Finally--I Have My Vision! (Lame inside "To the Lighthouse" joke)

Finally, Lindsay, you realized the only way to entice me into writing on this blog was to pick a Virginia Woolf book! Okay, so first topics I suggest that we discuss for the first third of the novel ("The Window"):

-- Permanence (Mrs. Ramsay wants to preserve moments like the 'perfect' dinner party to fight Life, her enemy; Lily wants to finish her painting but is having trouble; Mr. Ramsay wants to at least get to R so his legacy can live on)

--The Windows/Frames of all the characters (Bankes sees things through a scientific frame, Lily through the aesthetic) --we talked about this in class and I'd be intrigued to hear your ideas

-- How effective is Woolf's "cubist prose?"'

When we get to the end of the novel I'd also be interested in hearing your answers on its meaning. I wrote a paper on it last week.

Happy reading! Enjoy the miracle that is Virginia Woolf!

moving along...

Just to let everyone know, I have finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (I think I already mentioned that), and I think I am going to go on to read To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. So if anyone would like to join me in my next reading adventure, that would be great.

I mean we could officially make it our next selection, but our discussions haven't been so lively, and I'm not sure if everyone is finished with Oscar Wao, so I thought I would just start in the meantime and whoever wanted to as well could, and if we wanted we could discuss both (if anyone is still interested in discussing Oscar Wao).

And some of you have already read To the Lighthouse (Cynthia, Erin, anyone else?), so you could participate in the discussion already.

Cool?

Hurrah for Junot!

I was just about to leave a post about our very own selection winning the prestigious pulitzer! It actually made me feel very proud, very intellectual and like our club really lives up to its name. I also felt happy that the pulitzer recognized this young, fresh, somewhat unconventional use of voice and language - very exciting and progressive and hopeful. now if we could only get this convo going....

i do think that the issue of voice and perspective is a very rich topic in this novel and could inspire much discussion (as noted in my original comment to lindsay's post on the topic). I still have some reading to do, but i am at the section after Beli's story, where we have returned to the somewhat present, the first-person narrator has emerged and is college roommates with Oscar. This is a bit off topic, but i was started to be very curious about how closely aligned our narrator is with Junot himself. I cannot help but thinking that i am really hearing Junot's voice through our narrators, though i know this is a common fallacy. Nonetheless, i like to indulge it. My latest theory is that Junot is actually a mix between our narrator and oscar - or that they represents the two different sides of his personality/experience, or maybe even a fantasy/reality junot, like the narrator is more like a shadow figure to oscar/junot (a la Brad Pitt to Ed Norton in Fight Club). Food for thought.

Pulitzer

Erin has just informed me that our very own book club book has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Go Oscar and Junot!

I'm done!

What's our next one? Just kidding. I'm ready to discuss stuff if we're so willing. Just thought I would let you all know.