Welcome to Week 2…. Looks like we’ve got an excellent bunch of ‘marchers onboard. And yes, a part of me fears I’ll be bankrupted by all them magnets. But then I’m reminded of that old wax devil math. Good old math.
Since some folks are new, here’s a quick word about what to post when: At the start of a new thread, post about the previous week. That is, you’d post about the first week’s reading right here. As the week and the thread roll on, people tend to start posting about the current week’s reading. And that’s fine too. Really, there’s no hard and fast rule about this. We’re all just just trying to avoid dropping accidental spoilers by jumping ahead of the pack.
That bit o’ business aside, let me say: golly I enjoyed this week’s reading. This is my first brush with Woolf. I expected there’d be leaping in and out of people’s heads. But I didn’t expect anything as goofy-great as Mr. Ramsay’s heroic efforts to conquer R. Or anything as vivid as that selfsame Mr. taking his leave “with a movement which oddly reminded his wife of the great sea lion at the Zoo tumbling backwards after swallowing his fish and walloping off so that the water in the tank washes from side to side…” All this and the repeated refrain from Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade — “stormed at by shot and shell, boldly we rode and well….”
I’m sold. It’s a great start, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it takes us. See ya on the trail,
-Cecil
Next Wednesday: One more relatively short hop, and then we’ll start to pick up speed. Let’s meet at the end of Chapter XVI where we can “assemble in the dining-room for dinner.”
Yes, I am the lamest one of all. I just got the book and will be catching up with you all. I’m blaming it on work – travel for work to be precise! I’ll be on track soon!
I am particularly enjoying the discovery of Woolf’s extended metaphor of ‘the shape.’ James cuts shapes from the Army & Navy catalog, Mrs. R looks for difficult shapes which need the most care in cutting out, to distract James from his fathers puncturing of the boy’s dream to go to the lighthouse. Blades, scimitars, scissors are all prevalent word choices. Mr. Ramsay is shaped “lean as a knife, narrow as the blade of one”, a boat slices a curved shape in the water, the “arid scimitar” of the brass beak, all of these smaller metaphors serve to undergird the larger theme of the shape one struggles to cut or carve of one’s life. I love the passage from Lily Briscoe’s pov beginning with, “Such she often felt herself – struggling against terrific odds to maintain her courage; to say: ‘But this is what I see; this is what I see.'” As an artist, like Virginia Woolf, Lily struggles to present her perception of the world, torn in a hundred different directions by varying expectations, other people, and cultural forces. The metaphor of the brass beak is also so interesting. Birds play a large metaphorical role in To The Lighthouse. Mrs. Ramsay in particular frequently couches her perceptions of her family within metaphors of birds. The narrator’s relation of Mrs. Ramsay’s personal metaphors lends strenth to a subtext of marital ambivalence. So complex and interesting…
I find the Image of Mrs. Ramsay “flashing her needles” to be quite stunning, frightening, and I’m sure, portentous. The image of the needles sparkling, cutting the air, and yes, promising some sense of defense from the opprobrium (gosh, I’ve always wanted to use that word) of her situation with Mr. R. is pure Woolf. Computilo
there are so many great (small) moments of perfectly captured annoyance and disappointment, and then there are those moments that are “fringed with joy” as when mrs. ramsay observes the lighthouse beam, “…watching it with fascination, hypnotized, as if it were stroking with its silver fingers some sealed vessel in her brain whose bursting would flood her with delight….”
i’m also loving the connections between lily and mrs. ramsay, their intuitions about each other. am looking forward to a conversation between them, if there’s to be one.
Posting here before CV takes out a hit on me with his Portland peeps. Bought the book yesterday (the much-ballyhoo’d Multnomah County library had not a single copy at my local branch), will strive to catch up. No magnet possible now, so this is just for the glory. And the company. Lots of time in the air this month, so hope to catch your wake soon.
e. I agree, I have also enjoyed the connection between Lily and Mrs. Ramsay. They both represent beauty. Beauty Lily creates through her painting, and the beauty Mrs. Ramsay possesses. Such a contrast to the vile likes of Mr. Ramsay, Tansley, and Bankes. I’m also wondering about first names in the book. Thus far, we’ve learned everyone’s first names except for Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay’s. Oh and to go back to a past post, I found Eudora Welty’s foreword to be a bit off-putting.
I will do this week’s reading on the plane tomorrow. But because I have no assurance that I’ll be online tomorrow night–and because I’m guessing that Mrs. RaptorMage will want me to be doing things *other* than posting on the Internet during our week alone together–this will have to serve as my double security insurance mugnet post for the time being.
(Oh, excuse me–there *isn’t* a word-count minimum?)
I think I’m just slow getting into it, but right now this book makes me feel a leetle stupid. Of course I’m about a thousand pages behind, or if I must be accurate 40 pages. Hopefully next week I’ll be more “in” it.
What’s so vile about Mr. Ramsey? He’s uptight, sure. We all cringe when he’s so insensitive about James and the lighthouse; but in his own mind, I think, he’s just trying to protect his son from disappointment. Seems like he’s a decent enough sort underneath it all. Or am I missing something?
Perhaps, Bill, you have never lived with an academic. Or maybe this is another of those gender differences. Mr. Ramsay seems to bulldoze through life, having the edges softened by his wife. Not to say that she isn’t too soft and impractical around the edges in her treatment of James. They are an interesting pair: he’s in his head; she’s in her heart; and the kids are running around. Despite their feelings for each other, it is almost hard to believe they produced eight children!
I am glad that the number of voices is growing — especially more of “Brisk” — but it is still Mrs. Ramsay who captivates. That whole bit on the children not growing up was heart-rending.
i’m just enjoying it all… and most of all, i find comfort in the postings. my favorite character so far is james.
is this supposed to be like comfort food? is there anyway to make money off of reading this book. where is the action of gravity’s rainbow when i need it? will post more next week when i’m not yawning, but i’m not going to be a hater. i’m going to be a lover of litter-ature.
daniel
Forgive me for skipping all of the comments. I haven’t read any since I last posted, and I’m afraid of spoilers.
As to my sluggardness… I blame the thesis I’m working on. And the book proposal. And the teaching. And the kids. And the cookbook I’m doing for their school. And the chickens, chiuhuahuas and cats (I’m saving the B’s for next week’s excuse).
Read on, brave warriors! You’re my inspiration! The wind beneath my wings and in my shorts! Huzzah!
I’ll try to catch up as best I can. Perhaps not this week (too many deadlines), but the next.
Yowsa! Just got over a bout of the stomach flu and made the unfortunate decision to mix my medications with a 4 milligram daily dose of Ms. Woolf.
I’m not sure if my reaction was from the flu or my accidental overdose of Ms. Woolf, but either way my head is spinning and I can’t stand for more than 5 minutes at a time. I’ll increase the Ms. Woolf dosage in the hopes that the spinning stops and I catch up to the rest of you.
I find Mr. Ramsay vile because he as Coralyn mentions subjects the kids and Mrs. Ramsay to verbal lashings and dismisses them because he’s more concerned with his academic pursuits. He’s selfish and a bit tyrannical, constantly seeking validation about his career from Mrs. Ramsay and others while simultaneously berating them. I find he has somewhat of a sharp edge. I’m tired of parents and partners thinking it’s ok to ignore your kids or partner in the name of some kind of work If you are too busy don’t have 8 kids for crying out loud! I also find him a smidge sexist, but that is part and parcel to the time at which the book was written. Perhaps my opinions are colored by the fact I am reading this book and know in the back of my head that 1. The book is somewhat autobiographical in nature, 2. At times Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay represent Virginia Woolf’s parents 3. At times Mrs. Ramsay represents Virginia Woolf herself and 4. Virginia Woolf suffered from mental illness, most likely bipolar disorder and while this mental illness existed before she married her husband, some think he was a contributing factor to her not getting well and she ultimately killed herself. So I do have a bias towards Mr. Ramsay, I’ll admit.
great comment, minta. i hadn’t heard that about leonard–is there a biography you’d recommend that discusses that aspect of their relationship? he edited the personal writing of hers that i’ve read; i’ve always wondered what’s missing….
i’ll just add that while sexism was of the time (well, when isn’t it), woolf was certainly conscious of it (think of some of lily’s inner dialogue, for example). so if woolf’s showing us mr. ramsay’s sexism, we’re meant to think about it.
I am totally off the schedule and about halfway through the book.
Once you get into the language (this is not a quick pick up and read a page kind of book) the tone allows you to just experience the emotion of the character you are in.
The challenge I am finding is the abrupt movement from one character to another, and often have to go back and reread to find where we switched – though it is very interesting to read thinking it is the perspective of one character and then go back and reread from another perspective. I feel like this is purposeful and completely changes the meaning of the passage , but gives great insight into the depth of the character analysis.
I have also been really enjoying the intimate look at this marriage that we are given – how well she is able to capture the intense detail of a relationship in facial expressions, and touch, and insecurity through only the narrative voice of a character.
I would like to claim the mantle of lamest of all, as I haven’t started.
But I have grand plans to catch up. A dramatic, come-from-behind Deathmarch participation!
Bluebeard, you have a compadre. I did spend two nights in Bloomsbury last week, so maybe some ancient vibrations soaked in. And I read the first sentence 5 times.