James Joyce

Okay, I'm going to admit it: I'm not a big James Joyce fan. My opinion of his work is (1) either I'm too ignorant to understand his genius, or (2) that he purposely made his work so confusing and no one wanted to admit that they didn't "get it", so they touted it to be some of the greatest writing of all time. Personally, I'm going with No. 1 because that many scholars can't be wrong. Anyway...that isn't really the assignment here, so forgive my digression.

In my research of James Joyce, I was surprised to find out that his family dealt with poverty. I always assumed (yes, I know where assuming often leads...) that he came from a wealthy family. He seems to have a good grasp of the elite, but then again, it was as if he was poking fun at them. I understand that his father was a tax collector, but because he aired some negative opinions in a poem, he ended up losing his job. Good for him, however, not when you have ten kids to feed. Which leads me to the next fact I learned: I was surprised to find out that James Joyce came from such a large family -- I always thought that a sense of lonliness pervaded his works. Why that led me to believe that he was an only child, I don't have a clue.

I wish I had known a little more background on James Joyce prior to my assigned readings in the past. I think I would have read into his stories a little more and maybe even enjoyed them a bit. Once all this craziness of the semester settles down, I'm going to have to give ol' Jimmy another chance...