This makes me want to re-read the book.. I’m taking an Irish literature seminar this semester, so I have the excuse 😏 By the way, would you consider publishing the list of books you’re teaching in your class?
Pride and Prejudice, Pudd'nhead Wilson, Portrait, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Outline! A frustratingly partial list, of course, but the selection has allowed us to talk about a lot.
Hope you have fun in your seminar! The book is a real treat. I found it actually pretty shocking after having spent so much time in the nineteenth century.
I'm feeling some deja vu, so I'm not sure if I made a comment like this on another of your posts or someone else's. But, I think the key to "unlikeable protagonist" stories is that a) the book is clear about how pathetic or otherwise unlikeable they are and b) somehow the reader can't help but like them anyways. Too many authors sacrifice a) in service of b), or fail to get b) in there.
Right--this reminds me of the whole "save the cat" book, which offers turnkey solutions for achieving this balance. Joyce does it much more elegantly, in part by making the frustrating aspects of Stephen precisely the same personality traits that make him admirable, in his own way.
A lot of humor is delighting in the eccentricities of a thing, and in that way it is very affectionate! The best satire, I think, tends to tread that funny line between roasting and celebrating.
My students are divided on it--they seem to like the mode of storytelling of the nineteenth century novel better. But Portrait is a sneaky one--it really sticks in one's head. I'm hoping that, out of nowhere, they'll remember some passage from the novel a year from now, whether they liked it or not.
This makes me want to re-read the book.. I’m taking an Irish literature seminar this semester, so I have the excuse 😏 By the way, would you consider publishing the list of books you’re teaching in your class?
Pride and Prejudice, Pudd'nhead Wilson, Portrait, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Outline! A frustratingly partial list, of course, but the selection has allowed us to talk about a lot.
Hope you have fun in your seminar! The book is a real treat. I found it actually pretty shocking after having spent so much time in the nineteenth century.
Going back to reread something we loved as a young person is quite an eye opener! Well told. I got a chance to write about a book I loved in this piece that you might enjoy: https://open.substack.com/pub/troyford/p/why-i-raymond-carvers-what-we-talk?r=ofba&utm_medium=ios
This was a treat. Thanks for sharing it with me!
Now you see why I like your stuff so much.
This is wonderful, and also cementing my resolve to read Ulysses… would you recommend reading Portrait before or after?
Before! Ulysses is a sequel.
I'm feeling some deja vu, so I'm not sure if I made a comment like this on another of your posts or someone else's. But, I think the key to "unlikeable protagonist" stories is that a) the book is clear about how pathetic or otherwise unlikeable they are and b) somehow the reader can't help but like them anyways. Too many authors sacrifice a) in service of b), or fail to get b) in there.
Right--this reminds me of the whole "save the cat" book, which offers turnkey solutions for achieving this balance. Joyce does it much more elegantly, in part by making the frustrating aspects of Stephen precisely the same personality traits that make him admirable, in his own way.
A lot of humor is delighting in the eccentricities of a thing, and in that way it is very affectionate! The best satire, I think, tends to tread that funny line between roasting and celebrating.
As does your writing!
Penelope Fitzgerald said that Portrait was the book her students liked the most they were 17ish
My students are divided on it--they seem to like the mode of storytelling of the nineteenth century novel better. But Portrait is a sneaky one--it really sticks in one's head. I'm hoping that, out of nowhere, they'll remember some passage from the novel a year from now, whether they liked it or not.