MJ's Challenge ~ The Voyage Out

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Mr. Pepper with all his learning had been mistaken for a cormorant...

I'm afraid my first thought when reading this was
"Serves him right. Self important boor"

 

[MaryJanet]

So this week it's Chapter 7?
MJ, if you could post which Chapter we will be reading over the weekend on Friday night/Saturday morning that would be a big help for me.

This weekend I'm going to read chapter 8

 

[MaryJanet]

I'm afraid my first thought when reading this was
"Serves him right. Self important boor"

Yes!! It's such a snobby sort of novel!

 

[RoyalChick]

Hi everyone I'm reading chapter 7 today.

Just wanting to throw a playful thought out. I think VW is writing a painting. What do you think? Different sections of her canvas hold different characters. The frame or border is the Euphrosyne.

I think you might be on to something with this analogy - or at least it triggered for me something I have been struggling to articulate to myself. I think it is a like looking at a very big and very busy painting through a magnifying glass one piece at a time. I don't have any sense of the whole picture. There is for sure no sense of 'story' or 'plot' to hold it together. Them all being on a ship held them together (but only for a short while) but even when confined to the ship I feel we go from one vignette to another. We go super deep in those vignettes (hence the magnifying glass analogy) and get impressions (for me largely not very positive) of the individuals and then we move on to some other vignette.
It is all very puzzling to me!

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

I think you might be on to something with this analogy - or at least it triggered for me something I have been struggling to articulate to myself. I think it is a like looking at a very big and very busy painting through a magnifying glass one piece at a time. I don't have any sense of the whole picture. There is for sure no sense of 'story' or 'plot' to hold it together. Them all being on a ship held them together (but only for a short while) but even when confined to the ship I feel we go from one vignette to another. We go super deep in those vignettes (hence the magnifying glass analogy) and get impressions (for me largely not very positive) of the individuals and then we move on to some other vignette.
It is all very puzzling to me!

I agree. Maybe this is why I have trouble holding on to it. There is no single thread to grasp and follow.

 

[MaryJanet]

I agree. Maybe this is why I have trouble holding on to it. There is no single thread to grasp and follow.

It's a demanding text. It doesn't help it's reader but then at times it borders on poetic and my mind is cariied by her words.

So, sometimes she carries me through her writing, sometimes I need focus and memory.

 

[RoyalChick]

It's a demanding text. It doesn't help it's reader but then at times it borders on poetic and my mind is cariied by her words.

So, sometimes she carries me through her writing, sometimes I need focus and memory.

I agree with that.

 

[MaryJanet]

Hmmm it seems the seasons are Northern hemisphere even though they're in South America. It should be summer in December right?
Maybe I've misunderstood her.

 

[RoyalChick]

Hmmm it seems the seasons are Northern hemisphere even though they're in South America. It should be summer in December right?
Maybe I've misunderstood her.

Is it possible she didn’t know that?

 

[Scrambles83]

Is it possible she didn’t know that?

I think it’s possible she didn’t. Seems she herself only traveled by sea to Spain and Florence so maybe never had given a second thought to the Southern Hemisphere and how the weather could differ.
Not sure though of what kind of research was put into a novel back then other than social interactions or people that you could use in your story.
Sorry for the rambling...