[Vwoolf] vermin

Tue Jul 15 11:10:06 EDT 2025

Dear Harish,
Thank you so much for further detail, clarification, and context.
Vara

Vara Neverow
(she/her/hers)
Professor, English Department and Women’s and Gender Studies Program
Managing Editor, Virginia Woolf Miscellany
Southern Connecticut State University
New Haven, CT 06515
203-392-6717
neverowv1 at southernct.edu

I acknowledge that Southern Connecticut State University was built on traditional territory of the indigenous peoples and nations of the Paugusett and Quinnepiac peoples.
________________________________
From: Harish Trivedi <harish.trivedi at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2025 4:13 AM
To: Neverow, Vara S. <neverowv1 at southernct.edu>
Cc: Sarah M. Hall <smhall123 at yahoo.co.uk>; vwoolf listerve <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>; Mark Hussey <markh102 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] vermin

There seems to be a lot of sensitivity on all sides in our politically correct times regarding the use of such terms.

The use of "vermin" cited in two personal (and once deemed private) letters cited by Vara is in both instances obviously jocular, as being consciously exaggerated and hyperbolic. But now, nothing is private, and part of the blame must attach to our own obsession as readers and critics with the biographical approach in reading major writers -- what the New Critics sternly called "the Biographical Fallacy."

As for "coolie," when Peter Walsh recalls that he had in India invented a new plough and imported wheel-barrows from England, "but the coolies wouldn't use them" (Mrs Dalloway, Hogarth ed., rpt.1963, p. 55), he is narrating the episode fairly dispassionately, rueing the mismatch between his approach and theirs rather than blaming them entirely.

What is palpably inept about this passage is that the term "coolies" was/is never used in India for peasants or farm-labourers. They are in Hindi called kisan. Coolies in Hindi are load-bearing porters, casually hired for a specific task, often on railway platforms or steep hill roads.  (See Mulk Raj Anand's novel Coolie, London 1936.)  It's not Walsh who betrays ignorance here after over two decades in India but clearly Virginia Woolf. But such ignorance is a far less serious crime than knowingly offering insult or deprecation; it's not the same thing, really.

The word coolie in India, or abroad in the subaltern diaspora, connotes generally someone put to hard labour for little reward. Once, in controverting an essay by Susan Sontag titled "The World as India," I used the term "cyber-coolies" for underpaid backroom on-line workers in poorer countries employed by multinationals (TLS , letters, 13 June 2003).

Best wishes.
Harish

Harish Trivedi

On Mon, 14 Jul 2025 at 23:16, Neverow, Vara S. via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu<mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>> wrote:
The term "vermin" is applied to humans in two of Woolf's writings:

2263: To Quentin Bell 28th Oct. [1930]:
“Ottoline is on the ramp; but I cant go—not to meet Italian novelists, because when she says they admire me, it means they are cretinous, verminous and lecherous. If you were here we would go together.”

3543: To V. Sackville-West 19th Aug: [1939]:
“I’m in a rage. That devil woman Giselle Freund calmly tells me she’s showing those d—d photographs—and I made it a condition she shouldn’t. Dont you think it damnable?—considering how they [Ocampo and Freund] filched and pilfered and gate crashed—the treacherous vermin. Do give her a piece of your mind if you see her. I loathe being hoisted about on top of a stick for any one to stare at. Shall you send me a book to read soon?”

And...intriguingly (disturbingly?) but totally off topic (!) is that a certain type of lampshade is still referred to as a “coolie" (the reference is to the hat worn by workers, not the workers themselves: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_conical_hat__;!!KGKeukY!3KEDLlpu9GvU9q9_uulZYL6IPvBl0udt8rM4_Ne7VCKLCdkzel9tEs5wRrdiwTJCL4XqfkoM9tvtetpO66GOmgSemoXp$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_conical_hat__;!!KGKeukY!wNhivc5Zpm1yvZ9x9U8u_EWTZxvKHGMU7XhlK7fdaQ4XZBmQHVjQryr5gUPWePc4T5dcTpeXE4ZoPXaXZmsYXI-fb7wL$>).
Various versions of the "coolie" lampshade--with the term--can be viewed here:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.etsy.com/listing/1513832674/large-bloomsbury-lampshade-pink-and-blue__;!!KGKeukY!3KEDLlpu9GvU9q9_uulZYL6IPvBl0udt8rM4_Ne7VCKLCdkzel9tEs5wRrdiwTJCL4XqfkoM9tvtetpO66GOmtgMzBuK$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.etsy.com/listing/1513832674/large-bloomsbury-lampshade-pink-and-blue__;!!KGKeukY!wNhivc5Zpm1yvZ9x9U8u_EWTZxvKHGMU7XhlK7fdaQ4XZBmQHVjQryr5gUPWePc4T5dcTpeXE4ZoPXaXZmsYXC6Q1I0w$>
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://royaldesignsinc.com/product/coolie-empire-lamp-shade/__;!!KGKeukY!3KEDLlpu9GvU9q9_uulZYL6IPvBl0udt8rM4_Ne7VCKLCdkzel9tEs5wRrdiwTJCL4XqfkoM9tvtetpO66GOmtR6Bvco$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://royaldesignsinc.com/product/coolie-empire-lamp-shade/__;!!KGKeukY!wNhivc5Zpm1yvZ9x9U8u_EWTZxvKHGMU7XhlK7fdaQ4XZBmQHVjQryr5gUPWePc4T5dcTpeXE4ZoPXaXZmsYXFbHeGx6$>
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://bibelothome.com/collections/coolie-lampshades__;!!KGKeukY!3KEDLlpu9GvU9q9_uulZYL6IPvBl0udt8rM4_Ne7VCKLCdkzel9tEs5wRrdiwTJCL4XqfkoM9tvtetpO66GOmiB_LmUs$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://bibelothome.com/collections/coolie-lampshades__;!!KGKeukY!wNhivc5Zpm1yvZ9x9U8u_EWTZxvKHGMU7XhlK7fdaQ4XZBmQHVjQryr5gUPWePc4T5dcTpeXE4ZoPXaXZmsYXNfyNjj8$>

Vara

Vara Neverow
(she/her/hers)
Professor, English Department and Women’s and Gender Studies Program
Managing Editor, Virginia Woolf Miscellany
Southern Connecticut State University
New Haven, CT 06515
203-392-6717
neverowv1 at southernct.edu<mailto:neverowv1 at southernct.edu>

I acknowledge that Southern Connecticut State University was built on traditional territory of the indigenous peoples and nations of the Paugusett and Quinnepiac peoples.
________________________________
From: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces+neverowv1=southernct.edu at lists.osu.edu<mailto:southernct.edu at lists.osu.edu>> on behalf of Sarah M. Hall via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu<mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>>
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2025 1:09:15 PM
To: vwoolf listerve <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu<mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>>; Mark Hussey <markh102 at gmail.com<mailto:markh102 at gmail.com>>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] vermin

Thanks, Mark. It's very odd that these mistakes are made, especially nowadays when it's so easy to check.

In VW's works I can find one instance of 'vermin' being used in this kind of context; not about servants, but about the poor, and in a satirical reference to Gilbert White's attitude.

White's Selborne
Gilbert White is far less tender to the poor — “We abound with poor,” he writes, as if the vermin were beneath his notice — than to the grasshopper whom he lifts out of its hole so carefully and once inadvertently squeezed to death.

Elsewhere, Woolf uses 'vermin/ous' when referring to other people's points of view; occasionally, I'm afraid, as a personal insult; or about rats or fleas.

'Coolies' is used satirically in Mrs D and The Waves. I hope it won't offend anyone if I say that the term is pejorative now, but, Wikipedia suggests, originated from Hindi, Telugu, Urdu and Tamil words meaning simply 'day-labourer' or 'hireling'. Then in the early 20th century it seems the British Raj started using it patronisingly and offensively, and eventually it turned into a racial slur. Like 'queer', though, it looks as though it's being reclaimed: 'A new Tamil movie titled Coolie [...] is set to release in 2025.'  https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coolie__;!!KGKeukY!3KEDLlpu9GvU9q9_uulZYL6IPvBl0udt8rM4_Ne7VCKLCdkzel9tEs5wRrdiwTJCL4XqfkoM9tvtetpO66GOmr6mQbaY$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coolie__;!!KGKeukY!2xl0rcaK99-3zAJHlkut9Us1aClMYfq6_KPVEEEN_un3GXqwnG9rldXocwDg_2Kxdk3IJ6rUYRKpaPYekUzwZRVZ$>

Sarah

Sarah M. Hall
Executive Council
Virginia Woolf Society of GB
Web: virginiawoolfsociety.org.uk<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://virginiawoolfsociety.org.uk/__;!!KGKeukY!3KEDLlpu9GvU9q9_uulZYL6IPvBl0udt8rM4_Ne7VCKLCdkzel9tEs5wRrdiwTJCL4XqfkoM9tvtetpO66GOmvuCM7FD$ >
Facebook: @VWSGB
Twitter/X: @VirginiaWoolfGB
Instagram: @virginiawoolfsociety

On Monday, 14 July 2025 at 15:56:11 BST, Mark Hussey via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu<mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>> wrote:

With so many Woolfians in the UK recently for the Sussex conference, some may have heard a programme on BBC Radio 4 ('Three Transformations of Virginia Woolf'). In the 2nd episode, broadcast on Tuesday July 8, Alison Light, speaking about Woolf's relations with servants, said that she uses the word 'vermin' in connection with servants. This is no more true than Merve Emre's claim in her annotated Mrs Dalloway that Woolf used the word "coolies" "liberally" in her diary (it's not used there at all). 'Vermin' and 'verminous' appear in a number of instances in Woolf's writing but not describing servants. Ever. This is how rumors start!

(My thanks to Marielle O'Neill for searching the online complete works before I could get back to my CD-Rom, where I confirmed the above!)

--
https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.markhusseybooks.com__;!!KGKeukY!3KEDLlpu9GvU9q9_uulZYL6IPvBl0udt8rM4_Ne7VCKLCdkzel9tEs5wRrdiwTJCL4XqfkoM9tvtetpO66GOmj8lCjGv$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.markhusseybooks.com__;!!KGKeukY!2ymZQeIbG6488AseqG0pIjm5zDHbS3qBM0jaaWaR3fEp2P46gpYm58JqJZcv_tZSd5LrpnAFTXSBaXemXDHv$>
Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel 2025
 https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526176813/__;!!KGKeukY!3KEDLlpu9GvU9q9_uulZYL6IPvBl0udt8rM4_Ne7VCKLCdkzel9tEs5wRrdiwTJCL4XqfkoM9tvtetpO66GOmixvIS7b$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526176813/__;!!KGKeukY!2ymZQeIbG6488AseqG0pIjm5zDHbS3qBM0jaaWaR3fEp2P46gpYm58JqJZcv_tZSd5LrpnAFTXSBaXvh3uQf$>
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