Podcast: re: Joyce

I came upon this podcast while browsing in iTunes. It’s been around for a while, but apparently I missed it. I tend to miss things, big things, but that’s another post. If you ever wanted to understand James Joyce’s Ulysses this is the podcast. It’s called: Frank Delaney’s Re: Joyce. The podcast by veteran broadcaster Delaney is meant to commemorate Joyce’s mighty novel. And mighty the novel is, if you ever read it, and also quite hard to understand__at least for me. But there is something about the language of Ulysses that is intoxicating and if you don’t understand all the arcane references and allusions used you sense you should. But is Ulysses worth the effort? Yes. And now Delaney makes it easy. Every week Delaney gives about a 5 to 10 minute essay and explains the book sentence by sentence. He claims he will take you through all 375,000 words if necessary. But why? According to Delaney, Ulysses has “diamond mines of references. It’s compassionate, tender, moving and funny.” And he means to show you the full brilliance of the novel. In case you’re worried he does not dumb things down. Every podcast is done with eloquence, understanding and humor. Also given is some background on the book and biographical information. Delaney says: “Ulysses is often called the world's most famous and most irritating novel - irritating because it's deemed so obscure and inaccessible. I maintain that it's none of those things.” Of course Delaney is also the author of the book: James Joyce's Odyssey: a Guide to the Dublin of Ulysses. Written in 1981. So he’s been doing this “Joyce thing” for a while. One thing to think about though before you commit, one critic called Joyce’s novel, “the foulest book that ever made its way into print”