<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><br>Virginia Woolf was a lovely chameleon, who appeared the same to us all. That is why she writes so beautifully. Remember, from On Being Ill, the best little piece of personal stint into the ineluctable. Her writing is full of a observant love; Joyce, differed. <br><div><span><br></span></div><div><br></div> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <hr size="1"> <font size="2" face="Arial"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Patterson <dcipatterson@yahoo.com><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> Stephen Barkway <sbarkway@btinternet.com>; Stuart N. Clarke <stuart.n.clarke@btinternet.com>; "vwoolf@lists.service.ohio-state.edu"
<vwoolf@lists.service.ohio-state.edu> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Monday, June 17, 2013 3:03 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [Vwoolf] Wishing will not make it so<br> </font> </div> <div class="y_msg_container"><br><div id="yiv4469497752"><div><div style="color:#000;background-color:#fff;font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt;">Sleek.<br><div><span></span></div><div><br></div> <div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt;"> <div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <hr size="1"> <font size="2" face="Arial"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Stephen Barkway <sbarkway@btinternet.com><br> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">To:</span></b> Stuart N. Clarke <stuart.n.clarke@btinternet.com>; vwoolf@lists.service.ohio-state.edu <br> <b><span
style="font-weight:bold;">Sent:</span></b> Sunday, June 16, 2013 11:41 AM<br> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [Vwoolf] Wishing will not make it so<br> </font> </div> <div class="yiv4469497752y_msg_container"><br><div id="yiv4469497752">
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">To me the reference to the barn owl being 'blunt'
is to do with its head/face.</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Compared to most birds, the barn owl's face if so
flat and un-aero-dynamic. Take a look at the pictures on this website
(link below). The fifth one shows how blunt its face is . . . and it
has a 'black spot in its claws'.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Stephen</font> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><a href="" rel="nofollow">http://www.shropshirebirder.co.uk/barnowl.html</a></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT:#000000 2px solid;PADDING-LEFT:5px;PADDING-RIGHT:0px;MARGIN-LEFT:5px;MARGIN-RIGHT:0px;">
<div style="FONT:10pt arial;">----- Original Message ----- </div>
<div style="FONT:10pt arial;BACKGROUND:#e4e4e4;"><b>From:</b>
<a rel="nofollow" title="stuart.n.clarke@btinternet.com" ymailto="mailto:stuart.n.clarke@btinternet.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:stuart.n.clarke@btinternet.com">Stuart N. Clarke</a> </div>
<div style="FONT:10pt arial;"><b>To:</b> <a rel="nofollow" title="vwoolf@lists.service.ohio-state.edu" ymailto="mailto:vwoolf@lists.service.ohio-state.edu" target="_blank" href="mailto:vwoolf@lists.service.ohio-state.edu">vwoolf@lists.service.ohio-state.edu</a>
</div>
<div style="FONT:10pt arial;"><b>Sent:</b> Sunday, June 16, 2013 12:28
PM</div>
<div style="FONT:10pt arial;"><b>Subject:</b> [Vwoolf] Wishing will not make
it so</div>
<div><br></div>
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<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span></span> </div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span>In the 2013 vol. of “Woolf Studies Annual”, there is a
very interesting reading of “The Moment: </span><span style="">Summer’s
Night”, marred for me by being pretty heavy going in places, particularly at
the beginning. It would therefore be forgivable for someone to start reading
it, and then give up.<span style=""> </span>Which would
be a pity. However, I have the following specific criticisms, which do not
invalidate the argument of the piece:</span><span></span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span></span> </div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoListParagraph"><span style=""><span style="">(a)<span style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="FONT-SIZE:7pt;">
</font></font></span></span></span><span><span style=""> </span>I was
shocked/saddened/disappointed/appalled that the author used Leonard Woolf’s
various edns of Woolf’s essays, rather than the 6-vol. McNeillie/Clarke
edn—esp. when I had gone to all the bleeding trouble of rechecking the
typescripts and including textual variations for this essay.</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span></span> </div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoListParagraph"><span style=""><span style="">(b)<span style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="FONT-SIZE:7pt;">
</font></font></span></span></span><span><span style=""> </span>Although the author must have been
aware of Leonard’s warning that the essay had been taken</span><span style="">
from ‘a rather rough typescript heavily corrected in handwriting’, she
criticises the essay for “fail[ing] in part, falling into disarray rather than
being strengthened and unified …’ (p. 163), without acknowledging that it is
very much a draft.</span><span></span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span></span> </div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoListParagraph"><span style=""><span style="">(c)<span style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="FONT-SIZE:7pt;">
</font></font></span></span></span><span><span style=""> </span>Dating the essay</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span style="">Fn.
1 (p. 147) reads:</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span style="">“Published
in 1947, ‘Summer’s Night’ has eluded the attempts of scholars to date
it. The editors of ‘Modernism’ place it ‘c.1927’ (Kolocotroni, et al.
392). Guiguet (294) and Goldman (‘Feminist’ 2) suggest ‘c.1929.’
Hussey, however, pushes this date back to 1938 with the belief that the essay
is ‘related to the composition of '”Between the Acts”’ (164). I find
Guiguet’s comparison of ‘Summer’s Night’ with several of Woolf’s diary entries
quite compelling, especially as this would align the piece chronologically
with the conclusions Reed has drawn regarding Woolf’s engagement with
formalist aesthetics.”</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span style=""></span> </div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span style="">Note
(1) the wish fulfilment in the last sentence; (2) the disregard of </span><i style=""><span style="">V
VW Diary</span></i><span style="">,
p. 133, n. 3:</span><span style=""></span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span style="">‘This
is the first allusion in VW’s diary to what was to develop into a new book . .
. <i style="">Between the Acts</i>, the first page
of the first draft of which is dated 2 April 1938 and headed “Summer Night”;
see <i style="">Virginia Woolf: Pointz Hall.<span style=""> </span>The Earlier and Later Typescripts of
BETWEEN THE ACTS</i>, edited by Mitchell A. Leaska, New York, 1983 . . . “The
Moment: Summer’s Night” . . . from the evidence of the typescript in the Berg
. . . appears to be a later (1940) attempt by VW to form “a complete whole” of
her idea.’<span style=""> </span></span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span style="">As
I had no special new knowledge, I merely quoted this in my annotation.<span style=""> </span>*I* had no axe to grind.</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span style=""></span> </div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoListParagraph"><span style=""><span style="">(d)<span style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="FONT-SIZE:7pt;"> </font></font></span></span></span><span style=""><span style=""> </span>The author wishes to emphasise
“defamiliarisation” in Woolf’s essay.<span style="">
</span>As an example, she quotes the second sentence:</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span style="">“</span><span style="">An
owl, blunt, obsolete looking, heavy weighted, crossed the fading sky with a
black spot between its claws.”</span><span style=""></span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span style="">And
comments:</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span style="">“The
description is visually potent yet oddly puzzling; how might an owl be
‘obsolete looking’? What exactly distinguishes a ‘blunt’ owl from a
non-blunt (a sharp) one?” (p. 151). </span><span style=""></span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span style="">Again,
the author is pursuing her own agenda.<span style="">
</span>To take the second question first, I’m sure Virginia Woolf saw more
barn owls than I ever have and that she knew what she was writing about.<span style=""> </span>As Oscar Wilde might have said: “Some
owls are blunt, some owls are not blunt. That is a matter that surely an owl
may be allowed to decide for itself.”</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><u><span style=""><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/barn-owl.html#comp.asp?recid=58651860&xtra="><font color="#0000ff">http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/barn-owl.html#comp.asp?recid=58651860&xtra=</font></a></span></u><span style=""></span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span style="">In
reply to the first question, I would like to suggest, tentatively, that a
blunt barn owl may be reminding Woolf of a dirigible, while, say, a swallow
would make her think of a modern aeroplane.</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span style=""></span> </div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span style="">‘Approaching
the mooring mast minutes before landing on 6 May 1937, the <i>Hindenburg</i>
burst into flames and crashed. Of the 97 people aboard, 36 died: 13
passengers, 22 aircrew, and one American ground-crewman. The disaster happened
before a large crowd, was filmed and a radio news reporter was recording the
arrival. This was a disaster which theater goers could see and hear the next
day. The <i>Hindenburg</i> disaster shattered public confidence in airships,
and brought a definitive end to the "golden age". The day after
<i>Hindenburg</i> crashed, the <i>Graf Zeppelin</i> landed at the end of its
flight from Brazil, ending intercontinental passenger airship travel.’
(Wikipedia)</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span style=""></span> </div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span style="">If
I had that axe, grinded or ungrinded, I might argue that this strongly
suggests that the essay was written after 1937!</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span style=""></span> </div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span style=""></span> </div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span style="">Stuart</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="yiv4469497752MsoNormal"><span style=""></span> </div></div></div>
<div>
</div><hr>
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