[Vwoolf] Gig lamps

Wed Aug 28 05:11:29 EDT 2024

Dear Woolfians,

I've always thought that gig lamps were a metaphor for milestones or neatly arranged life goals. Since Woolf says "life is not a series of gig lamps, symmetrically arranged", I doubt that the "gig lamps" are the lamps on the carriage (which are symmetrical in the sense of being placed one on either side, but are obviously not a series, much less a symmetrical series). To my mind, what Woolf's expression evokes is the "gig lamps" in the sense of the standing street lamps on the side of the road, by which the gigs are meant to pass. I can imagine those as a series of symmetrically arranged lamps. My understanding is that contesting this metaphor is a way of contesting the assumptions of Victorian biography (and Victorian-style novel writing), which postulate an image of life as the progression through a set of predictable achievements or tests: birth, education (sadly, mostly for men), marriage, career, children, legacies, etc. These seemed to me the gig lamps which traditionally structured the 'gig ride' of mainstream Victorian Life-Writing. Contrasting the gig lamps to the "transparent envelope" was to me a way of saying that things don't always happen in a predictable order, that challenges and hard decisions sometimes happen not only in the vicinity of milestones (whom to marry, what career path to choose) but can happen quietly and unassumingly in the midst of the everyday, or even in retrospect (as they partly do in Mrs Dalloway).

This being said, the observations posted here about Woolf mentioning friends as "gig lamps" in her diary, as well as the descriptions of what gig lamps looked like (with their own semi-transparent halo) gave me a lot of food for thought. Perhaps the opposition is not as clear-cut as I had thought it was, but I just wanted to share my impression. I'm sure there are some among you who will correct me if I was mistaken.

Thanks for the rich conversation,

Laura

Laura Cernat (she, they)
FWO Postdoctoral Fellow
KU Leuven, Department of Literary Studies
English Literature Research Group
________________________________
From: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces+cernat.laura=kuleuven.be at lists.osu.edu> on behalf of Avery, Todd via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2024 6:54 PM
To: Gretchen Gerzina <ozma at sover.net>; vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Gig lamps

OK, friends, this is a delightful conversation. (And it's going to come in wicked handy when I teach this essay this fall. ). All best to everyone. Todd Get Outlook for iOS From: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces@ lists. osu. edu> on behalf of Gretchen
OK, friends, this is a delightful conversation. (And it's going to come in wicked handy when I teach this essay this fall.). All best to everyone.  Todd

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From: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces at lists.osu.edu> on behalf of Gretchen Gerzina via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2024 12:44:19 PM
To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Gig lamps

A gig, or a small carriage, carried two enclosed lamps on the sides of the raised driver's seat. I think what Julia Briggs was referring to was the slang for them as "spectacles," or "eyeglasses" since they came in pairs. So they were "semi-transparent"

A gig, or a small carriage, carried two enclosed lamps on the sides of the raised driver's seat. I think what Julia Briggs was referring to was the slang for them as "spectacles," or "eyeglasses" since they came in pairs. So they were "semi-transparent" because of the glass surrounding the light, making them both visible to others and, as Ann suggests, illuminating the road.

Gretchen

On 8/27/24, 12:30 PM, "vwoolf-bounces+ozma=sover.net at lists.osu.edu <mailto:sover.net at lists.osu.edu> on behalf of vwoolf-request at lists.osu.edu <mailto:vwoolf-request at lists.osu.edu>" <vwoolf-bounces+ozma=sover.net at lists.osu.edu <mailto:sover.net at lists.osu.edu> on behalf of vwoolf-request at lists.osu.edu <mailto:vwoolf-request at lists.osu.edu>> wrote:

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Today's Topics:

1. Re: A Semi-Transparent Envelope (Anne Fernald)
2. Re: Semi-Transparent Envelope and Gig Lamps (Martin, Ann)

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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2024 12:22:17 -0400
From: Anne Fernald <fernald at fordham.edu <mailto:fernald at fordham.edu>>
To: Edward Mendelson <edward.mendelson at columbia.edu <mailto:edward.mendelson at columbia.edu>>
Cc: "vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>" <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] A Semi-Transparent Envelope
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Dear Claire, Edward, and Woolfians,

I wish I could put my finger on it, but I can't. I would look to Dora
Zhang's work on the stream of consciousness, but her chapter in the Oxford
Handbook does not seem to be the place, and a quick google book search of
her book doesn't either, so maybe I'm misremembering.

In the Ox. Handbook, though, there is a nice meditation on "gig lamps" from
Kathryn Simpson's chapter that feels rich:

Her recognition of her reliance on her friends and lovers to satisfy her
need for experience and an ever-expanded vision seems encapsulated in her
assertion that ?I use my friends rather as giglamps; Theres [sic] another
field I see: by your light. Over there?s a hill. I widen my landscape? (*D*3
316). While, as she asserts in ?Modern Fiction?, our life experiences are
not ordered into a neat series of discrete events??gig lamps, symmetrically
arranged??but are rather ?a luminous halo; a semi-transparent envelope? (*E*4
160), so her gig lamps of friendship create an expansive network of
interconnections that support her as a writer, respond to her complex and
contradictory needs, and sustain her as a woman. (33)

Gig lamps of friendship. That's beautiful. Maybe that helps?

Yours,

Anne

Anne E. Fernald <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.fordham.edu/info/24101/anne_fernald__;!!KGKeukY!2hzYfQL7rR5hPDYdMXjOwBAuPZE540oojqBGepCMm4O59ZEFSbUmZ-iEeLXN9aVKJ6ZSrntg--UiBklEp_juYxs$<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.fordham.edu/info/24101/anne_fernald__;!!KGKeukY!2hzYfQL7rR5hPDYdMXjOwBAuPZE540oojqBGepCMm4O59ZEFSbUmZ-iEeLXN9aVKJ6ZSrntg--UiBklEp_juYxs$>> (she/her)
Professor of English and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
*The Norton Critical Edition of *Mrs. Dalloway
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*The Oxford Handbook to Virginia Woolf
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On Tue, Aug 27, 2024 at 12:04?PM Edward Mendelson via Vwoolf <
vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>> wrote:

> I have?t read any of the discussions or debates, but probably they all
> quote the 3 September 1928 (I haven?t checked the date, possibly wrong)
> diary entry, possibly relevant as a way of saying the same thing (in the
> sentence that begins ?How
> I have?t read any of the discussions or debates, but probably they all
> quote the 3 September 1928 (I haven?t checked the date, possibly wrong)
> diary entry, possibly relevant as a way of saying the same thing (in the
> sentence that begins ?How dificult??):
>
> "That is one of the experiences I have had here in some Augusts; & got
> then to a consciousness of what I call 'reality': a thing I see before me;
> something abstract; but residing in the downs or sky; beside which nothing
> matters; in which I shall rest & continue to exist. Reality I call it. And
> I fancy sometimes this is the most necessary thing to me: that which I
> seek. But who knows?once one takes a pen & writes? How difficult not to go
> making 'reality' this & that, whereas it is one thing. Now perhaps this is
> my gift; this perhaps is what distinguishes me from other people; I think
> it may be rare to have so acute a sense of something like that?but again,
> who knows? I would like to express it too."
>
> On Aug 27, 2024, at 10:38?AM, Claire Battershill via Vwoolf <
> vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>> wrote:
>
> Dearest Woolfians,
>
> I hope this finds you well and enjoying the last days of August.
>
> I'm writing to ask if anyone could point me to some discussions and
> debates about the meaning of Woolf's frequently quoted passage about "life"
> from "Modern Fiction" (?Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically
> arranged? but a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us
> from the beginning of consciousness to the end?)? I know the 'gig lamps'
> have been variously defined (as spectacles by Julia Briggs, for instance);
> and this little bit is frequently quoted in relation to broader writings on
> consciousness, but I'd love to be pointed in the direction of further
> discussion and interpretation of this fascinating passage. I love for
> instance Jane Goldman's connection of the landscape of Skye to the image
> and the re-appearance of the phrase "semi-transparent" in her piece on the
> two postcards in the Miscellany.
>
> The halo, the gig lamps, the envelope...a lot going on!
>
> Thanks so much for your thoughts and any references you might share,
> Claire
>
> Dr. Claire Battershill (she/her)
> Assistant Professor
> Faculty of Information & Department of English
> Wendy M. Cecil Professor at Victoria College
> University of Toronto
>
> *The University of Toronto operates on the traditional land of the
> Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, this
> meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across
> Turtle Island and I am grateful to have the opportunity to work on this
> land.*
> Book time with Claire Battershill
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/da0e7588e2f04045916dd0f5dc142641@utoronto.ca<mailto:da0e7588e2f04045916dd0f5dc142641@utoronto.ca>?anonymous&ep=pcard__;!!KGKeukY!327U0RX5Q3tFGBWAsJpaCqoBnyx7H8feyYl3J1yb9kTioc2tJGEpsF1ZhKH_y0N1WmQtEkxvVeDKxun-c476cjVwjjZ7nPdsXg$>
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Message: 2
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:30:14 +0000
From: "Martin, Ann" <ann.martin at usask.ca <mailto:ann.martin at usask.ca>>
To: "vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>" <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Semi-Transparent Envelope and Gig Lamps
Message-ID:
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Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"

Hi Claire,
I was exploring the image of the gig-lamp in a session for the Ecologies II online symposium in the Fall. The gig is a one-horse carriage, so it can be read in contrast to the motor-cars that are invoked at the beginning of "Modern Fiction" (in her deliberate change of image, replacing bicycles at the beginning of "Modern Novels"). In this way, it could be associating the materialists with an outdated mode of transportation.

However, I see the more interesting (less teleological) reading of Woolf's use of the image is that the gig-lamp or carriage headlight?which would illuminate the road before it in a linear, focused fashion?stands in contrast to the halo and the more holistic, reciprocal, encompassing, interrelated experience that Woolf describes in relation to that image.

Looking forward to other takes on this!
Ann

Dr. Ann Martin, Associate Professor
Chair, Graduate Committee
Department of English
University of Saskatchewan
420 Arts Tower
9 Campus Drive
Saskatoon SK S7N 5A5 Canada
1.306.966.5527
(she/her/hers)

Our Department's vision is to be a place where many peoples come together to engage in mutually respectful relations and dialogues. We acknowledge that the land on which we gather is Treaty Six territory and traditional Metis homeland, and we acknowledge the diverse Indigenous peoples whose footsteps have marked this territory for centuries.

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