Samuel Johnson on the Common Reader

“… I rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers, uncorrupted by literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtilty and the dogmatism of learning, must be generally decided all claim to poetical honours.”—Dr. Johnson , Life of Gray .

Long live the common reader. This is the quote from which Virginia Woolf took the title of her books, The Common Reader1 and The Common Reader2.

I am reading these books again and I'm refreshed with Woolf's style. No academic jargon or philosophical high flying. Just readable essays that we "commoners" can appreciate.

Ciao

DK

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Virginia Woolf on Fiction

“Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

I love this quote by Virginia Woolf. Fiction is indeed like a spiders web and the anchoring to reality has degrees of attachment. Woolf has a range of attachment in her fictional works. The most loosely connected would have to be Orlando where the main character changes sex in the course of the story. It is in fact impossible to write fiction that is totally unattached to life, as we would have no way of appreciating it. The analogy to me is like a sail that has a great degree of movement but always has strong attachment points to stop it blowing away.

DK

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Glimpsing into the innermost thoughts of Writers

The letters from writers are especially interesting, as they give us a glimpse into their innermost thoughts and feelings in a way their professional work might not. - Jason Diamond

Diamond brings up an important point here. As readers of this blog know I am a great fan of the writings of Virginia Woolf. Her writings, were for the time new, exciting and wide reaching in their subject matter. Her letters shed light on why she wrote as she did and exposes how she was feeling, and what was happening in her life, while the book in question was being written. This insight, which we don't normally see for most books we read, gives us more than a glimpse into the way that Virginia Woolf's mind worked.

For this reason I love to read collections of literary letters. I am currently plowing my way through Volume 1 of the Letters of Robert Frost.

Happy Reading

DK

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Virginia Woolf - an Orginal Product of Home Schooling

Born of free thinking parents, Virginia Woolf had an unconventional education mostly provided by her father, an ex Cambridge don. She was given the freedom of his library and as can be seen from her early journals she made good use of this access. Her reading was eclectic and prolific, a habit she kept up for her whole life. Her creativity and breakthroughs in stream of consciousness development were no doubt nurtured by her home schooling, which gave her great freedom.

I wonder how many potential great writers like Virginia Woolf have had their creative flame crushed and extinguished by our school system that caters to conformance and one size fits all?

I am thankful that her parents had the foresight to home school her and let her creativity blossom.

DK

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The Wonder of Reading

It is a wonderful gift to be able to read. It is something that we take for granted. Two things I read recently made me pause for thought.

1. I was reading a book by Leslie Stephen (father of Virginia Woolf) about 18th century literature where he points out that the vast majority of the readers were in London and they were an elite. Illiteracy was rife, not only London, all across England. So literacy as we know it is a relatively recent phenomenon. Even today most of the world's population is illiterate.

2. I was also reading another book on writers sharing their experiences of reading. The writer in question mentioned the influences from his reading and I had not heard of even one of the writers he mentioned!! This did not worry me unduly, but it does show that even with avid readers the points of intersection can be minimal or in this case, non-existent.

So we don't have a lot of readers and we have a literature that is so large that we can read all of our lives and still not intersect with what others are reading.

I have great hope that online education and outreach to illiterate areas will decrease illiteracy over time, but the second point about the volume of works will only increase. Writers are readers and more readers means more writers and thus more books written.

Not profound but interesting observations to me.


DK

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The Secret to Writing well - Reading

 It is an undeniable fact that great writers are usually good readers. If you read the autobiographies of writers you will see a number of references to reading. A good example of this phenomenon is found in the Diaries of Virginia Woolf, the famed 20th century modernist writer. The Diaries are littered with reference to an eclectic group of authors and books, ancient and modern. She appreciated the great writing of others though there was only one writer she wished she could write like and that was Katherine Mansfield.

Reading allows us to brush shoulders with writers from throughout the centuries. This reading exposure then has an effect on our own writing styles. Some writers in their formative years have tried to write in the style of others. This derivative writing then develops into the writers own individual style.

So prospective writers become avid and adventurous readers.

DK
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Virginia Woolf's Work Ethic

For most of her writing life, Woolf dedicated three hours of her morning to writing. She was very focused over this time and this concentrated effort fuelled her high quality literary output. Many of us bemoan the fact that we don't have enough time in the day to get things down, but our problem is usually lack of focus.

I am applying the 3 hour focus to my working life and it is great. I suspect that may people do less than 3 hours of productive work in an 8 hour day due to the distractions of the workplace.

I visited the shed that Woolf wrote in at Monks House and it was secluded and quiet. Ideal for the mind work involved with writing.

Frank Sargeson, a well known New Zealand writer, had a quiet bedroom, very plain where he loved to write. He said it always amazed him the characters, sounds and sights he could conjure up while staring at a plain Pinex wall.

Be disciplined and see what you can achieve!!


DK
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Looking for those interested in Virginia Woolf

If you enjoy reading the fiction and non fiction of Virginia Woolf then I would love to hear from you at the Viriginia Woolf Discussion Group at Yahoo.

You can subscribe at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/virginiawoolfclub

I also have a blog called Virginia Woolf - Radical Writer at http://vwradicalwriter.blogspot.co.nz/

We are a mixed group of literature lovers and academics, common readers who share an interest in Woolf's work.

Hoping to see you there.

Grant

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