To The Lighthouse : Week Two

[Marie]

Mr and Mrs Ramsey reflect differently on their lives, both separately and together. As the family and their guest's stories continue to intersect, everyone gathers for a large dinner.

[Piyumi]

That was an interesting Dinner I must say. VW captures everyone's thought process through her brilliant stream of consciousness technique and I swear I could hear the buzzing of all their thoughts on that starry night :).
I love how honest each one's feelings were exposed, although in their own heads, but each of the guests reads each others negative thoughts.
Of coz it happens outside of fiction, but it truly is amazing how VW captured this self-conversation and observations in this story.

[Marie]

It is fascinating the way the dinner was used to symbolize the story as a whole. Woolf apparently never wanted the novel considered stream of consciousness, she wanted it to be about consciousness. She felt it would need to be given a new name, and suggested elegy, to mimic the musical pattern (also the symbolism of the sea and waves) of the storyline as well as the solemn tone.

[Piyumi]

Marie wrote: "It is fascinating the way the dinner was used to symbolize the story as a whole. Woolf apparently never wanted the novel considered stream of consciousness, she wanted it to be about consciousness...."

Thanks for the info Marie..yes a solemn tone, yes!

[Linda]

I'm caught up now, ready to go "To the Lighthouse"......while I do appreciate that she manages to capture each person's insecurities and thoughts and move fluidly from one to the next, the wavering was starting to get to me. I find myself reading along and having to go back and re-read to determine whether X actually happened or whether it was something that someone imagined or projected. A small book, but not one to read with distractions.

The father's insecurities were starting to bother me, and just as I had determined that he needs to feel that he is the smartest in the group, she came out and said it (because I was starting to wonder why Mrs R doesn't read, and what they had ever thought they had in common). And the "I'm attracted to you/I loathe you" starts to wear on one, particularly when it's the married folk thinking it.

I was reminded of the Anne of Green Gables books in this second section, because of her use of color, most evocative.

[Marie]

Linda Abhors the New GR Design wrote: "I'm caught up now, ready to go "To the Lighthouse"......while I do appreciate that she manages to capture each person's insecurities and thoughts and move fluidly from one to the next, the wavering..."

I think like a lot of things written at the time, the book could have used a better editor. I think the problem might have been because I was reading an ebook and the formatting was off, but if you're going to hop between characters, there needs to be a demarcation of who is speaking or thinking. Mine barely had paragraph shifts between characters.

[Linda]

Marie wrote: "Linda Abhors the New GR Design wrote: "I'm caught up now, ready to go "To the Lighthouse"......while I do appreciate that she manages to capture each person's insecurities and thoughts and move flu..."

Agreed, sometimes it takes off in mid-sentence and then bops back. I'm sort of used to it, because so many of the Latin American authors from the 70s that I enjoy used the technique, and it usually engages me. But since there's no dialogue, it can be deceiving, so I find myself going back to re-read. And sometimes, I don't even know where to begin the re-read! :D

[Piyumi]

Marie wrote: "Linda Abhors the New GR Design wrote: "I'm caught up now, ready to go "To the Lighthouse"......while I do appreciate that she manages to capture each person's insecurities and thoughts and move flu..."

I too found it daunting at first the abrupt stops and beginnings, but as the story progressed I found myself accustomed to it, and then I started to read William Faulkner and he too users stream of consciousness and has similar stops and starts.....could it be its one aspect of this particular method?

[Linda]

Piyumi wrote: "Marie wrote: "Linda Abhors the New GR Design wrote: "I'm caught up now, ready to go "To the Lighthouse"......while I do appreciate that she manages to capture each person's insecurities and thought..."

Probably, though my expertise isn't in American lit. Funny that you mention Faulkner, because many of those authors from Latin America who do the same thing were great fans of Faulkner. So I'm inclined to say you're right. But what I liked about those books, once I learned the language, was that I had to be engaged in order to figure out the puzzle. Ruined me for pop fiction for life.

[Piyumi]

Linda Abhors the New GR Design wrote: "Piyumi wrote: "Marie wrote: "Linda Abhors the New GR Design wrote: "I'm caught up now, ready to go "To the Lighthouse"......while I do appreciate that she manages to capture each person's insecurit..."

HA! :) I went searching for Stream of consciousness method and found Faulkner, so if you found that the Latin American authors are doing the same, then we have found the connection there :).
I first read VW back in Uni for my bachelors and although few in the batch found her language hard I found it a relief coz I too think and write quiet abruptly and jumps from one thought to the other, although VW does a far more sophisticated use of the method. When this group picked VW, again there were few who could not handle the language and I thought what is going on. Thats when I went researching the method and found Faulkner amongst others. I would be interested in hearing more about your favorite Latin Authors Linda. Are they English translations?

[Piyumi]

And YES I too find that I have to 'be engaged in order to..' and it was a bit like a mediation, that intense concentration on the work, helps you melt the distractions around you while you read. I liked that

[Linda]

Piyumi wrote: "Linda Abhors the New GR Design wrote: "Piyumi wrote: "Marie wrote: "Linda Abhors the New GR Design wrote: "I'm caught up now, ready to go "To the Lighthouse"......while I do appreciate that she man..."

Yes, since most of them practiced this/began to find success in the 60s and 70s, the greats have been translated.
Because I was exploring other continents, I never read VW at uni, but am so happy to finally get another book off my shelf! Have had this for years. There are times when the transition between points of view is so seamless, that it reminds me of that scene in MBovary where she's tracing her finger across the map and goes into a dream sequence. One of my French profs had us write a pastiche of that scene, so it remains stuck in my head. Then again, Flaubert was always content to stick with MBovary and didn't go off with other characters, as VW does. And I've only read a few stories and a novel or two by Faulkner, but I think he sticks with one character often, does he not?

Of the greats from Spanish America who employed this: Cortazar's the clear leader. "Hopscotch" was done in a slightly different way, but was an innovative idea at the time and more introspective than most of his works. Mario Vargas Llosa's "Conversation in the Cathedral" is one of my favorites-two tomes (about 1200 pages) of dialogue, with absolutely no reference to exterior surroundings, and the dialogue references Peruvian culture, history, etc. So lots of the writers from that generation of Cortazar, Garcia Marquez, etc. used it.