reading mrs. dalloway

have you ever read virginia woolf's modernist classic mrs. dalloway? if you haven't, i don't know that i can explain it to you. if you have, you know it's a cluster---- of characters, points of view, and insights into isolation vs. connectivity, among other things. having to read this for the AP class that i am about to teach once my cooperating teacher delivers her bambino, i've spent some QT with the book (a pro AND con of being an english teacher: getting to read vs. being forced to read and analyze until you've analyzed every last period and adjective). i hated the book at first. loathed, even. it's an extremely difficult read, and being short on time and patience, i met the book with much trepidation.

and then i kept reading.

and reading (even at 5:30 this morning!)

and, lo and behold, clarissa dalloway and i came to some good understandings. what i most took away from this novel, and why i felt compelled to write this blog, was its commentary on our connectivity with everyone in the world. from showing characters across the city of london all observing a plane in the sky to the wind affecting multiple people who have never met, we all, strangers or not, are connected in various ways. from observing a stranger's mood and disposition on the train (why are they stern? is he a lawyer? where does he live?...and to think people wonder about me, too!) to looking across the street to see a neighbor whom you've never met and being able to recount his routine (take dog out while not wearing shoes (socks only!), have cab take you to the grocery store, smoke while sitting on the fence, spend hours toiling on the computer), we are intertwined more than we know.

in addition to connectivity (i'll spare the commentary about isolation, which is also present throughout the novel), mr. dalloway, clarissa's politically involved husband, states, "[...] it is a thousand pities never to say what one feels," which i found to be such a poignant thought. it is a pity. truly. there are so many things in life that go unsaid (i know! i'm the queen of hoarding my thoughts). how would this world be different if we told how we feel? better? worse? will we ever know?

and just as random as mrs. dalloway is, so is this blog. goodnight.