Page 91 - The Language of Composition 4e Teacher Edition Sample.indd

enough. I must have a motor car. And it was thus an explosion. There was foam and confusion. The 4
that I became a novelist — for it is a very strange imagination had dashed itself against something
thing that people will give you a motor car if you hard. The girl was roused from her dream. She chapter 4
will tell them a story. It is a still stranger thing was indeed in a state of the most acute and diffi-
that there is nothing so delightful in the world as cult distress. To speak without figure she had
telling stories. It is far pleasanter than writing thought of something, something about the body,
reviews of famous novels. And yet, if I am to about the passions which it was unfitting for her Other Voices / Virginia Woolf
obey your secretary and tell you my professional as a woman to say. Men, her reason told her,
experiences as a novelist, I must tell you about a would be shocked. The consciousness of what
Copyright (c) 2023 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Uncorrected proofs have been used for this sample chapter.
very strange experience that befell me as a nov- men will say of a woman who speaks the truth
elist. And to understand it you must try first to about her passions had roused her from her art-
imagine a novelist’s state of mind. I hope I am ist’s state of unconsciousness. She could write no
not giving away professional secrets if I say that a more. The trance was over. Her imagination could
novelist’s chief desire is to be as unconscious as work no longer. This I believe to be a very com-
possible. He has to induce in himself a state of mon experience with women writers — they are
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution.
perpetual lethargy. He wants life to proceed with impeded by the extreme conventionality of the
the utmost quiet and regularity. He wants to see other sex. For though men sensibly allow them-
the same faces, to read the same books, to do the selves great freedom in these respects, I doubt
same things day after day, month after month, that they realize or can control the extreme sever-
while he is writing, so that nothing may break ity with which they condemn such freedom in
the illusion in which he is living — so that noth- women.
ing may disturb or disquiet the mysterious nos- These then were two very genuine experi- CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING
ings about, feelings round, darts, dashes and ences of my own. These were two of the adven-
sudden discoveries of that very shy and illusive tures of my professional life. The first — killing The experiences W oolf describes in para-
The experiences Woolf describes in para-
spirit, the imagination. I suspect that this state is the Angel in the House — I think I solved. She graph 5 may challenge students. Y ou might
graph 5 may challenge students. You might
the same both for men and women. Be that as it died. But the second, telling the truth about my ask students to divide the paragraph into
ask students to divide the paragraph into
may, I want you to imagine me writing a novel in own experiences as a body, I do not think I three or four sections and to summarize
ee or four sections and to summarize
thr
e
each section in two sentences or so. Her
a state of trance. I want you to figure to your- solved. I doubt that any woman has solved it yet. each section in two sentences or so. Here
again they can use the pr
onouns to guide
selves a girl sitting with a pen in her hand, which The obstacles against her are still immensely again they can use the pronouns to guide
them (the first section in the first person;
for minutes, and indeed for hours, she never powerful — and yet they are very difficult to them (the first section in the first person;
dips into the inkpot. The image that comes to define. Outwardly, what is simpler than to write the next, about novel writing in general,
the next, about novel writing in general,
uses “he”; the following section uses
my mind when I think of this girl is the image of books? Outwardly, what obstacles are there for a uses “he”; the following section uses
a fisherman lying sunk in dreams on the verge of woman rather than for a man? Inwardly, I think, “she”; and the end r etur ns to “I”). Be sur e
“she”; and the end returns to “I”). Be sure
ence to
students understand that the r
efer
a deep lake with a rod held out over the water. the case is very different; she has still many students understand that the reference to
“the passions which it was unfitting for her
She was letting her imagination sweep ghosts to fight, many prejudices to overcome. “the passions which it was unfitting for her
as a woman to say” is something akin to
unchecked round every rock and cranny of the Indeed it will be a long time still, I think, before a as a woman to say” is something akin to
e. Y
sexual desir
ou can then ask students
world that lies submerged in the depths of our woman can sit down to write a book without sexual desire. You can then ask students
if they agree with Woolf’s final claim about
unconscious being. Now came the experience, finding a phantom to be slain, a rock to be if they agr ee with W oolf ’ s final claim about
ds implicitly imposed on
the double standar
the experience that I believe to be far commoner dashed against. And if this is so in literature, the the double standards implicitly imposed on
women.
with women writers than with men. The line freest of all professions for women, how is it in women.
raced through the girl’s fingers. Her imagination the new professions which you are now for the
had rushed away. It had sought the pools, the first time entering?
depths, the dark places where the largest fish Those are the questions that I should like,
slumber. And then there was a smash. There was had I time, to ask you. And indeed, if I have laid
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CLOSE READING
To help students understand Woolf’s overall
argument, you could have them examine
more closely how she contrasts external
and internal obstacles in paragraph 6 and
direct students to the final two sentences of
the paragraph. After asking them how these
sentences articulate Woolf’s conclusion about
why it is so difficult for a woman to overcome
“the obstacles against her,” students could
complete a quickwrite that discusses how
this paragraph is significant to the meaning of
the essay as a whole.
Other Voices / Virginia Woolf 197

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