It was never meant to be read. It was an experiment. If he was writing a paragraph and somebody came into his room and started talking to him, he wrote that down in the middle of the paragraph. It was pure experimental fiction. No one really understands why it’s considered a classic other than the fact that people want to seem intellectual. By Joyce’s own words, it is not understandable by anybody but him. to me the analogy is Lou reeds metal machine music. I’m at her how her to try, there’s no melodies there, just like there’s no plot here.

A terrible mistake? A terrible mistake is when something you do leads to suffering or death. You just bought a book you didn’t like. Settle down.

It’s to make it seem real. It was standard in the era of classic novels. But when I see it done by new hip contemporary authors, I find it pretentious, and it takes me out of the story.

Read all the books in Zola’s Parisian cycle. They are completely separate novels