Now that we are done with Virginia Woolf and To the Lighthouse, I wanted to take a moment to see what people had to think about the story and Woolf as a writer. For me, I both loved and hated the book. As an aspiring novelist, the only reason I can see to have so many phrases and choppy sentences is to show how good of a writer someone is. I understand she was simulating the thought process, but the difficulty of understanding and following the narrative are difficult. Another complaint I have is the lack of context for the text. She gave just enough, which was her intention, but that doesn't make following the thoughts any easier. It would be hard for any writer today to get away with so little context for what is going on in a character's mind.
In praise of her and her book, I haven't read a book where I have had so much in common with the characters before. She succeeded in making them come alive and so much so, I found myself sympathizing with almost all the characters on many levels. Something I really liked was she seemed to keep her personal sympathies out of the story. She didn't, in what little narration there was, giver her opinion of who should be felt sorry for and who we should despise. I guess that is possible since the narration took place in people's thoughts and we see the characters from different perspectives instead of from the perspective of the omniscient narrator.
In the end I enjoyed the novel. It was very well written, and as Eric pointed out on the handout for class, there are little things, such as the fountain, that make the novel interesting to read. I will surely read this novel again, but next time, since I know the story, I will hopefully be able to find more of the nuances that seem to make this book extraordinary.
Travis
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Yes, Travis, I'm interested to know how others would respond to this, in a retrospective kind of way with the novel behind us. Speaking for myself, I know I always feel a sense of sadness when we reach the end and have to move on (I think Michelle said the same after the morning class on Friday). I think re-reading will probably be revelatory for many of you, especially if, like Travis, you did at least emerge from this reading with a basic affinity for the characters and connection with some of the novel's questions and issues. When you don't have to fight the technique so much, which would presumably be the case with subsequent readings, my hunch is that it will become more and more accessible -- and perhaps even special -- to many of you.
ReplyDeleteAll of this does make me wonder, though, assuming I continue to include one novel in the syllabus for the course, what other novel might fit in well. I've occasionally done one of Rushdie's shorter novels, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, which is always wonderful, but doing a very contemporary novel usually means the novel doesn't occur until the last week or two of class, which strikes me as too late in this case. There are plenty of wonderful Victorian novels, but most of them tend to be too long for the purposes of a course like this. I'd maybe think about something like Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray; as interesting and as fun as that novel is, though, it's not nearly of the quality of Woolf's novel.
I also felt like I had a lot in common with the characters, particularly Mrs. Ramsay and Lily. They shared the urge to pity some of the other characters, like Carmichael and Tansley...and I share the urge to pity total strangers, like old men buying soup for one at the grocery store, etc. It reminds me of some Neko Case lyrics..."The most tender place in my heart is for strangers." (I sure bring up neko case a lot in this blog)
ReplyDeleteWoolf is tormented by the fact that most of our lives are internal, and therefore are spent alone. One of the "obsessions" of the novel is the difficulty of truly knowing another person; our conversations hardly skim the surface of another's psyche. The characters struggle to communicate without words. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay have an unspoken love, Cam and James an unspoken pact, and in the end, Lily and Mr.Charmichael are thinking the same thing, and Lily finds comfort in this. "They had not needed to speak."
I had read three of Woolf's novels prior to this one, and have always been fascinated by her writing style. Being an aspiring novelist myself, I think there's a lot that can be learned by the way Woolf portrays the human thought and how to make the ordinary extraordinary. "To the Lighthouse" is definitely one of Woolf's best. I think she masters the structure of each of the three parts, and creates an interesting conversation with the characters in their environment.
ReplyDelete"Mrs. Dalloway" was the first one I read by her, and it's considered the quintessential "one day" novel. I recommend watching "The Hours" as well, which does some very interesting things with this novel.
"Orlando: A Biography" probably deviates more from Woolf's typical plot structure. It deals a lot with gender roles, where the protagonist goes from male to female over the course of a few hundred years. It is very odd, but an interesting read!
And lastly, "Jacob's Room" is sort of Woolf's experimentation with stream-of-consciousness. It's probably my least favorite of the ones I've read, but it's worth looking into if you want to further study Woolf's technique.