Woolf and Regina Spektor

Often when listening to Regina Spektor (my favorite singer) I get the feeling that she is some how inspired by Virginia Woolf. After encountering Paris by Regina Spektor and realizing that she referenced Virginia Woolf, I decided to do some research. It turns out that Virginia Woolf and many other classic writers influence Regina Spektor. In this song Spektor sings about being in love with a man and giving up her feminist ways to be with him. View the song here- Paris by Regina Spektor  

Woolf wonderfully captures the awe of a first time reader

In the Voyage Out, Woolf cleverly pokes fun at the way that Rachel reads Gibbon. Rachel is in awe of the words on the page exclaiming,  “ Never had any words been so vivid and so beautiful- Arabia Felix- Aethiopia.” (Woolf 175). Rachel reading Gibbon for the first time is so interesting to me because in this scene Woolf perfectly captures the awe of the unfamiliar reader. When I first began to venture more seriously into the world of classic novels, I did so without the help of a class, thus I did not have any guidance. Of course, I had encountered all the standard classics in class. But one summer I decided that I would start to read many of the more challenging classics on my own. After reading Woolf’s description of Rachel, I realized that she had in effect also described my experience with the books of that summer. I had not, at the time, realized that the books that I had picked were too challenging. Thus I was unable to understand and follow the plot of each book. Instead that summer became the summer that I would learn to appreciate and admire the beauty of words. I would sit outside in the sun and marvel at various authors and the skill with which they crafted each sentence, while not being able to understand a single plot line. The scene that Woolf writes is so realistic because it captures the experience that I and many other readers that are new to challenging materials have had. 

What the water gave me

The internet in Lowenstein 518 was slower than molasses this morning, so we could only watch the first minute of this video. It's one of the best Woolf-inspired pop songs I know:

Florence + the Machine - What The Water Gave Me [Official Music Video] from Back Alley Journals on Vimeo.

Getting started.....

Here we go....It's time for a new semester of Woolf and a new course blog. You can find my personal blog, Fernham, here. And a prior incarnation of this blog here. Stay tuned for further developments....