Hey....it's criticism time! (Article 7)

For this weeks issue, we turn to a succinct article by one Wayne Narey, entitled "Virginia Woolf's 'The Mark on the Wall': An Einsteinian View of Art." Now, while we've already covered "The Mark on the Wall" a long time ago, this article does articulate a few good points about time, its relativity, and its velocity, which is what prompted the always-generous Mylene to let me have it in the first place--which also explains the fabulous margin notes, many of which are better than the actual article.

Wayne Narey main point here is t hat Woolf "offers an artistic manifesto of an emerging concept of time and perspective." (35) He then goes on to talk about how these views were possibly influenced by Albert Einstein, whose theories of relativity were becoming popular at the time. Problem being that he has no really proof of that, so mentioning Einstein's influence is rather pointless...I think Mylene sums it up best:

"Well that's just a f'in guess!"

Narey also makes the statement that "nor would I press the Einsteinian 'influence' beyond a few of her early stories." (35) To which I made my own note, which looked something like this:

".....whaaaaaaat?"


Did this guy even READ anymore Woolf? I just find this funny cause this relativistic influence is basically what I'm doing my essay on; but apparently she stopped after her first short stories. Ha, okay--this statement had the ability to undermine his credibility, but fortunately a few insightful statements redeem him.

Now a lot of the stuff he talks about centers on text in "The Mark on the Wall." Being that we've already tread that ground, I instead focused on the stuff that would apply to most of her work. For example, on 36 Neary states: "In breaking with a literary past, Woolf gives a particular emphasis to the relationship between time and perspective." This I think is very interesting, because it's one of the myriad things she's playing with in Mrs. Dalloway. The nature of the "walks" of the characters and their examinations and interpretations of objects that cross their paths--which stretches the book--in meta-time--to a four or five hour read, even though the walks don't take more than an hour, if that; not to mention the way the objects on the walks, the wandering thoughts, play with memory, which is our clearest and perhaps only manifestation of the past.

Neary goes on; he talks about Woolf creating a time "relative to the beholder" (37), and how this "separates [her art] from a fiction where time passes equally for all characters." (37)

Then we reach another interesting quote on 39. Again, it's specifically about "TMOTW," but the canonically relative portion reads as thus: "...painting a life run on emotional time rather than clock time." This is subtly, though not intrinsically, related to perspective, and again is something she puts to great effect in Mrs. Dalloway (despite not doing so after her early short stories.......whaaaaaaat?)  This idea of emotional time is interesting, especially when thinking of the characters in Mrs. Dalloway, and how their emotions effect the velocity of temporality--a la when Mrs. Dalloway dwells, in the end, of Septimus death, which stretches over a certain amount of time--I'll have to read the novel again to be sure. But the time is definitely effected both meta (time taken to actually read the book) and in-universe (time that passes in the book itself) when the characters dwell on memories triggered by emotions or just emotional reactions themselves.

Neary ends with a very nice quote: "Virginia Woolf's "The Mark on the Wall" proposes a new fiction, likewise necessary, in which 'everything's moving, falling, slipping, vanishing. There is a vast upheaval of matter.'" (42) (Actually, considering most of that was a quote by Woolf, it probably should say that Woolf ends with a nice quote). But it's interesting to see how this new fiction evolves in her later stories and novels (even though she didn't use it after her early stories.............whaaaaaaaat?), specifically Mrs. Dalloway. But each plays with it in different ways. You have the slow, melodious, measured pace of "Time Passes," the impossible eddies in Orlando. Neary's article is not great, but it is good, and it has a lot of good quotes I can use in my paper many interesting points about the relationship of time and character in Woolf's writing.








..............whaaaaaaaaaaat?