Marilyn Monroe and Ulysses
Jun 24th, 2008 by Nut
Here is the picture featured on the cover of the latest Poets & Writers issue. At first I wasn’t sure if it was really Marilyn Monroe. Why? Well, she’s reading one of the all-time toughest/”greatest” books out there: Ulysses by James Joyce. Turns out she really was reading the book when the photographer took this picture. He was loading film in his camera and she was just chilling with her book. She said that it (the book) was giving her trouble and because it was so hard she only read bits and pieces at a time, but she also liked to read certain parts of it out loud.
It may sound to you like an easy chance to throw a blonde joke in there, but let me tell you something about this book: it ain’t no joke. I had some downtime in a dirty hostel in Rome when I decided it was the perfect time to read Ulysses. So I went into a bookstore and bought myself a a brand-new copy.
Ouch.
I wasn’t sure what I was reading until I went back and read the intro — it at least told me what was happening and what Joyce was “trying to do” with the book. Impressive, that’s for sure, but way over my head.
Has anyone out there read this book, enjoyed it, and “got it?” I’m very wary of anyone who says they have (unless you’re a professor or a genius and in your mid 40s) because this is a super tough book. I tried and I tried hard. I think that anyone who says they get it is just trying to show off the way people do when they claim they’ve read Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust.
Anyway, I just wanted to stick up for Marilyn for being brave enough to try to read this tough book and to let all you folks out there know that the picture isn’t meant to be ironic or funny, it’s just the photographer capturing a side of her that very few people got to see.
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Marylin’s screen persona was a dumb blonde, that doesn’t mean she actually was a dumb blonde.
She was married to Arthur Miller for goodness sake!
Heh, I am an English/Philosophy student and I have not even touched Ulysses. This photo gives me newfound admiration for Marilyn.
heh. i bet president kennedy got to see this side of her :)) lol
I am a university drop-out (I left my English degree programme as I was finding all aspects of the course I was doing - particularly the people on it - to be both uninspired and uninspiring) and I just finished it myself. I would not make any claims as to getting it, though I can see some of the ways in which Joyce was trying to reinvent the epic myth and take on the challenge of creating a new template for Irish mythology. I would say that anybody who claims they “get it” absolutely probably hasn’t read it properly. It is a multi-faceted and complex tome with a hundred possible interpretations. I wish you every success in your own reading of it. It’s worth it, however heavy going it can be.
‘Getting’ Ulysses? Yawn. I thought we were long past the point where people try to ‘get’ books. Ulysses can be consumed and appreciated on a number of levels, and each has its merits. Some levels may be accessible to just a few people, or people who are now dead. I certainly didn’t ‘get’ the book, although I enjoyed it tremendously. Some parts are extremely easy to read, others are virtually impossible to go through.
However, the whole approach of categorizing books into ‘hard’ and ‘easy’ books is pointless. A book shouldn’t be a secret you have to crack; it should be entertaining and thought-provoking. Which Ulysses definitely is. If you find a book too hard, you’re probably trying to hard. If you find it boring, that’s another story, and may very well be the author’s failure.
had she been around these days, she’d been texting.
I’ve read it in its entirely twice and read parts of it dozens of times over. It’s without a doubt one of the great literary delights of my life. Profoundly moving, hilariously funny, searingly clever and above all deeply human and humanizing - a lesson in looking at people, warts and vices and vanities and all, with love.
Joyce’s “masterpiece” is simply literature’s version of the emperor’s new clothes. No one gets it, but all are afraid to call it for what it is: a terribly written, boring and depressing book.
I don’t see how you can not “get it” and still enjoy it tremendously. I didn’t “get it” and it was a major pain in my you know what. Not enjoyable at all.
Marilyn had an IQ of 168. I believe she could have understood at least some of the book.
I am going to start reading this book now that I am out of college and can interpret it on my own without any of the influences of professors, etc. I did start it and I know it will be difficult.
As for those who posted here (just the ones with the long paragraphs), I giggled to myself because each one of you sounded like a pompous ass of English majors. But, then, in some ways, so am I. I was an English major and have read books (Contemporary British Literature with its liminal spaces, metafiction, structuralism idealims comes to mind) that are hard. I would say that Joyce is up there but I look forward to tackling it. And yes, I maybe 60 years old until I finally get it but that’s life, you live and you learn and then you understand.
The cannon of literature, however, is very touchy and if you don’t agree, then you don’t. But, people who claim that great works of literature, like Joyce with his stream of consciousness, aren’t truly great just don’t understand. Perhaps what makes literature great is the idea that something new is formed, a new way of thinking. If that bores you, oh well, I implore you to open your mind. Stop shutting it and let things in. Yet, I am dealing with English majors so that might just be too hard.
As for Marilyn, it is nice to see someone who was such an influence be something more than a ditzy blonde. She may not have understood it but she tried and that, for the most part, is what matters. Ignorance might be bliss but it is also the greatest sin/mistake of mankind. Go Marilyn!
I don’t think Joyce’s work is terribly hard to read; understanding what he wanted you to understand is another story I remember a quote from Joyce, something along the lines of “This one will keep them guessing for 100 years” Which really makes me think that he just wrote parts to mess around with us. Ether way, anyone who says it isn’t a good book is a fool. And that’s not subjective at all. Pure fact.
BTW, english major here, so, i donno. I think that gives me some room to talk.
If you think Ulysses is hard give Finnegan’s Wake a try… But seriously Joyce is a way overrated author. Much as I love to read from Ulysses or Wake out loud they don’t hold a candle to any of the greater works out there. Like Borges for one.
This discussion reminds of reading the Fiction in The New Yorker. I’ve written about my opinion on it before, but I’m curious how Joyce fans look at stories that come out there. I think most of them are pretentious and cater to people who want to boast to their friends, “Look, I get it! I read The New Yorker!” Except for this week’s story by Joshua Ferris, which was quite good, as is his book.
I don’t want to sound like a pretentious dick or anything but I actually read that when I was in 4th or 5th grade. I was really into Greek mythology and I read it. It sounds like there was something really deep about it, so maybe I didn’t get that but I remember having a pretty good grasp of the plot at least, and that it took me under a week to do it.
Like I said though, there’s likely some kind of deeper literary meaning that I maybe didn’t grasp.
People obsess too much over reading whole books in my opinion. If a section is really giving you fits or you just plain don’t like it, then skip it. It’s not like you can never come back to it later if you want. Just because a book is considered a “classic” doesn’t mean it doesn’t have some filler or parts that were poorly written.
the_dude_abides - What exactly did you read? Ulysses takes place over 36 hours in Dublin, Ireland with no connection, as far as I am aware, to Greek mythology. Was the book you read called The Odyssey by any chance?
Even Homer’s Odyssey has quite a lot of deeper interpretations to delve into than most could in the fifth or sixth grade. I know that each time I read through it again, I get wholly new glimpses into things both in the world at the time and now. Ulysses I just haven’t had the motivation to start up; maybe I will once the pressure is lessened on consuming texts in my field.
Errr, loking at the pic she does appear to be reading the last chapter which consists of Mollie Bloom’s soliloquy - a famous rather racy bit of the book and the easiest part of the novel to read (Mollie is masturbating and remembering sexual and other incidents in her life in a stream of consciousness - the chapter is a counterpart to her husband’s day long adventures to return to her - the whole being the Ulysses - Penelope story from Greece).
I would love to believe Munroe had read the whole thing, and perhaps she did having had Miller as her husband, but few people have got through the entire book without skipping.
Now if you want a real challenge though try reading Finnigan’s Wake…..
Ulysses’ structure was intentionally based on Homer’s Odyssey.
I believe it takes place over the course of one day — June 16, if I recollect.
Don’t dis Ulysses! Just because any person in particular doesn’t like it or “get” it, others who have and do, some brilliant in their own right, have written informed and erudite volumes extolling it as a profound and cohesive masterpiece.
Just because someone doesn’t like or appreciate say, John Coltrane for instance, takes nothing away for what he accomplished either…There’s plenty more accessible works of art out there to be enjoyed. No shame preferring those. But you don’t have to talk ignorant neither — just “step away from the tome!” : j
She is reading the last page. How cute.
the_dude_abides - What exactly did you read? Ulysses takes place over 36 hours in Dublin, Ireland with no connection, as far as I am aware, to Greek mythology. Was the book you read called The Odyssey by any chance?
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hahahaha, , when i found this on stumble i thought my focus was meant to be on marilyn monroe but after reading the comments i discovered a comical side to it all.
I have attempted Ulysses, I am 17 and although I didn’t understand all of it (make that a lot of it) I really enjoyed it… despite the confusion, didn’t read the intro… maybe that would have helped.
I really like this photograph though, its got a nice sense of honesty in the look on her face. Un-posed and beautiful.
I read it and got it, believe it or not. I’m 20 and halfway through a joint degree in classics and English, so no professor or genius.
wasn’t she a brunette?
The photo was taken by Eve Arnold, near Arthur Miller’s house on Long Island. Eve Arnold spent a lot of time with Marilyn and got to know her quite well. It was not out of character for Marilyn to read literature, but this was just one aspect of her personality, which at least in its performance aspect could be quite outrageous. Here is an anechdote Eve Arnold tells about Marilyn’s wilder side:
“She was capable of anything. Once I was working with her and she had this interview coming up and we were running late. When the journalist came in, Marilyn was wearing this negligee, it was transparent, and she had a hair brush in her hand. She asked the journalist ‘is it okay if I brush my hair while you’re here ?’, and of course the journalist said she was okay with it. Then she moved to pick up her notepad and next thing she sees, Marilyn is brushing her pubic hair. She asked me ‘you’re not taking pics anymore ?’ and I answered ‘no Marilyn, no’….”
- Eve Arnold
I read Ulysses for breakfast and then Bill Brasky and I write a novel 10 times better before lunch!
Bill Brasky is the greatest novelist who ever lived. And frankly, he makes Joyce look like a doddering nincompoop. If you think Ulysses is a complex and multi-faceted work, you need to read Brasky’s epic masterpiece My Father’s Mistress, which recounts the harrowing tale of the author’s bleak childhood growing up in the shadows of Imperial Appalachia. As a youngun Brasky frequently sodomized his father’s lover, not to mention sundry she-goats, chickens and the like (this was Appalachia). Yet this masterwork of human endeavor is a gorgeously told tapestry eliciting the reader’s emotion by the bucket; it’s a book you’ll be unable to put down until you’ve consumed every bit of its five thousand six hundred and fifty three pages. Bill Brasky stands over ten feet tall, his leathery hands are as wide as Lake George, and his intellect breaks every IQ test ever devised. Reading My Father’s Mistress will not only bring you enlightenment, it will cause your testicles to swell to three times their current size. Thank you Bill Brasky! Thank you!!
Hmm, maybe I could borrow a copy from the library and try reading it. Sounds like a good challenge for a book lover.
Another Joycean snob with an English Literature degree just stopping by to say please link the authoritative Gabler edition — http://www.amazon.com/Ulysses-Gabler-James-Joyce/dp/0394743121/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218661983&sr=1-3 — if you’re going to lure people into purchasing a copy.
Also, noting that she’s probably reading Molly’s Soliloquy, unless she’s staring at one of the flyleaves, the thought of her voice reciting Molly’s monologue is … let’s just say, weird.
I am a fourth year English major and throughout my whole career as a student, I SWORE I would never touch Ulysses knowing how hard it would be. However, I just studying abroad in Australia and blindly chose a class called “Subversion and Transgression” the main text studied: Ulysses. At first I wanted to shoot myself because it was extremely difficult, my professor said that no one should be discouraged by the book and that if they are to speak with her before they give up. I told her I hated it but she kept checking up on me to make sure I was understanding it; she game me many books to read alongside it to help me with my troubles. I will say now I am glad that I took that class and learned so much from it. Ulysses is not my favorite novel, it probably will never get to that level for me, but it is a masterpiece. The things Joyce does with the novel and how he writes is phenomenal.
Catjuggler if you’ve ever read the book you’d know that the_dude_abides is right. Joyce uses the Greek mythology of Homer as a parody to help create his characters, even though it’s not exact. It truly is a good book.
Everyone should give it a chance.
sup dudes im fifteen and have read ulysses. I really like this picture i told my mum about it and she said that she hasnt really read it but i think differantly.
hahaha, the_dude_abides…oh man, i want to slap that guy. but it a nice way. like “oh, thanks for making me laugh…here’s a thank-you gift” WHAM.
ps, i feel the same way about Moby Dick that you guys feel about Ulysses…completely overrated, boring as crap. when the hell am i going to need to know all this technical crap about whaling?!?! so boring. i’m sure there was something else there, but i must have missed it through the yawns.