[Vwoolf] Gig Lamps and Orlando....

Wed Aug 28 11:50:10 EDT 2024

Eric Partridge's etymological book "Origins" suggests that the coach - whirligig (= spinning top) link is that of lightness and manoeuvrability.

Jeremy H

Professor Emeritus
Department of Language and Literature
NTNU
7491 Trondheim
Norway

________________________________
Fra: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces+jeremy.hawthorn=ntnu.no at lists.osu.edu> på vegne av Laura Cernat via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Sendt: onsdag 28. august 2024 17:17
Til: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>; Stuart N. Clarke <stuart.n.clarke at btinternet.com>
Emne: Re: [Vwoolf] Gig Lamps and Orlando....

I have to say that I was a bit shocked to see that, according to this Wikipedia article, 'gig' is short for 'whirligig', which in Paul de Man's "Autobiography as De-facement" is famously glossed as 'tourniquet' in French (the meaning
I have to say that I was a bit shocked to see that, according to this Wikipedia article, 'gig' is short for 'whirligig', which in Paul de Man's "Autobiography as De-facement" is famously glossed as 'tourniquet' in French (the meaning being, in my understanding, that of a rotating door, although I am aware that 'tourniquet' can also mean other things in French). So, for many years, I have taken 'whirligig' to mean a rotating door and I had not noticed the connection to 'gig'.

Now I feel a little lost, but the fact that neither myself nor Paul de Man are English natives, although English is in both cases the main language of academic expression (in spite of my having learned French and Dutch and de Man being known to have learned some Romanian), might have something to do with it. Again, I'm sure Woolfians with lived experience of being raised in Britain are uniquely situated to solve the puzzle (I'm saying all of this with a slight wink to Woolf's remarks on translation and cultural differences, discussed at the latest Salon). I think there is so much that gets lost not just in translation, but in the passage of time and the change of technology, and I'm grateful to those who can still shed light on the world Woolf actually moved around in.

This is in any case all fascinating, especially the Proust and Conrad connections, which seem anything but accidental.

All the best,

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 Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2024 4:53 PM
To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Gig Lamps and Orlando....

I am not at all comfortable with the image of gigs outside a theatre. (In JR the ref. is to “carriages” – I know that’s a generic word, but . . .) Gigs were nasty, dangerous (see “Jack Mytton”), draughty things, seating only two people, suitable
I am not at all comfortable with the image of gigs outside a theatre.  (In JR the ref. is to “carriages” – I know that’s a generic word, but . . .)  Gigs were nasty, dangerous (see “Jack Mytton”), draughty things, seating only two people, suitable for dashing young men-about-town.  You would be more likely to see rows of them at a race course than outside a theatre.  You might have hired a gig and driven it yourself, but I don’t think a gig with driver would be waiting for customers, for it would only have been *one* customer per gig.

You can see the lamps in the lower photos here:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gig_(carriage)__;!!KGKeukY!17KmBY6TZ97qA7lFLmrZv92hJ8cms2_ZWBqwYBqq6g3Xx5OrMxFt7GZt432hFnsSiEI8GhALnf04CGsb_vKD09gtHHbkcZ4$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gig_(carriage)__;!!KGKeukY!1j68aTtribnf7fxBvwqjeh7Eb2SGopG8YghmsL_va46u1hbDf_lWkaBfCZeOPkVv8QA9b4bT3uYwYA7NTNbecvnLDw5z6__FKg$>
but it’s an unusual “skeleton” gig with two horses.

Stuart

From: Christine Froula via Vwoolf
Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2024 2:25 PM
To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Gig Lamps and Orlando....

I think that may be the opera scene in Jacob's Room. On 8/28/2024 9: 18 AM, Mark Hussey via Vwoolf wrote: I think I must have read this somewhere (i. e. not my idea) long ago, that the 'series' of gig lamps called to mind an image of the gigs

I think that may be the opera scene in Jacob's Room.

On 8/28/2024 9:18 AM, Mark Hussey via Vwoolf wrote:
I think I must have read this somewhere (i. e. not my idea) long ago, that the 'series' of gig lamps called to mind an image of the gigs lined up, their lamps lit, perhaps outside a theatre, waiting for customers in the evening And not
I think I must have read this somewhere (i.e. not my idea) long ago, that the 'series' of gig lamps called to mind an image of the gigs lined up, their lamps lit, perhaps outside a theatre, waiting for customers in the evening

And not that it is particularly relevant to this image, but Proust also uses the image of a 'transparent envelope' in Swann's Way when talking about identity.

On Wed, Aug 28, 2024 at 9:04 AM Laura Cernat via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> wrote:
Dear Ann, Thank you for this rich parallel. I think you dotted the "i" here, since Woolf was so interested in looking not just at the "moments of being" (when life is in the spotlight, so to say) but also at the "cotton
Dear Ann,

Thank you for this rich parallel. I think you dotted the "i" here, since Woolf was so interested in looking not just at the "moments of being" (when life is in the spotlight, so to say) but also at the "cotton wool" that surrounds them and in understanding how they are embedded and how they emerge from his "non-being". To me the "semi-transparent envelope" reads sometimes like a prefiguration of the "cotton wool" and the "gig lamps" read somewhat like the moments of being - or, moreover, like moments of awareness, which Woolf emphasizes as asymmetrical and unpredictable, hard to sum up or fit into a series.

There are indeed so many echoes between these images, and yet each also stands alone with such uniqueness and force.

A great new semester to all of you,

Laura
________________________________
From: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces+cernat.laura=kuleuven.be at lists.osu.edu> on behalf of Martin, Ann via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2024 2:41 PM
To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Subject: [Vwoolf] Gig Lamps and Orlando....

With regard to Laura's reading, I'm wondering how the lights and lamps in "Modern Fiction" relate to that scene in _Orlando_ in which Orlando and Pope are in the carriage: "Lamp-posts list with oil-lamps occurred every two hundred
With regard to Laura's reading, I'm wondering how the lights and lamps in "Modern Fiction" relate to that scene in _Orlando_ in which Orlando and Pope are in the carriage:

"Lamp-posts list with oil-lamps occurred every two hundred yards or so, but between lay a considerable stretch of pitch darkness. Thus for ten minutes Orlando and Mr Pope would be in blackness; and then for about half a minute again in the light. A very strange state of mind was thus bred in Orlando."

It associates with the final drive out of the city, but here the lamp posts and lamp lights suggest a symmetrical, linear movement of time and space, but here it's...variegated (and resonates for me with "Evening Over Sussex").

The clusters of images that arise in Woolf's work....

All best,
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.

_______________________________________________
Vwoolf mailing list
Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf__;!!Dq0X2DkFhyF93HkjWTBQKhk!TA-p-wHJa4BZZInEKOiACAQWiLpSBsxjslfiglABQldMONWSFMmtXmE4fcrKLWpj_i3GC78RWFAL7mhIqxMMvVRk0A$>

_______________________________________________
Vwoolf mailing list
Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf__;!!Dq0X2DkFhyF93HkjWTBQKhk!TA-p-wHJa4BZZInEKOiACAQWiLpSBsxjslfiglABQldMONWSFMmtXmE4fcrKLWpj_i3GC78RWFAL7mhIqxMMvVRk0A$

________________________________
_______________________________________________
Vwoolf mailing list
Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/vwoolf/attachments/20240828/3177b1c8/attachment-0001.html>