Passionate. Melancholy. Women loving women. These are just a few simple words to describe this novel of mastery.
I haven't ever shy'd away from saying I'm not an Austen lover. I fear my dark and twisty brain steers more towards the women who were deemed "depressive" group of Woolf, Plath, and even Bronte. Virginia's writing is plump with lyricalism as we follow this women's train of thought. It is text book on how to write a stream of consciousness. It flows likes the waves (kinda hyped to read The Waves now) of a soft ocean and yet the words are as sharp as a shell you may accidentally cut your foot on.
The very blatant writing of Female rage was so interesting to read, especially as she went through the years prior and discusses the demands and expectations put on women for each time of history.
"Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size."
As I was listening to this (there's a free audiobook on Youtube) describe a woman sitting in her room, with her papers about her, books on the shelves. A safe haven to write the words she didn't yet have structure for, and without a man to entertain, it made me think of this modern day switch we have been doing to fulfill the happiness of our inner child.
My husband is heavily into Pokémon cards and I'm journalling like a child again. Friendship bracelets, cute little handbag plushies. It's so pleasant to see people not shy away from things that just make them happy and an escape, of sorts. The Era's tour and Daisy Chain Festival, it's womanhood. It's so nice modern day adults are no longer hiding their little indulgences. Women were told to be demure and quiet, grow up. I say we get messy like a kid and just find fun again.
"Anything may happen when womanhood has ceased to be a protected occupation."
This is obviously a book of white privilege and written through a lense of a woman who had that. If anything it makes me want to seek out books written by women of color about those years. I imagine it would be night and day. The reason I mention all of this is because it makes a book hard to score. I don't want to look past the privilege of 1) writing about your life when you don't have to do intese labor in a bid to pay for food that week, or worse. Or 2) slurs. Things like that will always pull me out of a story. It is of it's time, but not forgivable.
I saw myself in Woolf in a lot of ways. I love her art and I can appreciate her openness about mental health struggles. "She was wrong for longing" is from a passage in Jane Eyre and it resonated me. I think that perfectly describes the women of this era who were classified as "manic".
This is for sure a book to annotate and peek into every now and again to be sucked into a beautiful talk about the power women can hold.
- Anne.
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