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4.21 AVERAGE
4.21 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
How have I not read this over and over already? Excellent writing philosophy for women.
I decided to read this book at a time when I really needed the message. And I didn’t even know I really needed it! Yes, this is an extended essay on making space for women as writers and yes, this was written about 90 years ago, but as I was reading this I realized how many things still hold true. I focused less on her message about the state of women and more specifically focused on her message of finding self-confidence and recognizing your value in a world that has not made space for you. Most of the obstacles Woolf talks about have been removed, but i feel like new obstacles are also continuously being created. So it is the job of women, of oneself, to start creating. She encourages women to be selfish, to stop thinking of all the negative things said about them and to stop worrying about convincing people (men) of your worth. Know your own worth and celebrate that! Think of things and ideas, not people, and your world might start to change.
“Anything may happen when womanhood has ceased to be a protected occupation”
“Anything may happen when womanhood has ceased to be a protected occupation”
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
reflective
fast-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.5/5
This is a lovely, lovely introduction to feminism, full of wit and insight and the incomparable prose of the inimitable Woolf. Not perfect, and indeed there are a few bones I'd have loved to pick with her, but even with those this book is a boon to humanity.
Between bouts of beauteous imagery and fantastic meanderings of thought and form, we have many a discussion on the different subtleties by which the patriarchy in England inherited a history, controlled the present, and in Woolf's time is especially keen on striding forth into the future. The further back in history, the more sapped and stricken the place for women, lack of education and early marriage and many a birthed child making for near nonexistence in the history books. As Woolf hypothesizes, a sister of Shakespeare would have been born a genius, lived in a stunted suspense, and ultimately killed herself out of frustrated potential. Woman was an object to be written on, and the only hope lay in men potentiating the self who took charge of her own fate. As can be seen, the likelihood of this was low, and the chance of a woman escaping the just as damaging idealized portrayal was even lower.
Further on, you have the patriarchal ideologies, the lack of historic representation, the social gatekeepers, every single individual male or female who saw the changing times in regards to women and rose up in protest. Even those who desire progress set their sights too low, conditioned as they are by the public and its 'experts' on women, all of them male and very few of them respecting the other half of the population as fully human. Woolf is especially adept at observing this unending of cycle of men pointing out to women their insignificance in the realm of both history and public life in order to maintain the same, an oppressive status quo aided by literature and its then burgeoning reaction to suffrage movements of the time. If women are restricted both in their education and their experiences of life, and the little education they manage through autodidactism is hardboiled in masculine tropes, what is she supposed to feed her dreams of the future and fictioning with?
All of that is well on good on Woolf's part. However, Woolf was a writer very much within her own mind, a mind quick and keen to an extraordinary degree but, ultimately, a single mind. We are blessed that she was endowed with a legacy early on, thus giving her years and years to hone her craft and subsequently publish some of the rarest jewels that ever graced the stage of literature, but it is that fortune that dictates her idea of progress as contained within these pages.
Money and time alone are great aids indeed, but there is more to good writing than the purest of passive ideals and unlimited free time. Woolf writes of an author disturbed by as little of the meaner things of life as possible, and decries the slightest hint of authors working out their issues and dissatisfaction within their works. I myself am biased in viewing literature as a powerful influence on reality and the realms of social justice, but the classism and borderline elitism are too much to ignore. Also, Woolf could have used some self-observation regarding suffusion of her own writing with male favoritism, especially in regards to giving more credit to the women who battled in realms both fictional and political for the rights she enjoyed at the time of this composition, and continued to battle long after these lectures were over.
However. Of the 292 books in my lists that were published before this book, 31 of them were written by women. I wish Woolf had lived long enough to see "...that elaborate study of the psychology of women by a woman," (just get used to the fact that I'm going to be plugging [b:The Second Sex|457264|The Second Sex|Simone de Beauvoir|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327978178s/457264.jpg|879666] for the rest of my days, and we'll all be happy) and all her seeds of contemplation brought to a gorgeous bloom, but here she penned a marvelous beginning. We may not have been graced with Shakespeare's biological sister in our halls of the written word, but here we have her equal.
This is a lovely, lovely introduction to feminism, full of wit and insight and the incomparable prose of the inimitable Woolf. Not perfect, and indeed there are a few bones I'd have loved to pick with her, but even with those this book is a boon to humanity.
Between bouts of beauteous imagery and fantastic meanderings of thought and form, we have many a discussion on the different subtleties by which the patriarchy in England inherited a history, controlled the present, and in Woolf's time is especially keen on striding forth into the future. The further back in history, the more sapped and stricken the place for women, lack of education and early marriage and many a birthed child making for near nonexistence in the history books. As Woolf hypothesizes, a sister of Shakespeare would have been born a genius, lived in a stunted suspense, and ultimately killed herself out of frustrated potential. Woman was an object to be written on, and the only hope lay in men potentiating the self who took charge of her own fate. As can be seen, the likelihood of this was low, and the chance of a woman escaping the just as damaging idealized portrayal was even lower.
Further on, you have the patriarchal ideologies, the lack of historic representation, the social gatekeepers, every single individual male or female who saw the changing times in regards to women and rose up in protest. Even those who desire progress set their sights too low, conditioned as they are by the public and its 'experts' on women, all of them male and very few of them respecting the other half of the population as fully human. Woolf is especially adept at observing this unending of cycle of men pointing out to women their insignificance in the realm of both history and public life in order to maintain the same, an oppressive status quo aided by literature and its then burgeoning reaction to suffrage movements of the time. If women are restricted both in their education and their experiences of life, and the little education they manage through autodidactism is hardboiled in masculine tropes, what is she supposed to feed her dreams of the future and fictioning with?
All of that is well on good on Woolf's part. However, Woolf was a writer very much within her own mind, a mind quick and keen to an extraordinary degree but, ultimately, a single mind. We are blessed that she was endowed with a legacy early on, thus giving her years and years to hone her craft and subsequently publish some of the rarest jewels that ever graced the stage of literature, but it is that fortune that dictates her idea of progress as contained within these pages.
Money and time alone are great aids indeed, but there is more to good writing than the purest of passive ideals and unlimited free time. Woolf writes of an author disturbed by as little of the meaner things of life as possible, and decries the slightest hint of authors working out their issues and dissatisfaction within their works. I myself am biased in viewing literature as a powerful influence on reality and the realms of social justice, but the classism and borderline elitism are too much to ignore. Also, Woolf could have used some self-observation regarding suffusion of her own writing with male favoritism, especially in regards to giving more credit to the women who battled in realms both fictional and political for the rights she enjoyed at the time of this composition, and continued to battle long after these lectures were over.
However. Of the 292 books in my lists that were published before this book, 31 of them were written by women. I wish Woolf had lived long enough to see "...that elaborate study of the psychology of women by a woman," (just get used to the fact that I'm going to be plugging [b:The Second Sex|457264|The Second Sex|Simone de Beauvoir|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327978178s/457264.jpg|879666] for the rest of my days, and we'll all be happy) and all her seeds of contemplation brought to a gorgeous bloom, but here she penned a marvelous beginning. We may not have been graced with Shakespeare's biological sister in our halls of the written word, but here we have her equal.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Written in defense of her statement that a woman should have space and resources available to her so she can be an author. Tangential at times, but also wonderful.
Virginia nos muestra a través de la relación de las mujeres y la novela, las desigualdades socio familiares y económicas que han impedido a las mujeres participar activamente en el mundo profesional, específicamente en su desarrollo como escritoras. Resalta la importancia de contar con una libertad económica que les permita encerrarse en un cuarto propio y dejar volar su creatividad.
Sin duda la expresividad de Virginia y su particular manera de desarrollar el feminismo te cautivan desde la primera página.
Un libro muy cortito pero con un mensaje muy muy importante.
Sin duda la expresividad de Virginia y su particular manera de desarrollar el feminismo te cautivan desde la primera página.
Un libro muy cortito pero con un mensaje muy muy importante.