[F2F Book Discussions] May 2014: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf | Moderator: Angus

[Angus]

Hello, how's your holiday? Me? I went to work so that I could have my holiday tomorrow. ;)

Miles: At the comment box, click the link (some html is ok) to get instructions on how to add spoiler and other tags. Also, let's speak in either English or Tagalog. Hindi ako makaintindi ng Cebuano (?) eh.

Meliza: That can't be promised, given that you haven't had a taste of modernist literature prior to this. I myself had difficulty in my first try.

Louize: Language is lyrical, no doubt. The digressions, well, we would have to discuss them once the reading officially starts.

NYKen: A passionate teacher helps! Hopefully a nitpicker of a moderator would help, too.

Mae: You can easily create playlists with the audiobook files. I painstakingly copied the tags from the original track list, so yes, you can create playlists based on chapters. My tip is to listen to a few chapters, maybe 30 minutes, then repeat if you find yourself still drowning in the streams. Also, happy, happy birthday! Everyone, let's greet our dear Mae after midnight. :)

Bennard: Conflict is good, but I see where you're coming from when you talk about impatience.

Maria: Wow compidence! The reading plan allows you to read other books. Balance is also a key.

Blue: Way to go! You've raised the competition a notch higher (view spoiler)[although the last item is an opinion, hahaha! (hide spoiler)]. If I were a Redditor, I would agree. I think though that she's more accessible than James Joyce (view spoiler)[Ulysses is still the only book that I dropped based on difficulty (hide spoiler)].

Thank you for all the trivia. I am surprised by some of them (view spoiler)[particularly the sexual abuse thing, and the little and big pranks that she did (hide spoiler)].

To be fair, I will answer Question 03 but in a slightly different context:
(view spoiler)[
My hope is for us to have a fun and fruitful discussion regardless of our reactions. I would actually prefer polarizing opinions. Come on, I can't expect everyone to love this. My fear is that the reader would just casually drop the book on the basis of difficulty. If you ever do, try to come up with a very convincing excuse (view spoiler)[I should not see ickiness as a reason, eh? (hide spoiler)]. ;)
(hide spoiler)]

[Angus]

Okay, Buddy, I had a literal LOL moment when I clicked the tag. Will read them now. :D

[Veronica]

Question 02:
(view spoiler)[
1. As a child, Woolf worried her parents. She did not talk until she was almost four years old, and they feared she might have developmental problems. When she did learn to speak, she learned the private language created by the Stephen children, and her parents were relieved to see her share private jokes with her siblings.

2. She participated in an event that became known as the Dreadnought Hoax. Her brother, Adrian and his four friends sent the navy a telegram that they were royalty from Abyssinia and wished to tour the navy’s most prestigious battleship, the Dreadnought. Woolf, the only female participant, wore an embroidered caftan with chains and a turban. When the prank was discovered, many people were angered but it brought the Bloomsbury group its first publicity.

3. Virginia’s recollection of the Bloomsbury group:

“Sex permeated our conversation. . . . We discussed copulation with the same excitement and openness that we had discussed the nature of good. . . . [Before the war] when all intellectual questions had been debated so freely, sex was ignored. Now a flood of light poured in upon that department too. We had known everything but we had never talked. Now we talked of nothing else. . . .” (Virginia Woolf by Hermione Lee)

4. As Woolf’s circle of friends grew, so too did her social skills. She tried hard to overcome her natural shyness and was even the talk of a scandalous ball thrown in the fall of 1910. Her friend Roger Fry had arranged for several unknown artists to show their work at the Grafton Galleries. Both the First Post-Impressionist Exhibition (as it was called) and the ball that accompanied it shocked the art world. Some art critics considered the work by these new artists—Cézanne, Van Gogh, Matisse, and Picasso—“pornographic . . . the work of madmen.”

Woolf was moved by the paintings and realized that she wanted to write in the same style in which these artists painted. The ball celebrating the exhibition was a large gathering, and Vanessa and Woolf attended the festivities wearing bare-shouldered gowns (almost the equivalent of a see-through dress today). Needless to say, the notoriety of the Bloomsbury Group continued to grow after the ball.

5. Katherine Mansfield was one of the first authors whose work was published by the Hogarth Press. She was Woolf’s literary rival, and the two shared a critical respect for each other, perhaps tinged by a bit of jealousy on Mansfield’s part. Mansfield’s work spurred Woolf on in healthy competition to write more and better stories, and when Mansfield died in 1923, Woolf felt the loss of a great peer and critic. Woolf even mused that it was not worth writing books anymore because Mansfield was not there to read them.

6. On March 28, 1941,Woolf wrote farewell letters to Vanessa and Leonard. Following a plan she had devised in case of such a mental crisis, she walked to the River Ouse, which was swollen by spring rains, and weighted herself with large stones that she put in the pocket of her fur coat. Virginia Woolf then drowned herself in the river. Leonard found her suicide letter:

Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go though another of those terrible times. . . . So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest happiness possible. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. . . . Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I don’t think two people could have been happier than we have been.


7. Woolf was not religious, but she evokes an image of an afterlife in her essay “How Should One Read a Book?” In this essay, which appeared in her Second Common Reader, she describes her passion for reading, a passion that she has handed down to her readers:

“I have sometimes dreamt, at least, that when the Day of Judgment dawns and the great conquerors and lawyers and statesman come to receive their rewards—their crowns, their laurels, their names carved indelibly upon imperishable marble—the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy when He sees us coming with our books under our arms, ‘Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. They have loved reading.'”

Source: Virginia Woolf (Women in the Arts)
(hide spoiler)]

Question 03:
(view spoiler)[ I was a little afraid that re-reading this book would dampen my initial experience but having read Mrs. Dalloway (and some other writings on her as well), I continue to find Woolf to be a very fascinating person. I'm actually looking forward to reading Lighthouse again.
(hide spoiler)]

[Monique]

Buddy: Hehe. Again, I'm sorry? :D

[Angus]

B. Monique: Of course, that puts you on a very steep lead. I thought somebody would do it, but I didn't expect it to be you. BUT! The discussion has not even begun.

Miss Ronnie: Oh, I love that rivalry between Woolf and Mansfield. I should look Mansfield up.

Reading all the trivia posted here gives us a lot of insight on the personality of Woolf. And because of that, here's a video (reading Woolf's letter to her husband reminded me of it).

[Arjaye]

question 2:

[spoiler]1. Adeline Virginia Stephen is her birth name, born third of 4children. 2. Her first major depressive episode was when her mother died. 3. When dad died of stomach cancer, it prompts a major mental breakdown, that is the jumping out of the window. 4. As a young girl, she was light-hearted and playful. 5. Woolf first novel was the Voyage Out, originally titled as Melymbrosia. 6. Mrs. Dalloway, her fourth novel, has been turned into a movie (1997) and been a subjectof Michael Cunningham movie and film, The Hours (2002). 7.. She became famous for her non-linear prose style, esp. noted in Mrs. Dalloway and To The Lighthouse.[/spoiler]

question3:
[spoiler]My only fear.. to finish it on time and to really comprehend each and every line the book wants to convey. ill try my best, tho. :)[/spoiler]

[Gwaxa]

Question 2:

(view spoiler)[
1. Virginia Woolf could be famously mean and snobby. Her first reaction upon meeting the writer Katherine Mansfield—a gifted writer whom admired Woolf tremendously—was "that she stinks like a—well civet cat that had taken to street walking. In truth, I'm a little shocked by her commonness at first sight; lines so hard & cheap."

2. In a personal essay in the 1930s, Virginia Woolf posed the question, "Am I snob?" She concluded: "Yes."

3. Open marriages were accepted among members of the Bloomsbury Group. Virginia Woolf had a well-known relationship with the writer Vita Sackville-West. Woolf's sister Vanessa Bell had a child with her lover, the painter Duncan Grant. Her husband Clive Bell encouraged the affair and raised the resulting daughter, Angelica, as his own. In a twist that would have given Freud a heart attack, Angelica later married her biological father's former male lover, David Garnett, in 1942. The marriage did not last.

4. Leonard Woolf owned a monkey as a pet, a marmoset named Mitz. The unpleasant creature had few fans beyond its owner. Mitz "seemed to be in a perpetual state of vicious fury … It was deeply in love with Leonard and would spit out its jealousy upon the rest of humanity," wrote Woolf's nephew Quentin Bell in his memoir. "Perhaps it was showing its affection when it crouched upon his arm and defecated upon him; this was so much its favorite occupation that Leonard had to have waterproofing upon the sleeves of his jacket."

5. In 1910, Virginia Woolf and five male friends dressed up in blackface and exotic robes and presented themselves to the British Royal Navy as the Prince of Abyssinia (then a British colony, now Ethiopia) and his entourage. They requested—and received—a personal tour of the warship H.M.S. Dreadnought. For forty minutes they toured the ship with its Commander, babbling amongst each other in a made-up language. The gleeful pranksters alerted the press as soon as they were off the ship. The navy was horrified to learn that it had been duped.

6. The writer Toni Morrison wrote her Cornell University master's thesis on themes of suicide in the novels of Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner.


7. Jan 25, 1882- Adeline Virginia Stephen is born. She is the third of four children born to Julia Prinsep Stephen and her husband Leslie. She also has four half-siblings from her parents' previous marriages. Virginia's parents are fixtures on the London literary and intellectual scene and she grows up in a home full of books.

8. 1895- Virginia Woolf's mother, Julia Prinsep Stephen, dies. The family is plunged into mourning, and Virginia has her first major depressive episode.

9. 1897- Virginia's half-sister Stella Duckworth, who has been running the Stephen household since the death of their mother in 1895, dies.

10. 1904-Leslie Stephen dies of stomach cancer. The loss of her father prompts a major mental breakdown during which Virginia tries to commit suicide by jumping out of a window. She is briefly institutionalized. Following their father's death, the Stephen children sell their childhood home and buy a house together in the hip Bloomsbury neighborhood of London.

11. 1905- At the age of 23, Virginia begins her professional writing career as a contributor to the Times Literary Supplement. She also takes on several jobs of the sort available to women at the time, such as teaching and reading to elderly ladies.

12. 1906- The Stephens travel together to Greece. Vanessa and Thoby both become sick with typhoid fever. Vanessa recovers, but Thoby dies at the age of 26. Always close to her siblings, Virginia is heartbroken.

13. 1910- Virginia and five other members of the group play a practical joke on the British military in which they pretend to be visiting dignitaries from the British colonies to finagle a tour of the British warship the H.M.S. Dreadnought. The incident is known as the Dreadnought Hoax.

14. Aug 10, 1912- Virginia Stephen marries Leonard Woolf, a Jewish intellectual who had served in the foreign service. The couple enjoy a happy, if unconventional, marriage that lasts until Virginia's death.

15. 1915- Woolf's first novel The Voyage Out is published. She had completed it a year earlier, but publication was delayed by the war and Woolf's lingering depression.

16. 1917- The Woolfs purchase a used printing press, establishing the Hogarth Press in the basement of their home. Their basement project allows Virginia to publish her experimental fiction.

17. 1919- Virginia and Leonard Woolf purchase Monk's House, an eighteenth-century cottage located in the countryside village of Rodmell in England. They will maintain the house until Leonard's death in 1969. Also in 1919, Virginia publishes the novel Night and Day.

18. 1922- Virginia Woolf publishes Jacob's Room, a novel based on her brother Thoby's death. In this same year she meets Vita Sackville-West, a married writer. The two women begin a love affair—with Leonard Woolf's knowledge and permission—that lasts through the 1920s. After their romantic relationship ends, they remain close friends until Woolf's death.

19. 1924- The Woolfs move to Bloomsbury, the bohemian neighborhood of London. The Bloomsbury Group continues to meet informally.

20. Sep 28, 1937- Virginia Woolf's half-brother Gerald Duckworth dies in Milan, Italy. Two years later, Woolf will reveal in a memoir that Duckworth and his brother George sexually molested her and her sister Vanessa when they were children.

21. Great Britain declares war on Germany, marking England's entry into World War II. Fearing Nazi persecution due to Leonard's Jewish ethnicity, the Woolfs make plans to commit suicide if England is invaded. They leave their home in London and move out to Monk's House at Rodmell, where they hope they will be safer.

22. Mar 28, 1941- Convinced she will not recover from her current battle with mental illness, Virginia Woolf fills the pockets of her coat with stones and drowns herself in the Ouse River near Monk's House. Her body is discovered three weeks later. Leonard Woolf chooses to have the body cremated, and the ashes are scattered at Monk's House.

23. Jul 1941- Virginia Woolf's final novel, Between the Acts, is published posthumously.
(hide spoiler)]

Question 3:

(view spoiler)[Hopes: That I'll be able to enjoy(!) and finish it.
Fears: That it'll be too new for me. That maybe I'll finish it but won't be able to enjoy it. That it'll put me off the post modern genre forever (kidding on the forever, hehehe). (hide spoiler)]

[DC]

Q2: Not adding to this, because I already felt that this thread has TMI on Miss Woolf. Haha! Interesting trivia, everybody :)

Q3: Not many hopes and fears for this book, though I am quite excited, as I've always been wanting to read Woolf. Despite not having read her yet, I actually got one of my pseudonyms from her name, because I saw it in a bookshelf :) (view spoiler)[That name is Lauren Wolfe. I used to use it for my writing, a while back. (hide spoiler)]

[Angus]

Arjaye: Wow! Every line? Let's get our knuckles cracking then.

Gwaxa: Competitive din? Hopefully it won't put you off forever. I can't promise though.

DC: Are you sure? Well, that's okay. In this age, it's hard to avoid TMI. We're not even sure if every information is necessary. But it's fun stuff, to a certain extent, that is.

[Maria]

Sis: nakakaloka. Ang fierce ng competitive spirit mo!

[Ranee]

Inubos ni Arjaye ang Wiki infos hahahaha!
Q2: Virginia Woolf is not Anne Sexton. although both committed suicide and both were diagnosed with a mental illness. well,there was a time I mixed the two female writers, thought they are one and the same, like the other was a pseudonym of some sort. Hahahaha. Now I know better.

Q3: i thought her style is challenging, high brow so I veer away from her, but I will try this time.

[Arjaye]

Angus: sana hindi magresult sa bloody knuckles, nose bleed pa! haha so scary, the classics!

Ranee: wala nako madagdag eh..haha sana copy paste ko na lang pala pati google image..patos na dapat! hahaha

[Gwaxa]

Angus: Alam mo yan. Lol. And it's ok, I trust that you won't lead me astray. :)

[Tin]

Question 2:(view spoiler)[ I am not sure if these count as VW Trivia. I don't think so. Hahaha. But I came late in the game and you guys mentioned a lot already. So it is perfectly okay with me if I don't get any points for this.

1: What the Water Gave Me is a song by Florence and the Machine (written by Florence Welch and Francis White)in their album called Ceremonials. And this song was inspired by Virginia Woolf according to Florence. Source:Wikipedia

2: Nicole Kidman played Virginia Woolf in the movie The Hours and she also narrated an audiobook of To the Lighthouse available in Audible.com (hide spoiler)]

Question 3:(view spoiler)[I am afraid that I won't be able to get it. And the idea of not getting Virginia Woolf sucks already, what more if it turns to actuality. It'll be double sucky. Maybe I won't have have the wits and the patience for this? Then I'll DNF it or something...And DNFs suck. (hide spoiler)]

[Angus]

Happy Sunday! Has anyone begun yet? Or is everybody waiting for tomorrow?

Doc Ranee: Have you read Anne Sexton? I think she came a generation after Virginia Woolf.

Tin: One of my fears is that I am slowly becoming irrelevant to this age filled with acronyms. I always find myself googling stuff. Like DNF. Hahaha!

[Meliza]

I'm waiting for tomorrow. Hehe. Have to catch up with our Sense and Sensibility reading plan first. :)

[Maria]

Chami, I will start today, give myself a headstart ;) Happy Sunday!

[Angus]

Hello, I've tallied your points and they are on the other thread. And by the way, no more points will be added for Questions 01 to 03 after today. If you still want to catch up with those questions, you have until tonight, 11:59. You may still answer them any time though for the purpose of answering them. Heh.

And because I'm sleepy, I'll post the guide questions for Chapters 01 to 05.

[Angus]

Part I: Chapters 01 to 05

Question 04:
(view spoiler)[
Summarize Part I: Chapters 01 to 05. (1 point for every 20 words, maximum of 10 points)
(hide spoiler)]

Question 05:
(view spoiler)[
Stream of consciousness--love it or hate it? Why? (1 point)
(hide spoiler)]

Question 06:
(view spoiler)[
If the novel had more speech and action instead of the interior thoughts and feelings of the characters, how do you suppose the first chapter would unfold? (1 point)
(hide spoiler)]

Question 07:
(view spoiler)[
What are your impressions of Mr. Ramsay, Mrs. Ramsay, and Lily Briscoe? (3 points)
(hide spoiler)]

Score Boosters:
(view spoiler)[
If you post on May 04, total score is multiplied by three, with an additional 5 points. You have 2.5 hours left for this (as of posting time).
If you post on May 05, between 12:00MN and 05:59AM, total score is multiplied by three.
If you post on May 05, between 06:00AM and 10:00AM, total score is multiplied by two.
If your post is edited outside these times, multiplier is nullified. Example: you posted your answers on May 05, 3:00AM but you edited them at 10:00AM, you lose your multiplier.
Regular points on all other times.
(hide spoiler)]

[Alexa]

Part I: Chapters 01 to 05

Question 04:
(view spoiler)[
Summarize Part I: Chapters 01 to 05. (1 point for every 20 words, maximum of 10 points)

The setting is somewhere in Scotland. James, one of Mr and Mrs Ramsay’s sons, is cutting out pictures of the military when his mother tells him that maybe they could go to the lighthouse the following day. This gets his hopes up, only to be stamped down immediately by his father. To comfort him, Mrs Ramsay gently assured him that it could still be possible, but Charles Tansley, (probably a guest or a family friend) took Mr Ramsay’s side, which annoys her.
Because she is a really nice woman, Mrs Ramsay invited Tansley to join her on an errand around town. Tansley’s thoughts are put on the forefront as he reflects on how nice Mrs Ramsay is. He appreciates how nice she really is compared to everyone else, and this is probably why he suddenly got turned into a lovesick puppy at the end of the chapter. He carried her bag, hurrah. This will probably be kept in his memory forever (Congratulations.).
In my favorite chapter so far (in terms of length and understandability): Deep inside, Mrs Ramsay still finds him annoying for telling them they can’t go to the lighthouse.
Later on, she gets painted by Lily Briscoe, but she moved around for a bit, reflecting on the waves and all that, until she remembers to keep still.
We get to know Lily Briscoe a bit more. She’s a painter, probably another guest (or a really talented babysitter or family friend). William Bankes joins her. She compares Bankes and Mr Ramsay in her head (I hope, for all their sakes). She struggles to paint Mrs Ramsay while trying to understand Mr Ramsay and his philosophy. Mr Ramsay had a KSP moment when he was reciting Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem, but he realized it when he saw that Lily and Bankes were watching him, so he went away.
(hide spoiler)]

Question 05:
(view spoiler)[
Stream of consciousness--love it or hate it? Why? (1 point)

I can’t feel anything as strong as love or hate yet as of this moment, but so far I’m fine with it. It’s really confusing, though. I thought I was getting the hang of it but then my mind drifts and I get lost again. I like it for the challenge and mental workout, definitely. And regardless of my opinion…. Can I just say how much I admire Virginia Woolf all the more? Stream of consciousness sounds easy,n but trying to keep up all of your thoughts and putting them in writing must be difficult. To quote Woolf herself (through Lily):

to follow her thought was like following a voice which speaks too quickly to be taken down by one’s pencil. blockquote>

(hide spoiler)]

Question 06:
(view spoiler)[
If the novel had more speech and action instead of the interior thoughts and feelings of the characters, how do you suppose the first chapter would unfold? (1 point)

I suppose it would be very short. Like, Chapter 2-level short. And it wouldn’t be as interesting because we will only see the characters doing things, and it wouldn’t matter as much if we didn’t know their motivations and thoughts. Tansley would be carrying Mrs Ramsay’s bag and it wouldn’t seem like such a big deal if appearances are the only things described. Deep inside, he’s melting na pala sa kilig. (I kind of like stream of consciousness because of this. It felt more natural to read their thoughts that way because not everyone thinks in a very organized manner.)
(hide spoiler)]

Question 07:
(view spoiler)[
What are your impressions of Mr. Ramsay, Mrs. Ramsay, and Lily Briscoe? (3 points)

Mr. Ramsay was primarily described as someone austere, and my first impressions were formed on that. However, while he may not exactly be the most pleasant person to be around, from what Lily said, he still loves his family. And if he’s got a really good trait, it’s being honest. I wonder if that’s the reason Mrs. Ramsay married him or if there was something else, only it disappeared because of the circumstances in their situation (read: financial difficulties). Or, maybe it’s because they’re so different. Opposites attract XD
My impression of Mrs. Ramsay was formed through what the other characters thought of her, but particularly Tansley. I think she must be nice to everyone, because nobody liked Tinsley but she talked to him like it was nothing. I also think she must be a wonderful housewife. I empathize with her on her worries, because I can see that she loves her children but they’re so many and they’re not exactly rich. I’m also reading another book (that I forgot too lazy to tag here in Goodreads unless I’m actually done reading it) about the 45 Master Characters and from what I’ve read I’m pegging her as a Nurterer, definitely. She protects her children and is very tolerant of her husband, and she really tries to keep the family going. I really like her.
Lily Bruscoe… well, I can’t figure her out yet. From what I could grasp from my first reading (because I’ll definitely review it before reading the rest… probably) she definitely likes Mrs Ramsay, Mr Ramsay not so much, and Bankes, sort of. And she definitely likes to paint. It's like she wants something more from life though. I feel like she's confused about it. Or maybe I'm just the one who's confused? Idk.
(hide spoiler)]

[Alexa]

(view spoiler)[
*rereads answers*
*typos*
*verb tense inconsistencies*
*grammar*
*stress*
*cringe*
(hide spoiler)]

[Veronica]

Part I: Chapters 01 to 05

(view spoiler)[
Question 04:

The Ramsay family are at their vacation house and six-year-old James asks his mother if they could visit the lighthouse. Mrs. Ramsay promises they will go tomorrow if the weather is fine but Mr. Ramsay is sure that they won’t be able to go because the weather won’t be fine. James is crushed by his father’s words. Charles Tansley, a friend of the family, agrees with Mr. Ramsay thus further sealing the decision of not visiting the lighthouse the following day.

Mrs. Ramsay, despite being inwardly irked by Mr. Tansley, invites him to accompany her on her errand in town. As they walk, Mrs. Ramsay talks about things they pass: Mr. Carmichael, a circus advertisement and a painter in a Panama hat. Mr. Tansley is not used to being in a woman’s society and is captivated by Mrs. Ramsay’s conversation and beauty. They stop at a house in the village where Mrs. Ramsay visits a sick woman. On the way home, Mr. Tansley is filled with “extraordinary pride” because he is “walking with a beautiful woman.”

The next chapter finds them back in the living room where Mrs. Ramsay tries to soothe James’ disappointment. We continue to be privy to Mrs. Ramsay’s ruminations and are introduced to two other characters, Lily Briscoe, a would-be artist and William Bankes, a friend of the family. As Lily and William interact, we learn more about Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay as well as their (Lily’s and William’s) opinion of each other.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Ramsay continues to be optimistic about the trip to the lighthouse tomorrow. She is knitting a stocking for the Lighthouse keeper’s little boy.

Question 05:

I can’t really say I love it but I do like it a lot because it’s different. Whereas in traditional stories, the plot determines the thoughts and actions of the characters, with SOC (another acronym for you, Angus), it’s the other way around. It’s a little more challenging to read, but in the hands of a gifted author, it’s so much more fulfilling to read.

Question 06:

I’m not sure I understand the question. I suppose if it were a traditional narrative, there would be more descriptions of how Mrs. Ramsay acts lovingly towards her son, the brusqueness of Mr. Ramsay’s reaction to the trip, some action on James’ part to show his disappointment and displeasure towards his father.

It’ll probably be a much shorter chapter. :) Now that you mention it, it’s hard to think of it in terms of a traditional story once you've seen how much more meaningful Woolf's version is. It would probably be like redrawing a beautiful painting with stick figures. :)

Question 07:

As far as the chapters assigned, Mr. Ramsay is shown as the authoritarian father who cannot be dissuaded once his mind is made up, also a bit eccentric. Mrs. Ramsay is the nurturing mother who maintains her composure as she tries to keep peace within the family. She also has no notion of how highly she is regarded by others. Lily Briscoe is a would-be artist who lacks confidence in her own talent.
(hide spoiler)]

[Arjaye]

Part I: Chapters 1-5:

[spoiler]Q4:In all honesty, i had to read twice the first chapter since all the words came tumbling down on me. I was down right confused. And this is how i pictured Chapter 1-5.

While Mrs. Ramsay was knitting some leg stocking for the Lighthouse keeper's little boy, James his youngest son was excited to go the next day to the Lighthouse. But when Mr. Ramsay said that it will not be possible due to the weather, it dampened his spirit causing him to hate his father. In addition to that, one of the guest, Charles Tansley seconded the impossibility of going there since he looked up to Mr. Ramsay so much.
After dinner, Mrs. Ramsay asked Tansley to accompany her for a walk to do some errands in town. In that brief moment, Tansley liked Mrs. Ramsay, in her fifties and had delivered 8 children already.
Still, Mr. Ramsay kept on his negativity about not going to the Lighthouse the next day.
Lily Briscoe, another character in the village was painting for the Ramsays. While she was standing in the lawn, William Bankes, a friend stood beside her. Later, they decided to take a walk. While doing this, Bankes had himself reminiscing about his friendship with Mr. Ramsay long time ago. They had a falling out.
While Lily thinks Mr. Ramsay is intelligent, vain and proud, he considered Mr. Bankes opposite of him.
Mrs. Ramsay used James as a measuring unit for her knitting. Her mind wandered to her surroundings then to the time when her father was dying, while doing so.
Then came the thoughts of Mr. Bankes regarding Mrs. Ramsay, as he watched her and thought "But she's no more aware of her beauty than a child." The chapter ended with Mrs. Ramsay giving James' a kiss in the forehead and finding another picture to cut out.

Q5:
Hate it! as the thoughts jumped from one to another, my understanding and comprehension got tangled also. I find myself confused on whose talking now or thinking out of his or her mind. The train of thoughts were going back and forth and it was exhausting, honestly. Result: head aching! arrghh! haha

Q6:
It would be shorter, i guess. Because it will just involved the present event happening, unlike what Woolf used, a lot of flashbacks and reminiscing and analyzing and recurring thoughts.

Q7:
Mr. Ramsay, i found myself agreeing with how he was described there as intelligent but vain and egotistical. But he is honest, incapable of truth.
Mrs. Ramsay, a loving mother. She is well liked by others, though she's not aware of that, including Lily. I pictured her as a pretty and kind lady.
Lily, all i can imagine till now is that she's a painter who maybe likes or will turn to like Mr. Bankes, but definitely hates Mr. Ramsay.[/spoiler]

[Gwaxa]

I'm still waiting for May 5 to start reading tas may questions na agad. You're a slave driver, Angus. O.O
Ok. Keri ko to. :)

[Angus]

Quick Comments:

Blue and NYKen: We'll have to wait until tomorrow for the time stamps to update to actual dates and times (I'll just adjust them to Manila time). Looks like your time stamps are on the edges. Blue/Alexa might be adjusted to May 05, 12am (because of the edit), and NYKen will be adjusted to 6:04 (because of the edit as well). :D

Gwaxa: I'm sorreehhh?? Hahaha! You still get regular points naman.

[Tina]

And I thought makakahabol pa ako today for the first set of questions. Oh well. I will still answer Question # 3, kahit wala nang points. :D

Do you have any hopes and fears in reading To the Lighthouse?
(view spoiler)[Only that I will find reading it to be tedious and boring. I'm such a fickle reader lately that if something bores me, I go to another book immediately. But I still want to read and finish and understand this, mostly because I will consider this as my reading achievement for this year (last year was LesMis :D). (hide spoiler)]

And now that I saw the other questions + the points...I will answer those later when I get free time at work. (Lord, gimme free time please)

[Monique]

Dammit! There goes my lead. :(

[Alexa]

Aw, I hope it counts! I shouldn't have edited na nga, I still have a lot of spelling and grammar errors anyway, tsk. The next multiplier is between 12:00 mn and 5:59 am naman, so hopefully midnight doesn't count, if ever? Hehehehehe.

Atty Monique: I have a ten day immersion in Leyte and I'm leaving Friday so I doubt I'll be able to keep myself updated long enough to overtake you, haha!

[Angus]

Guys! Don't feel disappointed if you didn't get those multipliers (I feel like I'm hushing disappointed competitive kids). In this age of procrastination (ehem, ehem!), we feel the need to reward those who do things ahead of time. Besides, you still get points for answering, and there are more score boosters to come (which are not time-based).

I have follow-up questions for the purposes of discussion and to show you that I read and think about your answers (I owe that much for your efforts in answering). You may or may not answer them. If you do answer them, you get two points.

Blue/Alexa:
(view spoiler)[
It's okay to be confused about Lily at this point, and maybe even annoyed, if you are not inclined to like people who have low self-confidence. Personally, she's my favorite character in this novel, mostly because she's representing what I'm going through at this part of my life. Talk about books that speak of your so-called life, huh? Hahaha, this is therapy. Anyway, you mentioned these 45 Master Characters that you are reading, but you've only tagged Mrs. Ramsay (The Nurturer). Based on what you've finished, how would you tag Mr. Ramsay and Lily Briscoe?
(hide spoiler)]

Veronica/Miss Ronnie:
(view spoiler)[
Okay, I was tempted to google SOC, then I thought of context clues. And it worked, hahaha! And yes, you've got the question right. Now that I think of it, it seems nice to have some people not understand the question but still come up with great answers. Speaking of gifted authors and paintings, do you think it's possible to give a fair comparison between, say Charles Dickens, and Virginia Woolf?
(hide spoiler)]

Arjaye:
(view spoiler)[
I suggest that you have some pain relievers handy, haha. Reminder: we will not claim responsibility to any hospitalization or medical bills as a result of reading this novel. Also, just a tip, use "<>" instead of "[]" when using the spoiler tags. We don't mind it, but it looks like that you want to put your answers in spoiler tags. Since you hate stream of consciousness, do you feel that this would be a hindrance for you in appreciating this novel?
(hide spoiler)]

NYKen:
(view spoiler)[
Wow, you have a complex relationship with stream of consciousness. I personally like stream of consciousness because it makes books more personal. It's like being inside a person's head. How closer can you get than that? But, it depends on the writer. I like Woolf and Faulkner and Hamsun, I don't like Joyce and Kafka. So my follow-up question for you is, do you feel that you'd feel more intellectual after finishing this book? Or does it validate anything in the reader?
(hide spoiler)]

Tina: I haven't conquered Les Mis yet. I'm sure you can conquer this! But then, they require different kinds of patience. Almost similar, but still different.

[Ranee]

whoa! I feel like being trasported back to college and the questions slowly taking fun out of reading.
I might end up not enjoying the book and focusing on bonus points lest become suicidal too like Virgie (close lang kami)
but this is just me, when I said college, I meant going back to the rebellious kid whom which I have learned to suppress to come to terms with my so-called maturity (which I should project because of my age)

[Arjaye]

Angus: that explains it! awww! i thought ive been doing it the right way... hindi pala! soooweee! (view spoiler)[gets ko na ba this time?! :) (hide spoiler)]
and hating SOC now doesn't mean i cannot like it in the future.. or at least, get the hang of it. :) To the Lighthouse will be my starting point.

Ranee: Its a bit diff for me.. (view spoiler)[kinda make me like reading it more.. kasi kung ako lang, i wont pick classics as my tbr's these days. sana lang makasanayan ko.hehe so i have TFG to thank for. :) (hide spoiler)]

[Alexa]

Angus: (view spoiler)[I quite like Lily, actually, because she intrigues me and she's an artist! I like artists. But I can't say that I know her all that well yet, so we'll see.

As for the other archetypes, I've only really read four, and since neither Lily nor Mr Ramsay fit into those, I decided to skip ahead and just get a feel of the others. For now, Lily's probably an Artist (surprise) or Mystic (likes solitude, free spirit) while Mr Ramsay's probably a Recluse (pessimistic, antisocial). I hope I'm right, but I've yet to see if that's so :) (hide spoiler)]

NYKen: (view spoiler)[Thanks, Kuya Ken! I hope to see the people of Leyte doing much better than last year. We're supposed to evaluate their health system so we're gauging how they're doing through that. I'm really looking forward to it. (hide spoiler)]

[Tina]

Part I: Chapters 01 to 05

Question 04:
(view spoiler)[James Ramsay wants to go to the lighthouse and Mrs. Ramsay tells him they might go the next day, except Mr. Ramsay says that they can't, because of the weather. James is angry at his dad, and his mom tries to reassure him that things could change. However, Charles Tansley, one of their houseguests, disagrees with her. Mrs. Ramsay gets annoyed, but she suppresses them and invites Charles to go for a walk with her to the store. They talked as they strolled, and Mrs. Ramsay realizes that Tansley had a hard childhood and tries to be softer to him. Tansley is impressed with Mrs. Ramsay, and decides that she is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. When they got back, Tansley tells James - albeit gently - that they might not be able to go to the lighthouse again. Mrs. Ramsey comforts James, and later on she listens to the men talking outside, and starts contemplating on the waves, which she hears together with the men's discussion. She remembers that Lily Briscoe, another houseguest, was painting her portrait, so she tries to keep still.

As Lily was painting, Mr. Ramsay disturbs her by nearly tipping her easel when he passed by her, talking to himself. William Bankes, an old friend of Mr. Ramsay, joins her there, and they watch him walk around as he talked to himself. Bankes feels sad that he and Mr. Ramsay had drifted apart, and he doesn't understand a lot of things about his old friend now. He criticizes Mr. Ramsay's work, which Lily has never quite grasped. Mr. Ramsay sees the two of them watching him, and he feels embarrassed, but goes on anyway.

Back at the house. Mrs. Ramsay continues knitting a stocking for the lighthouse keeper's son, still hoping that the weather would let them go there the next day. (hide spoiler)]

Question 05:
(view spoiler)[No real opinion on it yet since this is the first time I have encountered it in fiction (or if I have, I wasn't aware -- were any other F2F books like this?). But I am surprisingly having an easier time understanding it. Well, maybe not completely understanding it, but it's not that hard to read, so let's say I like it. :) (hide spoiler)]

Question 06:
(view spoiler)[Since I am reading Sense and Sensibility at the same time as this, I imagine it would be the same as that with all the discussions and gossiping and such...except there wasn't much dialogue there, except for Charles' thoughts, so yeah, it might be a very short chapter. I don't suppose he would say his feelings for Mrs. Ramsay out loud, and it's impossible to have organized thoughts when you're trying to understand how you feel for another person, be it romantic or not. (view spoiler)[Then again, who has organized thoughts? Teach me how to organize mine, please. (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

Question 07:
(view spoiler)[Mr. Ramsay - I liked how he was described here:

What he said was true. It was always true. He was incapable of untruth, never tampered with a fact; never altered a disagreeable word to suit the pleasure or convenience of any mortal being, least of all his own children, who, sprung from his loins, should be aware from childhood that life is difficult; facts uncompromising; and the passage to that fabled land where our brightest hopes are extinguished, our frail barks founder in darkness (here Mr. Ramsay would straighten his back and narrow his little blue eyes upon the horizon), one that needs, above all, courage, truth, and the power to endure.

He seems like a no-nonsense person, who loves the truth and always pursues it, even if it's at the cost of showing his love for his family. Does he even really love his family? I hope so.

Mrs. Ramsay - she seems caring, not just to her kids, but to the other people around her. Or maybe the right word is kind, because even if she was annoyed at Tansley, she tries to be warm to him. I think she tries hard to be a calm person, and she mostly succeeds...and I wonder if she will break at some point later in the story.

Lily Briscoe - I don't know if it's because of her name, but I think of her as a small, fragile-looking artsy girl who is insecure of her talent. I feel like she's a little bit timid, and her admiration for Mrs. Ramsay is one thing that's keeping her around, even if she dislikes Mr. Ramsay. (hide spoiler)]

[Angus]

Hi everyone!

Doc Ranee: Dahil pinatakbo mo kami sa buong UP campus, paduduguin ko ang mga utak ninyo. Fair enough? Hehe. Seriously, if you feel that this pointing system and the structure of the online discussion is not going to help, you may do away with it. That goes out to everyone. I chose a more academic approach because it's what I'm most comfortable with. It may be exacting but I hope that a sense of satisfaction, a different kind of fun, may be achieved when we somehow elucidate the themes and questions posed by the author in this book.

NYKen: "Yes, of course, if it's fine to-morrow," said Mrs. Ramsay. (view spoiler)[Also, you may PM me what you can't say in public. (hide spoiler)]

Arjaye: Yes, you got it. Achievement unlocked!

Tina:
(view spoiler)[
The closest that I could think of is the middle section of Cloud Atlas, but it's more of a man talking to an audience, noh? SOC is often attributed to Faulkner, Joyce, and Woolf, but it has been used in succeeding generations (from J.D. Salinger to Jonathan Safran Foer). And since you are reading Sense and Sensibility, do you think it's possible to give a fair comparison between Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf? (same question with Miss Ronnie)
(hide spoiler)]

[Monique]

My earth-shattering answers (finally!):

Question 4:
(view spoiler)[The young boy James Ramsay, one of eight children of the Ramsay couple, while cutting out a picture of a refrigerator, among other things, asks his mother, the gentle Mrs. Ramsay, if they could go to the Lighthouse. Good old Mrs. Ramsay answers, yes, they could, if the weather is fine tomorrow, thereby raising the hopes of the younger Ramsay. Unfortunately, Mr. Ramsay immediately sends the hopes of his own son crashing down when he says no, they can't. To add insult to injury, Charles Tansley, apparently a friend of Mr. Ramsay's (and the family, I surmise), echoes the response of the latter.

There are a lot of descriptions and thoughts from Mrs. Ramsay about the Lighthouse and the people who get sent there, regarding their comfort (or lack thereof).

Mrs. Ramsay, good woman that she is, then asks Charles Tansley to accompany her as she went around the town for errands. They come upon a poster of a circus and there were more thoughts about that. Charles Tansley, in that short time that he spends with Mrs. Ramsay, takes a liking to her and thinks about offering to carry her bag. He decides that Mrs. Ramsay is the most beautiful woman he's met.

Upon their return, Tansley reiterates to James that he might not be able to go the Lighthouse the next day, but being the mother that she is, Mrs. Ramsay tries to assure James that they could, if it's fine tomorrow. At some point, Mrs. Ramsay realizes that a conversation going on outside the window has stopped, and it was then that she contemplated on the waves outside. At this, Mrs. Ramsay remembers Lily Briscoe, a Chinese-eyed artist/painter, who was trying to paint her and James. So she bows her head and keeps still and thinks some more.

The story segues to Lily and one William Bankes, who appear to get intimately drawn to each other. William reminisces about his shared history with Mr. Ramsay, and rues that it was gone so suddenly. Later, William regards Mrs. Ramsay, and that's where Chapter 5 ends.
(hide spoiler)]

Question 5:
(view spoiler)[So far, I can't categorically say yet, although it's a style of writing that I know is very challenging to read. To be honest, I had a rather tough time going through the first five chapters, but it's okay. I'll get used to it. :) (hide spoiler)]

Question 6:
(view spoiler)[Oh, perhaps a rather interesting dialogue between James asking his mother if they could go to the Lighthouse, and then Mrs. Ramsay answering they could if it was fine tomorrow, and then she would go on describing the Lighthouse and the people there to James - instead of Mrs. Ramsay just thinking thoughts, she would actually voice them all out to James. And as soon as Mr. Ramsay vetoes the Lighthouse idea, perhaps a little exchange would transpire. (hide spoiler)]

Question 7:
(view spoiler)[Mr. Ramsay came off as someone very blunt and no-nonsense: he didn't even attempt to sugarcoat his response when he vetoed the idea of going to the Lighthouse. He is frank, which is good, I guess, in the long run, but it could also be offensive for those who don't know him to be that way.

Mrs Ramsay is clearly a very good mother, gentle and warm. She has her children's best interests at heart, with the way she tried to assuage James' feelings of disappointment at the idea that he won't be able to go to the Lighthouse. Also, from the way she had been admired by Tansley and Bankes, I'd say she's a lovely woman inside and out, and quite intelligent as well.

Lily Briscoe, by virtue of her being a Chinese-eyed artist, seems like a quiet, thoughtful, and intelligent person. She thought about Mr. Ramsay's work as though she knew him personally, and again, owing to the fact of her being an artist, she is deliberate and careful with her thoughts and words. (hide spoiler)]

[Angus]

Buddy Monique:
(view spoiler)[
Your earth-shattering answers did no harm to our Internet connection. That means I get to ask a follow-up question: what made you say that Mrs. Ramsay is quite intelligent? If necessary, you may refer us to a direct quotation.
(hide spoiler)]

[Monique]

BUDDY: (view spoiler)[Mrs. Ramsay's character - over-all - exuded this intelligence that I spoke of. It was just the general impression that I got. But if I were to cite a specific quote, there is a paragraph in Chapter 1 where Mrs. Ramsay ruminated on the "real differences" of people:

"It seemed to her such nonsense -- inventing differences, when people, heaven knows, were different enough without that. The real differences, she thought, standing by the drawing-room window, are enough, quite enough. She had in mind at the moment, rich and poor, high and low; the great in birth receiving from her, half grudging, some respect, for had she not in her veins the blood of that very noble, if slightly mythical, Italian house, whose daughters, scattered about English drawing-rooms in the nineteenth century, had lisped so charmingly, had stormed so wildly, and all her wit and bearing and her temper came from them, and not from the sluggish English, or the cold Scotch; x x x"

The tenor of the foregoing rumination leans towards Mrs. Ramsay's compassionate and tender side, but it also shows her quiet intelligence. Her thoughts are not only the maternal, genteel kind, but you can see that she thinks and speaks with depth, something that can only mean she has a good head on her shoulders. :)
(hide spoiler)]

[Tin]

Question 4:(view spoiler)[ James Ramsay, one of the eight kids from the famil,y asks his mom of they could go to the lighthouse. Mrs. Ramsay says yes and that made the boy so very excited. But Mr. Ramsay, however, says that they won't be able to do so because the weather will surely be terrible. And that drew such emotion from little James that in his mind, he went all Game of Thronesy and thought of hacking his father's breast with an axe or a poker or something. Charles Tansley, a guest, also concurred with the father, crushing James' hopes even more and irking Mrs. Ramsay for rubbing it in.

Mrs. Ramsay, despite being annoyed with Charles Tansley, invited him to accompany her to town for an errand. Tansley agrees and off they went. Along the way they chatted and then came upon a poster from a circus show. They talked about it and somehow made Tansley open up to Mrs. Ramsay about a lot of his childhood and family and stuff. It was clear that he was awed by and drawn to Mrs. Ramsay. He was soon carrying her bag and he was mighty pleased about walking with such a beautiful woman.

When they got home, Tansley again reiterates that they might not be able to go to the lighthouse. Mrs. Ramsay again soothes little James, right until she heard voices and waves and saw Lily Briscoe.

Lily Briscoe is painter and she is somehow fascinated by the Ramsay family, more so Mrs. Ramsay. William Bankes, a family friend (or neighbor?) joins her for a walk and they both went into some deep contemplation about the Ramsay family. Bankes and Mr. Ramsay used to be friends but not anymore and he relates how that came to be. Lily soon starts comparing Bankes and Mr. Ramsay and soon regards the former more than the latter. (hide spoiler)]

Question 5:(view spoiler)[ I'm fine with stream of consciousness. It takes a bit of work because the text switches from one person's thoughts to another without warning. It doesn't have a heading that says this is now Mrs. Ramsay's thoughts, or Lily's... (hide spoiler)]

Question 6(view spoiler)[I think it would be a bit of a drab if the chapters had more speech and action because there is not much going on in the first place, except the whole going to the lighthouse thing. It's the internal thoughts that make it really awesome (hide spoiler)]

Question 7(view spoiler)[ Mrs. Ramsay seems like this elegant, gorgeous, caring mommy of the world type. I somehow fell like she's like the late Princess Diana. Hehehe. She a presence about her.

Mr. Ramsay seems like the guy who tells everything like it is. Also I feel like he has a lot of pride too.

Lily Briscoe reminds me somehow of one the Lisbon siters in The Virgin Suicides, no, it's a combination of them. It's just that I feel she has this mystical air about her. (hide spoiler)]

[Kristel]

Hello! Trying to catch up but I hope that since I'm rereading I wouldn't get too bogged down. I'll probably be updating with my answers to various questions. Sorry if it gets too spammy.

Question 01:
(view spoiler)[
Samuel Beckett
All That Fall (1 point) and "Cascando" and "bon bon est il un pays" (.5 points)
Constantine P. Cavafy
Collected Poems (1) (Two of my favorite ones are He Asked About The Quality and The Gods Abandon Antony)
E. E. Cummings
Collected Poems (1) (I especially love his sonnets)
H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)
"Helen" and "Cities" (.5 points)
T. S. Eliot
"Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and "The Hollow Men" (.5 points)
William Faulkner
"A Rose for Emily" (.5 points) and As I Lay Dying (1 point)
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby (1 point), "The Rich Boy" and "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" (1 point)
E. M. Forster
A Room With a View (2 points)
Ernest Hemingway
For Whome the Bell Tolls (1 point), "A Clean Well-Light Place" and "Hills Like White Elephants" (1 point)
James Joyce
The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1 point), "The Dubliners" (.5 points)
Thomas Mann
"Death in Venice" (.5 points)
Robert Musil
The Man Without Qualities Vol. 1 (1 point)
Pablo Neruda
Sonnets (1 point)
Rainer Maria Rilke
Letters to a YOung Poet and Sonnets (1 point)
William Carlos Williams
"This Is Just To Say", "The Red Wheelbarrow" (.5 points)
Virginia Woolf
To the Lighthouse (1 point)
(hide spoiler)]

Question 2:
(view spoiler)[- Even though James Joyce and Virginia Woolf are both considered pillars of Modernist literature, Woolf looked down on Joyce's writing ability. She described him as, "a self-taught working man… egotistic, insistent, raw, striking, & ultimately nauseating."
- A Room of One's Own is considered one of the seminal works of First Wave Feminism (hide spoiler)]

Question 3
(view spoiler)[This is a reread almost a decade after encountering the novel, so I hope it holds up. I still remember the feeling of being challenged and being rewarded as an eighteen-year old, so I'm a little apprehensive that I might find it lacking somehow. (hide spoiler)]

[Kristel]

Question 4:
(view spoiler)[The scene begins in the middle of a conversation between Mrs. Ramsay and her son James about the prospect of a trip to the lighthouse the next morning. While they were talking, James was cutting out pictures. Mr. Ramsay interrupts them by saying that the trip would probably not happen since the weather will turn bad. Mrs. Ramsay tries to sooth the distress that these words caused but she was upset when their guest Mr. Tansley sided with Mr. Ramsey about canceling the lighthouse trip.

Later on, Mrs. Ramsey asks Mr. Tansley to accompany her in her errands to town, despite having an initial dislike of him. By the end of the errands, Mr. Tansley becomes charmed by her despite his initial gruffness.

We get various bits of backstory about this Ramsey family vacation, which included a few other guests such as Mr. Tanley (an atheist), an aspiring painter named Lily Briscoe, and an old friend of Mr. Ramsay's called William Bankes. (hide spoiler)]

Question 5:
(view spoiler)[I like Woolf's specific style. If memory serves me right, I first read To the Lighthouse a short time after reading James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I remember really struggling with the Joyce novel's stream-of-consciousness technique and not really enjoying the experience. By contrast, I found To the Lighthouse really beautiful as soon as my brain became used to the rhythm of the narration. I think part of it was because Woolf's novel is set in the countryside, a setting that is more sedate and poetic, while Joyce tried to recreate the emotional and audiovisual chaos of an Irish town or city.

One thing I remembered/noticed was that I was initially bogged down by my book edition's decison to annotate the text with footnotes. My advice to people who are reading the Penguin Edition or something similar to completely ignore the footnotes, at least until you've finished reading the entire chapter. The story is structured much like a prose poem so any disruption affects the rhythm. (hide spoiler)]

Question 6:
(view spoiler)[Using a regular storytelling style, the story would probably have the first few scenes as a sort of typical British domestic novel, such as what you'd see in Jane Austen. The novel that came to mind was actuallyl E.M. Forster's A Room With a View since that one was also about a vacation. (hide spoiler)]

Question 7:
(view spoiler)[Mrs. Ramsey strikes me as a very sensitive and empathetic person who genuinely cares about her family. I'm immediately sympathetic towards her, especially since Mr. Ramsey comes off as rather distant and uncaring. However, Mrs. Ramsey also shows a little snobbery towards Mr. Tansley, though she does make an attempt to be friendly.

I don't have a clear idea of Lily Briscoe yet, aside from the fact that she's an aspiring artist who seems to be trying to court favor by offering to pain Mrs. Ramsay and James. (hide spoiler)]

[Angus]

Just a quick comment (I'll read everything after work):

Kristel wrote: "Hello! I'm trying to catch up but since I'm rereading I hope I wouldn't get to bogged down. I'll probably be updating with my answers to various questions. Sorry if it gets too spammy."

Can I just that I would be sooo happy to read your spammy comments? :)

[Bennard]

Question 4:
(view spoiler)[
The book begins with a conversation between James Ramsay, cutting out a picture of a refrigerator from a store catalog, and his mother, Mrs. Ramsay. Mother and son are talking about the prospect of going to the lighthouse the next day. Mrs. Ramsay, the doting mother, tells her son that, yes, they will go to the lighthouse on the morrow if the weather is agreeable. Their conversation was interrupted when Mr. Ramsay enters the scene and tells his son that, no, the weather wouldn't be fine tomorrow therefore dashing the hopes of his son, who suddenly had the urge to inflict harm upon his father. Aggravating the situation further is Charles Tansley who agrees with Mr. Ramsay regarding the impossibility of going to the lighthouse the next day.

Mrs. Ramsay then goes into town, accompanied by Charles Tansey, to do some chores. While together, they both ruminated on a particular advertisement for a circus resulting in Mrs. Ramsay's discovery that Charles Tansey had a poor childhood. On Charles Tansey's part, he discovered that Mrs. Ramsay is the most beautiful woman that she has ever known.

The story then introduces us to Lily Briscoe and William Bankes. They shared a seemingly intimate time together where they secretly think about Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay.
(hide spoiler)]

Question 5:
(view spoiler)[
I haven't read enough of TTL to make a definitive decision on whether I like SOC or not. However, at the moment, I find that delving into the consciousness of the characters through such a technique makes for a profound reading experience.
(hide spoiler)]

Question 6:
(view spoiler)[
I think, if Woolf went for the traditional techniques of telling a story, that TTL wouldn't have the reputation that it has now. The first chapter would probably be very short with just the characters speaking with one another and Woolf just describing the setting. In my mind, it's already a bit boring.
(hide spoiler)]

Question 7:
(view spoiler)[
I find Mrs. Ramsay to be a very perceptive person. She has a degree of empathy that makes her genuinely think about the condition of others. However, there are times when I felt that Mrs. Ramsay suffers from a bit of a superiority complex.

As for Mr. Ramsay, he seems to be an intelligent man and that he can be severe and indifferent towards the feeling of others. Although I quite admire the fact that he won't sugarcoat the truth just for the sake of not hurting a person's feelings.

Lily Briscoe to me seems a bit naive, innocent, and a bit quiet.
(hide spoiler)]

[Kristel]

Sorry for the lecture mode. Sobbing.

One way that I consider Modernism (especially British Modernism) in my own head is to relate it to the two world wars of the 20th century, particularly World War I. WWI lasted for four years and completely scarred the whole of Europe, effectively bankrupting many empires, killing millions of young soldiers, and changing the nature of war forever.

(view spoiler)[Imagine a stereotypical scene of battle in old paintings or historical movies. You may envision rows upon neat rows of soldiers marching in unison. Then come officers on horseback shouting commands while galloping across a field. There is a sense of honor and nobility in the way people used to fight with each other. War in the popular imagination was a kind of adventure, a way to test yourself and become a hero.

In the beginning, even writers such as Rudyard Kipling and H.G. Wells (who were both middle aged and didn't fight in the war) wrote jingoistic pamphlets urging the empire to go to war. It was considered a "war between empires," simply a way to decide which of the European empires were the most dominant.

The advances in war technology made WWI dramatically different from traditional warfare. First of all, the use of grenades, mortars, and other types of explosives (also called shelling) resulted in bodies that have been horrifically damaged. Even people who survive end up maimed or debilitated. If that doesn't kill soldiers, there's a newly invented form called chemical warfare. We see the first uses of mustard gas etc., which became a whole new horrific way to die.

As the war wore on without any changes, the people in the battlefield began to feel betrayed by a government that sent them off to die without having a clear reason for doing so. A lot of sons of aristocrats and the gentry were shipped off as officers and never came back, and some people theorized that the depletion of heirs contributed to the eventual dissolution of the British class system. One of the most famous dead soldiers was Rupert Brooke, who was part of Virginia Woolf's circle of friends.

This horror and cynicism eventually reflected itself in art. Think of the way Cubist art by Pablo Picasso contorted facial features. The scenes he depict look fractured, disjointed, like an explosion. This is also happening in literature. People did away with the rhyme as the main feature of poetry, for example, ending more than 500 years of its dominance. We get The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot and the unusual sonnets by e.e. cummings. Why have a beautifully ordered, rhyming poem when the entire European continent is scarred by bomb craters and trenches, when unrecognizable bodies of young soldiers have littered the countryside?

To the Lighthouse may seem like a tame work when seen in this light, but there's also something about the story that explodes the concept of the nuclear family, the concept of upper class existence, the concept of time itself. NYKen was correct in saying that the writing style attempts to imitate the randomness and disorder of thought. I actually envision the whole story as a sort of Impressionist painting, shimmering and inexact.

Modernism is a reaction against the steady progress of technological advances and people's anxieties that it makes us dehumanized in some way. War was its most dramatic manifestations, but people of the time saw the automobile, the telephone, the radio, etc. as dramatic and often violent changes as well. (hide spoiler)]

ANGUS: Thank you for the vote of confidence, hehe.

[Veronica]

Kristel, glad to see you here! (view spoiler)[Amazing how your posts always manage to stop me dead in my tracks. But as usual, thank you for the clarity you provide. :)
(hide spoiler)]

I did find your post interesting. I'm trying to think of the effects of the war on Woolf and her writing. I imagine the war was roughest on the upper class who had been living idyllic lives then (I'm thinking Atonement). So it must have come as quite a shock to someone as sheltered as Woolf to know that such inhumanity was possible. And in her vulnerable mental state, she would have tried to make sense of the chaos in her mind. I suppose far more than the average person. Add to that the fact that Hogarth Press was the sole publisher of Freud's journals in Britain. Her reading of Freud's concepts would have fueled her introspection. Maybe that's why the stream of consciousness technique seems so natural for her.

There is a secondary character in Mrs. Dalloway named Septimus who is a shell-shocked war veteran. Her brilliantly vivid portrayal of Septimus' mental state is what made the book a 5-star read for me.

[Meliza]

Question 4
(view spoiler)[Mrs. Ramsay told James that they will go to the lighthouse tomorrow if the weather is good. But Mr. Ramsay told him that the weather would be terrible. Mrs. Ramsay was knitting and thought of how she felt sorry for the lighthouse keepers. Tansley supported Mr. Ramsay’s view about tomorrow’s weather. After lunch, Mrs. Ramsay asked Tansley to accompany her to town for an errand. While she was inside a house of a friend, Tansley regarded her as the most beautiful woman ever. He carried her bag after that.

Tansley told James again that they can’t go to the lighthouse. Mrs. Ramsay thought that he was an awful and odious man.

Mrs. Ramsay said that the weather might still be fine tomorrow. She looked into the catalog for a rake or a mowing machine. She noticed that the men stopped talking and that Tansley was casted off by the other men. Then she remembered that she have to keep her head down because Briscoe was painting them.

Mr. Ramsay was reciting some lines when she almost knocked off Briscoe’s easel. Then came Bankes who suggested to Briscoe that they take a stroll. Mr. Bankes thought about the difference between him and Mr. Ramsay. He also thought about how the Ramsays manage to raise 8 children. Then they talked about Mr. Ramsay’s works. As they walked back, a shot rang out and a flock of starlings took flight. Mr. Ramsay yelled and slammed his door.

Mrs. Ramsay measured the stocking that she’s knitting against James’ leg. She thought about Bankes and Briscoe, then about how shabby their house was. She continued knitting the stocking, kissed James, and suggested that they cut out more pictures. (hide spoiler)]

Question 5
(view spoiler)[Even though I'm still having difficulties (because of long sentences and the jumping between the character's thoughts) in reading the book, I am currently liking it. I like how when I'm reading, I feel just like how I feel when I'm talking to myself. Besides, I am usually amused when I encounter something different in my reading experience. I even told my friends at the office that I'm reading something like this. (hide spoiler)]

Question 6
(view spoiler)[The first chapter would be shorter. I find it difficult to imagine what action and speech should be added because it would be really less interesting if we can't read the characters' thoughts in that very short span of events. (hide spoiler)]

Question 7
(view spoiler)[I find Mr. Ramsay selfish and grumpy.

Mrs. Ramsay is a very kind woman. She regards the feelings of the people around her.

Lily Briscoe is an artist who lacks confidence in her works. I hope she'll gain ample confidence as the story goes on. (hide spoiler)]

Kristel: I enjoyed reading your previous comment too. Really interesting. :)

[Angus]

Seriously, I don't know where to start. Thanks for your active participation! Let's begin:

Alexa: Do you own that character book? If yes, I might want to borrow it in the future. :D

Buddy Monique: Thanks! I guess we could also deduce from your deductions that she also has a sharp social insight.

NYKen: We have ten beautiful Filipinas actively participating here. Three Colombian women are no match! (Ladies, you all owe me a drink. XD)

Tin:
(view spoiler)[
Mr. Bankes is also a family friend who is lodging in town. And because you mentioned The Virgin Suicides (one of my favorite novels), is there anything that is even remotely similar between it and our book of the month?
(hide spoiler)]

Kristel:
(view spoiler)[
Whoa! That was some insightful lecture. However, I feel that it's not exactly the war that shaped the modernist movement. The early modernists already produced characteristic works even before the war. I feel that it's more because of the death and beginning of two centuries (I personally panic with number milestones, such as, recently, my 30th). There were so many changes going on during that time as you mentioned, and I feel that these changes, combined together, are the ones that defined modernism (a yearning, or anxiety, to make things new). Anyway, let's go to your answers for this period's reading. You compared the styles of Woolf and Joyce. Some say that Woolf's style balks at hardcore stream of consciousness because of her fear of sex. What is your reaction on this?
(hide spoiler)]

Bennard:
(view spoiler)[
That's an interesting take on Mrs. Ramsay, that bit on her superiority complex. Why did you feel this? Cite a direct quote, if necessary.
(hide spoiler)]

Meliza:
(view spoiler)[
Hmm, I don't talk about books at the office, hehe. So since you already told your office friends, I want to ask you this: how would influence them to actually read this book?
(hide spoiler)]

[Angus]

Hello, I've tallied your points and they are on the other thread. You may still answer Questions 04 to 07 until May 11, Sunday, 11:59PM. I have to set deadlines because I have other stuff to do k. :D

And your questions for Chapters 06 to 09 are at the next post.

[Angus]

Part I: Chapters 06 to 09

Question 08:
(view spoiler)[
Summarize Part I: Chapters 06 to 09. (1 point for every 20 words, maximum of 10 points)
(hide spoiler)]

Question 09:
(view spoiler)[
Why does Mr. Ramsay doubt his own thoughts? (1 point)
(hide spoiler)]

Question 10:
(view spoiler)[
What are the similarities of Mr. Ramsay and Charles Tansley? Are these similarities a representation of men in general? (2 points)
(hide spoiler)]

Question 11:
(view spoiler)[
What, for you, is reality? (1 point)
(hide spoiler)]

Score Boosters:
(view spoiler)[
Receive one point for every two lines of your answers. Example: your summary has ten lines, you get an extra five points. Carriage returns (blank lines) are not counted. Text in block quotes is not counted.
No more editing once your points are tallied, okay?
(hide spoiler)]

[Meliza]

Angus:(view spoiler)[This afternoon, I asked them if they know Virginia Woolf and told them about this stream of consciousness. They asked some questions about it and I even cited some parts of what I have read. They're really not into reading so I think they're satisfied with just listening to me telling them about the book. Maybe someday, what I told them could make them read it, when they finally decided to read a book (or read books again). Hehe. (hide spoiler)]

[Veronica]

Angus, in answer your question: (view spoiler)[ a point is a point. :)
(hide spoiler)]

Personally, I don't think it's necessary to compare the two authors. Both have enriched our reading lives and there is hardly any reading list of note that does not include them. Their contributions to literature remain unparalleled (think Dickensian and stream of consciousness). Without getting into a debate as to who is the better writer, I think Dickens has more appeal because he is readable and because there are countless film adaptations of his work. I think more people are likely able to recall at least one Dickens character or novel in their lifetime. In terms of takeaway (and this is just my personal opinion), I find Dickens entertaining but there is not much to process in his stories. There are no maybes in his characters, they are what they are. (Does that make any sense?) Woolf, on the other hand, is often thought-provoking and there are many shades to her characters. (view spoiler)[ Gosh, I hope this makes sense. I can barely explain it. :D
(hide spoiler)]