MJ's Challenge ~ The Voyage Out

[Ribh]

I've just finished chapter 4. Interesting ending!

How much of irony do you detect in that final scene? It may just be me of course. Woolfe has all my cynicism antenna on high alert.

 

[MaryJanet]

How much of irony do you detect in that final scene? It may just be me of course. Woolfe has all my cynicism antenna on high alert.

I took it at face value, but maybe you have a point. Hmmm, do Helen and Pepper genuinely hold those views? I think so because VW is still constructing characters.

But maybe I've missed the point?

 

[Ribh]

I think it's me. Dalloway makes a pass~ & a clumsy one @ that~ & the next thing there are battleships on the horizon & then we get this comment! : that as for dying on a battlefield, surely it was time we ceased to praise courage⁠—“or to write bad poetry about it,” snarled Pepper.

Ah well, they could as easily be talking about love as war.

 

[RoyalChick]

I think it's me. Dalloway makes a pass~ & a clumsy one @ that~ & the next thing there are battleships on the horizon & then we get this comment! : that as for dying on a battlefield, surely it was time we ceased to praise courage⁠—“or to write bad poetry about it,” snarled Pepper.

Ah well, they could as easily be talking about love as war.

They are a pretentious lot. But I think that is the point.

 

[MaryJanet]

I think it's me. Dalloway makes a pass~ & a clumsy one @ that~ & the next thing there are battleships on the horizon & then we get this comment! : that as for dying on a battlefield, surely it was time we ceased to praise courage⁠—“or to write bad poetry about it,” snarled Pepper.

Ah well, they could as easily be talking about love as war.

Ah! I see what you mean. I was thinking only of the dining table. But, yes I noticed a lot of metaphor in the lead up to the dining table. The sadness placed upon the water. I took the battleships to represent Dalloway and his England. Whereas the women are to have sadness placed upon them both by the state and by its actors.

 

[MaryJanet]

They are a pretentious lot. But I think that is the point.

They're painfully pretentious.

I like Grice!

 

[Ribh]

They are a pretentious lot. But I think that is the point.

Definitely.

 

[Ribh]

They're painfully pretentious.

I like Grice!

Yes. He was interesting ~ but I do like that Mrs Dalloway, falsely or no, is able to express interest in such diverse things as Greek & funny fish in glass jars. That's quite a talent she has there.

 

[RoyalChick]

Yes. He was interesting ~ but I do like that Mrs Dalloway, falsely or no, is able to express interest in such diverse things as Greek & funny fish in glass jars. That's quite a talent she has there.

It is an extrovert talent.

 

[RoyalChick]

Did one of you say earlier that this was heavily edited? I am wondering if some of what I am observing might be the result if that or is part of the writing style.
I just finished chapter VI and it has been revealed where they are going (I think that you may have already known that). But the manner in which I learn where they are going is like I would learn if I walked into a room where it happened to be being discussed rather than in a literary or ‘plot’ oriented way. It is as if I was supposed to have known all along.