Tell me how I must feel.
People who wait for other people to tell them how to feel about a book or a movie or a musical piece seem to have completely missed the point of reading or watching or listening: to have a personal experience.
I have a friend who is so nervous about these things. He wants to appear as though he has good taste. He’s more concerned with what everyone else thinks about a thing than with experiencing it for himself.
It has as though he has completely relinquished his own right to feel.
So the first thing is to establish your right to allow a piece of work to work on you and observe your natural reactions
The second thing may of course be to gossip with your friends about it, to read what your favorite author thinks about an author you dislike or like
That being said I think there is a conspiracy about Ulysses. The only thing that all those who seem to adore it or hate it can seem to agree on is its style, the existence of a style, anyway. But I don’t even like the style. Chapter 4 is a little bit better though. I would be eager to get my greedy little fingers on a physical copy so I can sift through and see the style change before my eyes.