[Vwoolf] curiouser and curiouser: the desk(s) of VW
Danell Jones
danelljones at bresnan.net
Wed Sep 2 13:54:03 EDT 2015
I love it! Now I’m dying to know how did I get to the penthouse? Where do I keep my opium? The Des Moines thing was clearly a misprint in the Register. :)
More seriously, I am writing a biography of a African Edwardian living in London and am working very, very hard to ground everything in fact, even though I am dramatizing some scenes. It is an interesting process. The whole genre of creative nonfiction is exciting, complex, challenging.
I’m always really interested hearing people’s thoughts about where the boundaries are in historical novels, creative nonfiction, and even sometimes, history.
Thanks!
Danell
From: Mark Hussey [mailto:mhussey at verizon.net]
Sent: Wednesday, September 02, 2015 10:48 AM
To: 'Danell Jones' <danelljones at bresnan.net>; 'Stuart N. Clarke' <stuart.n.clarke at btinternet.com>; vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
Subject: RE: [Vwoolf] curiouser and curiouser: the desk(s) of VW
“Danell Jones, a zoo keeper from Des Moines with a secret opium habit and a penchant for fast cars, leaned out of her penthouse window one snowy morning and ….”
I think, to paraphrase Woolf, there are many varieties of “truth” (just as there are many varieties of error…). Brenda Silver’s Virginia Woolf Icon is instructive here. I agree, it is a great conversation!
mark
From: Vwoolf [mailto:vwoolf-bounces at lists.osu.edu] On Behalf Of Danell Jones
Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2015 9:54 AM
To: 'Stuart N. Clarke'; vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu <mailto:vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] curiouser and curiouser: the desk(s) of VW
As someone who has fictionalized Woolf, may I defend creative writers by suggesting that Woolf quite liked the “truth” of fiction? “I prefer, where truth is important,” she wrote, “to write fiction.”
Her “true” story of the Dreadnought Hoax, for example, contains a good deal of fiction.
This is a great conversation!
Danell
From: Vwoolf [mailto:vwoolf-bounces at lists.osu.edu] On Behalf Of Stuart N. Clarke
Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2015 5:04 AM
To: vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu <mailto:vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] curiouser and curiouser: the desk(s) of VW
See VW Letters #264, 270, 271.
Stuart
From: Sarah M. Hall <mailto:smhall123 at yahoo.co.uk>
Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2015 11:11 AM
To: Mark Hussey <mailto:mhussey at verizon.net> ; 'Leslie Hankins' <mailto:lhankins at cornellcollege.edu> ; vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu <mailto:vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu> ; 'International Virginia Woolf Society' <mailto:ivwsociety at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] curiouser and curiouser: the desk(s) of VW
Dear All,
I've contacted Priya Parmar to ask about the source for the table 'incident' and she says:
The incident with the table is definitely rooted in historical fact. It was valuable and she did ask Violet for it and appalled her family. I think it comes from a letter from Vanessa Bell. It may be mentioned in a letter of Virginia's as well. I do not think it pops up in Lytton Strachey's correspondence. I wish I had my notes! The dates I know are accurate.
I am not sure if that helps! I have finally stored my research notes in America and feel a bit bereft that I do not have them to hand!
Obviously in a novel, the author will explore and speculate on people's emotions ('particular favourite', 'thundered in'), which can lead to difficulties if readers take it at face value. Also, when the (non-Woolfian) reader passes on their interpretation of the events, they add their own layer of emotion ('predatory', 'demanding', 'heirloom', 'horribly embarrassed'). In fact, it has been filtered through three people by the time it gets to us; not that I am questioning your interpretation of your colleague's words, Leslie.
But you're right, Mark. We can't help readers misinterpreting fiction as fact; any more than we can help people believing uncorroborated 'facts' they read in a non-fiction book or a newspaper, which it seems to me are more dangerous and inexcusable.
All the best,
Sarah
_____
From: Mark Hussey <mhussey at verizon.net <mailto:mhussey at verizon.net> >
To: 'Leslie Hankins' <lhankins at cornellcollege.edu <mailto:lhankins at cornellcollege.edu> >; vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu <mailto:vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu> ; 'International Virginia Woolf Society' <ivwsociety at gmail.com <mailto:ivwsociety at gmail.com> >
Sent: Saturday, 29 August 2015, 22:06
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] curiouser and curiouser: the desk(s) of VW
Perhaps we need to institute a fact checking website to counter the endless flow of misinformation coming from novelists and tv series writers, film-makers and others who prefer fictional versions of VW et al. to anything based on the historical record!
From: Vwoolf [mailto:vwoolf-bounces+mhussey=verizon.net at lists.osu.edu] On Behalf Of Leslie Hankins
Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2015 4:57 PM
To: vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu <mailto:vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu> ; International Virginia Woolf Society
Subject: [Vwoolf] curiouser and curiouser: the desk(s) of VW
Hello again! The desk plot thickens. A colleague at dinner (not a VW scholar) told me she had read somewhere that VW was really very predatory and rude about asking for and demanding a desk from a friend, a desk that was an heirloom, etc. She said that Vanessa had been horribly embarrassed by the whole thing, etc, etc.
I felt at a loss because it didn't sound familiar, at least not the outrage of it all.
Finally she tracked it down to the novel Vanessa & Her Sister by Parmar.
The passage in the novel (set up as a journal entry) is rather harsh:
Saturday 5 May 1906--46 Gordon Square (end of a long day)
"Virginia asked Violet for a table. Such an innocuous sentence, but what a rumpus it has caused. It is apparently a particular favourite of Violet's and a valuable antique to boot. Virginia just thundered in to tea at Violet's one afternoon and told her that she would quite like to have it. Mother would be so distressed. Thoby and Adrian are appalled--"One simply does not go about asking for other people's things, Ginia!"--and I am now resigned. I was unsettled at first, wary as I am for any signs of imbalance or incongruity in Virginia, but seeing that it was just one of her peculiar moments of directness at work, I relaxed. Violet was an utter dear and had the table delivered the next day. Virginia is planning to have two of the legs sawn off, which makes the gift quite irreversible.
And--Virginia, after listening to a stinging lecture from Thobs, has written twice today, pestering poor Violet for the price of the table." (87)
I've looked at VW's letters to Violet (Vol 1 270, [May 1906] p 225ff but haven't found anything about Vanessa's reaction. Does anyone have any more information about this? I've hardly looked at Patmar's book but my colleague noted that it made VW out to be rather demonic.
I'll keep looking but it does seem curious.
leslie
--
Leslie Kathleen Hankins
Professor
Department of English & Creative Writing
"Moreover, however interesting facts may be, they are an inferior form of fiction, & gradually we become impatient of their weakness & diffuseness, of their compromises & evasions, of the slovenly sentences which they make for themselves, and are eager to revive ourselves with the greater intensity & truth of fiction."
Virginia Woolf, "How Should One Read a Book?"
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