Joyce and Kevin Myers

As one who once tried to read Ulysses and gave up (it was for a class in college, I knew I had read enough to write the essay after the first 100 pages), I really enjoyed Kevin Myers today. {Irish Times, sub required). Here's a sample:

The vast majority of literate people cannot read Ulysses as they read Pride and Prejudice - that is, with simple pleasure. Yes, people can indeed plough their way from stately plump buck mulligan through to yes i said yes i will yes, but with the joyless concentration of an Eircom sub-editor proof-reading a telephone directory.

Jon refers to Myers as an "insecure conservative". I'm not sure about the insecure bit, but I'd hardly call Myers conservative. I think he's much closer to a libertarian.