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Posted By: Jazzoctopus gready - 05/26/02 04:12 PM
In order to experience as much of a dichotomy as possible, I've begun reading Joyce's Dubliners while still working on The Fountainhead.

In the second tale, "An Encounter", I encountered the passage: "He began to talk of the weather, saying that it would be a very hot summer and adding that the seasons had changed gready since he was a boy--a long time ago."

I think I can pretty well understand what it means from context, but I haven't found it in "the dictionary" or by googling. I suspect that it's Irish slang, being Joyce and all. Does anyone know anything about it?

Posted By: Rapunzel Re: gready - 05/26/02 07:17 PM
Might it be a typo for "greatly?"

Posted By: Jazzoctopus Re: gready - 05/27/02 01:18 AM
Ah yes, good point. I looked other places and found it both ways, so I believe you're right. Thanks.

Posted By: Wordwind Re: gready - 05/27/02 01:28 AM
I haven't read that story in years, but I'd say that the word meant greatly, but Joyce was writing it as the speaker pronounced it rather than as a typographical error....although that's possible, too, but I'd bet on the odd pronunciation.

Posted By: Jazzoctopus Re: gready - 05/27/02 02:44 AM
Speaking of Joyce . . . since, well, we kind of are . . . what experiences have you all had with him? I haven't read too much yet, basically just the first two stories of Dubliners (I've read that it's best to start with his early works and go chronologically), but I'm not quite getting that epiphany that's supposed to be in each story. Is this because of a lack of knowledge about Irish culture, or it is really that complex? What do you think?

Posted By: belligerentyouth Re: gready - 05/27/02 12:08 PM
A good place to dip your feet in is 'A Portrait of ..', if you're going for his early works. I haven't read Dubliners, but Ulysses is a slog to say the least. I read it as best I could. It's a book I'll have to come back to though; I don't have the tools with which to adequately enjoy and comprehend it.

Posted By: slithy toves Re: gready - 05/27/02 01:36 PM
I agree that A Portrait of the Artist,,, is a proper vehicle into the Joycean realm--the atmosphere is all there, but the reader can penetrate it without any real disorientation. Ulysses and especially Finnegan's Wake demand much more of an investment , but are well worth the effort for anyone who loves words. There are some valuable books written by Joyce scholars, delving into the author's quirky genius with vocabulary.

Best of all for the reader just getting into Joyce is, I think, Dubliners. I find The Dead a deeply moving story. I also loved John Huston's filmed version. As I recall, it was his last movie--a wonderful epiphany.

Posted By: Bobyoungbalt Re: Joyce - 05/28/02 01:15 AM
I agree, ST, that Portrait of the Artist is the best introduction to Joyce. Better even than Dubliners. But by all means, Jazzo, once you've read Portrait, do try Ulysses. It's a masterpiece. Joyce's inventive use of the language is truly astounding. I'm not alluding just to the stream-of-consciousness technique, but to his use of words and style. There is a section (the one where Bloom visits the hospital where Mrs. Purefoy is lying in) where he starts in a sort of Ango-Saxon style, using no words with a derivation from anything other than Anglo-Saxon, then segues into a Middle English style, from there to Spencerian, then to late Elizabethan, etc., giving you a short historic tour of the English language. Then there is the part written like advertisements. Many lyrical passages, many linguistic leg-pulls and just having a good old time with language.

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