Hello All

[ish mailian]

Thanks, Mark. Yes, I'd also say _To the Lighthouse_ is the one to read
if you're only going to read one novel. A Room is a lecture turned
essay and it was given for women of a bygone era by a lady who, for
the more recent waves of feminism, had more than world enough and
time, and rooms, and comes off as a bit elitist, perhaps, though, as
you note, her defense of women writers is something readers of
Pynchon, who defends science fiction and fantasy and the gothic,
including Mary Shelley's Modern Prometheus, may want to read, as she
describes the tragedy of lost works and authors to a rigid cannon. It
is also brilliantly composes, poetic. A lecture on freedom, freedom to
work, and so, one I love very much.

On Fri, Dec 30, 2016 at 5:55 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> To the Lighthouse is the (only) one that was liked by the canonizers of her
> time---such as Leavis and Scrutiny mag---EVEN when she was dismissed for
> triviality in subjects and themes and formlessness as an artist for all of
> her other work-- by them and most other critics of the times. Read Forster,
> the famous novel arguer on her. Her 'friend' T.S. Eliot. Clueless Americans.
>
> It is culturally interesting to learn of the steady rise of her reputation.
> In a preface to an older--but still much later than the original--US edition
> of To The Lighthouse, Leonard Woolf [remember, they published most of her
> work themselves] sez it sold @11.5 thousand copies initially, fell and
> plateaued for lots of years then gives the sales for the last three years of
> the sixties, which totaled 6-7 times that 11.5 figure and rose every year of
> the three. Quentin Bell's first major biography was being worked on then,
> literary England knew that [it was published in 1972]; new and fuller
> critical perspectives started happening in the sixties. Sales rose even
> higher and more steadily after Bell's bio. She was hot.
>
> Some think The Waves may be her deepest and most original; others think its
> originality doesn't work coherently. I haven't read that one yet. Her
> diaries grow in reputation as well for the honesty, subtlety,  perceptions
> and speculations but art is not usually a term reserved for diaries, just
> sayin'.
>
> Just as art is not usually reserved for even a long extended essay such as A
> Room of One's Own, which is good, of course, fascinating and diary-like in
> being factual and speculative, but to me (and most, I think) is simply too
> linear, too essayistic to resonate with the depths of her major fiction. It
> became a kind of feminist manifesto because of the major insight: there are
> few(er) women writers than men in history and the present because of all of
> the women's work they have to do. Writing on herself and on 'Shakespeare's
> sister' and other writers shows the interesting intelligence of her lifelong
> reading and thinking. A room means time to write in it too. As the decades
> roll on, I think it will resume it's more minor place in her oeuvre imho.
>
> By the time of Hermione Lee's GREAT biography. late eighties or 90s--I say
> that on just reading the opening 20-30 pages so far and holding until I've
> read more of the primary work--Ms Lee can say and does that Woolf can be
> "endlessly" read and reread like only the greatest writers. Shakespeare
> perhaps most famously, Austen, etc. It's now virtually unanimous.
>
> if I get it together i have a post on how Jacob's Room reminds me in ways of
> GR, if just a little. I am loving this book, the first one where she risked
> her whole originality in a new way of writing a novel, and it is warmer,
> fresher and brighter
> than To The Lighthouse--and maybe deeper than the bright Mrs. Dalloway.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
> On Thu, Dec 29, 2016 at 7:20 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I think everyone agrees that "To the Lighthouse" is her masterwork, but
>> some would say "A Room of One's Own" is her best work.  I've only read the
>> former, and I loved it.
>>
>> David Morris
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 29, 2016 at 6:00 PM, Johnny Marr <marrja at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Season's greetings
>>>
>>> Which Woolf were you reading?
>>>
>>> Looks like we'll have big news in Britain (at least big news for Britons)
>>> tomorrow...
>>>
>>> On Thursday, December 29, 2016, Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I once played in Albert's Hall for a week with Matt "Guitar"
>>>> Murphy...long ago.
>>>> Cheers...
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Dec 28, 2016 at 10:54 PM, Mark Thibodeau
>>>> <jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Happy New Year to you, Keith! If you ever come to Toronto for a
>>>>> performance, I'd love to attend.
>>>>>
>>>>> If any of you have a few minutes to waste, check out my blog. I've
>>>>> been updating daily recently.
>>>>>
>>>>> www.dailydirtdiaspora.blogspot.com
>>>>>
>>>>> Cheers!
>>>>> Jerky
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Dec 28, 2016 at 10:46 PM, Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> > Hope you're all having as nice a holiday season as I am.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Tried Virginia Woolf, but found myself too impatient at the moment,
>>>>> > which
>>>>> > doesn't mean I won't get to it. Started Shadow Country three times
>>>>> > before it
>>>>> > became one of my all-time favorite reads.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > However, I am deeply into A Naked Singularity. What a great book!
>>>>> > Thanks to
>>>>> > whoever it was who recommended it here. Seems like several of you...
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Thanks for the TV and movie recommendations, as well.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Drowning Mona is classic.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Happy Holidays!
>>>>> >
>>>>> > --
>>>>> > www.innergroovemusic.com
>>>>> >
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> www.innergroovemusic.com
>>>>
>>
>
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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l