has anyone heard this theory...?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Relating to 'Ulysses'...when it was first published adult literacy levels were at an all time high among the working class. Then along comes an difficult, highly stylised text such as 'Ulysses' and the modernists fall behind it, big it up and laud it as the greatest book of the century to alienate and guard 'undesirables' away from the world of literature. Any truth in this?

How many threads on Joyce is that now?

― DJ FAS Course, Thursday, 17 June 2004 11:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I think John Carey originated this thory in his book
'The Intellectuals and the Masses'

― Joe Kay (feethurt), Thursday, 17 June 2004 12:57 (twenty-two years ago)

It's amusing when Carey writes about it, but otherwise ridiculous to think that "the modernists" could, in some kind of synchronised effort, PUT PEOPLE OFF READING (DECREASING LITERACY). aFTER ALL, LITERACY RATES IN THE wEST ARE AT AN ALL TIME HIGH (FUCK IT, CAPS), and the popularity of Ulysses has only grown with time. It's first reprint took 19 years, and now it's reprinted every 2.

― paulhw (paulhw), Thursday, 17 June 2004 22:52 (twenty-two years ago)

It sounds like a high culture analog to a certain faxlore theory that gets circulated in some Christian circles: some before-and-after statistics about crime, education, etc. are used to demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that everything in America was pretty hunky-dory until 1962, the year Supreme Court declared mandatory school prayer unconstitutional.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Thursday, 17 June 2004 23:37 (twenty-two years ago)

John Carey is a knobhead.

― de, Thursday, 17 June 2004 23:54 (twenty-two years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.