while waiting for my flight from DFW to London I started Mrs. Dalloway. When asked, I name this as my favorite book. Virginia Woolf opens her mind up to the reader and we get to live in a private world of inner thought. While reading this book I inevitably begin to look at the world differently. The day to day dialogue that we engage in becomes merely the reflective surface of our interactions. There thrives a turbulent sea of being underneath the discourses and encounters we have in everyday life. Suddenly buying a cup of coffee at Starbucks becomes a decisive victory or defeat in the everyday battle for the realization of meaning in our lives. I watch the man across from me fold back his paper and sigh, and instantly I feel connected to his presence. Is it self awareness or self absorption that makes Woolf's characters feel so connected and important to the lives of others and often strangers?
One thing that seems evident to me throughout the book is a sense of isolation and aloneness that unites the characters to each other and everything surrounding them. Even while together they live and think independently. It is in this spirit that I decided to take my first trip solo. I have no safety net of conversation and familiarity, only a spirit of examination and reflection to arm myself with in a country not my own. While there is nothing particularly brave in travelling by myself to England, neither is there in walking down Bond Street or throwing a party. Woolf shows us that for Mrs. Dalloway it is the everyday we must be prepared to face and it is our own mind and uniqueness of thought that separates us from each other yet constructs a connection to all around us that makes our routines and days infinitely more daring.
Love it! Have you ever considered becoming a writer? I think you should have started writing a blog a long time ago... I look forward to reading more!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Meagan and am thrilled how well you connect with Mrs. Dalloway's deep sadness while being so marvelously upbeat yourself. Have you read To the Lighthouse? I LOVE that novel, which fits in so well with Milton's Eve of Paradise Lost. I'll keep reading and know you'll have a grand adventure!
ReplyDeleteThank you guys for the kind words! I am glad someone is reading this as I am REALLY enjoying doing it. I think the thing about the sadness in Mrs Dalloway is that everyone has some amount of that same pain. I believe it becomes more understandable as we mature because the root of it is in the choices we made and the paths they have led us down. Can a truly intraspective (sp?) person really look at the roads they didn't take and not feel some kind of pain for the adventures and experiences that they might have missed? The key is balancing that with appreciating the joys and opportunities that we did have at the expense of the ones we missed out on.
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