[Vwoolf] A Semi-Transparent Envelope

Wed Aug 28 17:38:47 EDT 2024

Dear all,

Thank you all so, so much for this illuminating (!) discussion. I have been reading the responses with great pleasure and excitement – it's been like opening a gift each time and is a testament to the richness of Woolf's thinking and her metaphors that we can have such a rich discussion about a single sentence - and connections outward to Proust, James, and Woolf's own other writings and diaries. Wonderful.

For my part, I've been thinking (in addition to the 'gigs') quite a lot about the 'envelope' which of course could be meant in its general sense, as so many of you describe - that feeling of being enclosed and surrounded by a particular kind of light. But there are I think some specific material/metaphorical possibilities here too (I did not previously know but learned via the OED that stars and comets, too, can have 'envelopes' which appear as 'haloes' of light around the celestial bodies – this usage dates to the mid-19th century, so may have been known to Woolf?). And then of course there are the papery kind (less likely given the gig lamps, but still, I couldn't help but think of glassine paper envelopes...).

In addition to the on-list discussion, I want to draw attention to Megan Quigley's lovely discussion of this passage in Modernist Fiction and Vagueness (CUP, 2015) and to Leslie Hankins' lovely relation of this passage to the chrysalis (in her 2023 VW conference paper which she was kind enough to send me). If anything else comes my way off list I will happily compile and share.

I'm so grateful for these little gig lamps (of friendship - so lovely Ann!) lighting my inbox,

Very best,
Claire

________________________________
From: Laura Cernat <cernat.laura at kuleuven.be>
Sent: August 28, 2024 16:34
To: Marie Claire Boisset via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>; Claire Battershill <claire.battershill at utoronto.ca>; Marie Claire Boisset <mc at clarior.net>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] A Semi-Transparent Envelope

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Dear Marie Claire,

Thank you for bringing us, as it were, back to Life. And sorry we've strayed a tad far from it. My mention of biography and of Woolf's model of Life in contrast to the Victorian one was intended to keep that in focus, but admittedly we all got technical about what inspired the metaphor instead of exploring its value. I hope the idea of symmetrical versus asymmetrical lamps still sheds some light on that supreme question that fascinated Woolf: how to capture life in its swing, in its quiver, in its elusiveness? How to find a structure that is neither pure chaos nor a corset for lived experience, but at once granite and rainbow? There's more to that than fits in a casual email, but if such a subtle, nimble, and yet epiphany-laden email can be written, it will probably appear on this listserv, which is always so surprising and delightful.

Enjoy the summer's end,

Laura

________________________________
From: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces+cernat.laura=kuleuven.be at lists.osu.edu> on behalf of Marie Claire Boisset via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2024 10:15 PM
To: Claire Battershill <claire.battershill at utoronto.ca>
Cc: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] A Semi-Transparent Envelope

Dear Claire and Woolfians: Did I misread this email of Claire Battershill & answer it based on "Life" - "(what) Life is. . . " The discussion seems to have immediately, interestingly focused on "gigs", "gig-lamps",
Dear Claire and Woolfians:

Did I misread this email of Claire Battershill & answer it based on "Life" - "(what) Life is..."
The discussion seems to have immediately, interestingly focused on "gigs", "gig-lamps", "envelope", JR & O. & lights.

Or was it me being totally out of focus - or off-topic, having read these lines all too quickly?

Humble apologies for the cursory reading if I should have looked at the whole segment & other more practical details,
not what I thought was the main question - about "Life"...

All the best

mc

Marie-Claire Boisset-Pestourie

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On Tue, Aug 27, 2024 at 4:38 PM 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
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.

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