PSA the waves

[felinejumper]

I just finished The Waves (V. Woolf) and cried my way through the entire last section. I am, as usual, struck dumb by her, and thus have no more articulate commentary at this time. I really loved this section, though, and the return of hope and light and beauty after a moment when the soul is erased. I just. I cannot.

How then does light return to the world after the eclipse of the sun? Miraculously. Frailly. In thin stripes. It hangs like a glass cage. It is a hoop to be fractured by a tiny jar. There is a spark there. Next moment a flush of dun. Then a vapour as if earth were breathing in and out, once, twice, for the first time. Then under the dullness someone walks with a green light. Then off twists a white wraith. The woods throb blue and green, and gradually the fields drink in red, gold, brown. Suddenly a river snatches a blue light. The earth absorbs colour like a sponge slowly drinking water. It puts on weight; rounds itself; hangs pendent; settles and swings beneath our feet.

'So the landscape returned to me; so I saw the fields rolling in waves of colour beneath me, but now with this difference; I saw but was not seen. I walked unshadowed; I came unheralded. From me had dropped the old cloak, the old response; the hollowed hand that beats back sounds. Thin as a ghost, leaving no trace where I trod, perceiving merely, I walked alone in a new world, never trodden; brushing new flowers, unable to speak save in a child's words of one syllable; without shelter from phrases--I who have made so many; unattended, I who have always gone with my kind; solitary, I who have always had someone to share the empty grate, or the cupboard with its hanging loop of gold.

Comments

[felinejumper]

I'm immediately like "LET ME MAIL YOU A COPY" and...honestly, depending on where in the world you are, it would delight me to be able to say "I shipped someone a copy of Mrs. Dalloway." But no pressure either way! (It's also available digitally, either as an epub here or as a boring .txt here)

emotes about rereading Yeah, this past year has been an amazing education in differentiating between the prose/plot and the experience of the book; I keep being grateful that 5 year old me practiced reading enough that [current age] me can have the joy of revisiting books. If you have any recs that have doubly served re-reads, please send them my way!

[fosfomifira]

So sorry that it’s taken me this long to reply, but I ave the ePub file safely sorted away for me to read. I’ll definitely ask for a paper copy of the book if I can’t find one.

I’ll definitely our together a list of reread-worthy books. I rarely reread a whole book, though. Sometimes it’s particular sections that really captured me and I go back to time and time again. Sometimes I’ll find myself rereading an entire book without even noticing. Oops?