With All Due Respect

Its not that I don't respect the man, but James Joyce isn't for me. I get that he is tremendously talented and we should take notice to his writings. However, I don't get the joy some may and do from his stories. I just don't, period.

But I know these feelings won't pass for a worthy blog entry so if searched the web for the dirt on Mr. Joyce in hopes that I could find something that may make him an interesting figure to me. (I know one could point to his life-story, but honestly I've had my fill of Norton Anthology-style biographies as has every other English major.)

So what could I find? Here are a few interesting things:

1. Three restaurants/pubs came up when I googled Joyce, but sadly none of their sites gave a reason for the name, which could be for a couple of reasons:
a. James Joyce is Irish and they serve Irish cuisine.
b. It's a simple marketing tool to draw us English geeks in and..
c. Eventually waste our degrees away when we become bartenders. (Honestly, I have worked with at least a dozen bartenders who had English degrees...yeah I know its scary.)

2. I came across an article from Time magazine featuring Joyce as one of the 100 Most Influential People of the Century. In this article while one can be impressed with his recognition, others can see a narcisism that is just digusting. You can find the article here: http://www.time.com/time/time100/artists/profile/joyce.html
I may be completely wrong, but its a little pretentious to expect immortality from your writing.

3. Over 800 videos pop up on YouTube when you enter his name. My personal fave is the amount of Spanish videos that pop up in the search results.

Overall, I get the respect and I'm still not a fan in the slightest. Sorry.