he shakes off his humble beginnings and provincial worldview.

>Am I pretentious and annoying?
If you're young and academically minded, then very probably (I know I was.) But this is part of Joyce's point: everybody with aspirations will face a struggle to break their shackles. Don't worry, in the end Joyce is rooting for you.

>>9404612
what Mark Chapman felt about The Catcher in the Rye is what i feel about Portrait

>>9408051
Glad I got Chapman's opinion tattooed on my forearm. I initially only did it because it would help me jerk off, but now it has a second use!