NOTES ABOUT MOMENTS OF BEING

Virginia Woolf is recognized as one of the great innovators of modern fiction. Her experiments with point of view and her use of stream of consciousness have influenced many writers that followed her. But one particularly interesting technique that does not seem to receive much attention is her use of MOMENTS OF BEING, to  wonder why some moments are so powerful and memorable -even if the events themselves are unimportant - that they can be vividly recalled while other events are easily forgotten. She concludes that there are two kinds of experiences: MOMENTS OF BEING and (moments of) NON BEING.

Woolf never explicitly defines what she means by "moments of being". Instead she provides examples of these moments and contrasts them with moments of what she calls "non being". Moments of non being appear to be moments that the individual IS NOT CONSCIOUSLY AWARE OF even as she experiences them. She notes that people perform routines tasks such as walking and shopping without thinking about them. This part of the life IS NOT LIVED CONSCIOUSLY, but instead is embedded in "A KIND OF NONDESCRIPT COTTON WOOL". It is not the nature of the actions that separates moment of being from moments of non being. 

TO RECALL: richiamare alla mente.

TO CALL AGAIN: richiamare (per esempio al telefono).

TO REMIND SOMEBODY TO SOMETHING.