Dear Mr Joyce,I want you to know that I think your book, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
, is the stupidest book I have ever read. I only read it because it was on the reading list for my Twentieth Century Novel course. I was bored from start to finish (except for a few pages where it looked like some semblance of a plot was forming), and from about page 200 I was counting the pages until the end. I don't know why you "artistic" types feel that to be a real artist you have to bore any normal people to tears. Stephen Dedalus is an arrogant twerp and the rest of the characters seem to me just to be shadow-like plot devices to use whenever you get sick of the sound of your own voice (which, believe me, is not often). No wonder the book was only $8. I have heard before that Ulysses is the greatest novel ever written in English. Although I have not read that novel, my scepticism is now unbounded. Do you write these books simply to torment English students who already have too much reading to do anyway?Yours sincerely,Allie.
2 comments:
Oh my goodness, this cracked me up. And almost (I repeate, ALMOST) makes me want to go read Mr. Joyce's missive. But if it bored you? I wouldn't even make it past page 3.
Love the letter!
(PS - found you through Darlene & Sarakastic)
You are so funny. I actually liked Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, but I'm okay with books that lack an obvious plot and I can completely understand why other people wouldn't like it.
I haven't read Ulysses. I've always wanted to so I could feel smart, but actually doing so seems so tedious. Maybe it'll be a 2008 resolution for me.
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