Borges, Woolf

[Brian Kempf]

I first picked up To the Lighthouse sometime last year. I painfully struggled through the first half of it, before talking to my English teacher about it. I didn't know it until she brought it up, but she had once been on a fellowship to study Woolf in England. My teacher had also struggled through Woolf's work.

She told me that Woolf's sister had been an artist, and that Virginia was fascinated by her painting. This inspired Virginia to use a "painting by words" technique, with particular attention being given to color. Furthermore, Virginia was also enthralled by the thought process, which she explored through different characters in the novel. I can't vouch for the veracity of this, but it did help me get through the book and understand it a bit better. I'm planning on re-reading it (or her other works) sometime in the near future to look at it with fresh eyes. I'd be hard-pressed to say that I enjoyed reading it, but I appreciate it as a work of high Modernism and for what Woolf was trying to accomplish.

On a side note, I found To the Lighthouse so deep and obtuse that I adjusted my reading schedule and forestalled my reading of V.  and instead opted to read Ron Kovic's Born on the Fourth of July which is more straightforward (and had a larger emotional pull) to me. 

BK

On Aug 14, 2012, at 9:04 PM, Keith Davis wrote:

> I have yet to read Ms. Woolf, but after today's discussion, I'm looking forward to it.
> 
> Borges has glowing praise for Joyce and Ullyses, but didn't care much for Finnegan's Wake.
> 
> On Tue, Aug 14, 2012 at 6:11 PM, Alex Colter <recoignishon at gmail.com> wrote:
> Reading Orlando and The Waves was practically as formative for me as reading Gravity's Rainbow...
> 
> 
> On Tue, Aug 14, 2012 at 2:29 PM, Phillip Greenlief <pgsaxo at pacbell.net> wrote:
> From: alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Borges, Woolf
> 
> VW is every bit as great as TRP. I do not expect readers here to
> appreciate her, as they might appreciate JJ, but how many here would
> put elizabeth bishop and eliot or yeats or pound on the same list?  in
> part, of course, it is a male bias that is deep in the assessment of
> literature generally; the male dominated academy has, and the
> P-industry is an extension of this continued hegenomy, a moby-dick;
> this bias in the american novel is greater of course, as fielder and
> others have suggested, the american novel is a male novel, but even in
> england, where george eliot, the brontes, austin, as woolf outlines
> the great tradition of sisters of shakespeare, the dicks make the
> greats in their own image.
> 
> 
> PG:
> 
> as beckett would say: 
> 
> not i.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> www.innergroovemusic.com

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