Borges, Woolf

[David Morris]

Modernist lit does focus on the inner thought processes of the characters.
 If done well, it is enthralling (for me).  But the I'm also a big fan of
Beckett's Trilogy, the ultimate stream of character thought.  In Modernist
lit the reader has to work to construct the story from the author's clues.

David Morris

On Tuesday, August 14, 2012, Brian Kempf wrote:

> 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
>
>
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