Solemnly he came forward and mounted the round gunrest. He faced about and blessed gravely thrice the tower, the surrounding country and the awaking mountains. Then, catching sight of Stephen Dedalus, he bent towards him and made rapid crosses in the air, gurgling in his throat and shaking his head. Stephen Dedalus, displeased and sleepy, leaned his arms on the top of the staircase and looked coldly at the shaking gurgling face that blessed him, equine in its length, and at the light untonsured hair, grained and hued like pale oak.
Buck Mulligan peeped an instant under the mirror and then covered the bowl smartly.
—Back to barracks, he said sternly.
James Joyce, Ulysses
Language: Confusion
If editing Dodgon’s work was challenging, imagine how much more challenging it would have been to edit Joyce’s Ulysses.
Working to edit avant garde texts like this would be a daunting task for anyone. It is one thing to ignore deliberately misspelled words, or altogether nonsensical words, but it is something else entirely to ignore a writing style that seems intentionally confusing.
But even though this is known to be one of the most difficult books to read, Ulysses also has a place among the critically acclaimed. As with Dodgson, the normal rules were not applied—and, against expectations, it was successful.