NOTES OF 03.02.12
Virginia Woolf is recognized as one of the great innovations of modern fiction, her experiments with point of view have influenced many writers that follow her. But one particularly interesting technique is her use of MOMENT OF BEING.
...To wonder why some moments are so powerful and memorable even if the events themselves aren't important that they can be vividly recalled while other events are easily forgotten she concludes that there are two kind of experiences, moments of being and moments of nonbeing. The writer explains, even if not explicitly, what she means by MOMENT OF BEING. She provides examples of these moments and contrasts them with moments of what she calls "NON-BEING".
Moments of nonbeing appear to be moments that the individual is not consciously aware of, even as she experiences them. She knows that people perform routines and tasks such as working and shopping without thinking about them. This part of the life is "not-lived consciously", but instead is ... in "a kind of non descript cotton wool. It is not the nature of the actions that separates moments of being from moments of nonbeing.
One activity is not intrinsically more mundane or more extraordinary than the other. Instead, it is the intensity of feelings, one's consciousness of the experience that separates the two moments. A walk in the country can easily be hidden behind the cotton wool for one person, but for Virginia Woolf the experience is very vivid. Virginia Woolf asserts that these moments of being, THESE FLASHES OF AWARENESS, REVEAL A PATTERN HIDDEN BEHIND THE COTTON WOOL OF DAILY LIFE, and that ... "I mean all human-beings are connected with this; that the whole world is a work of art; that we are parts of the work of art". Virginia Woolf says WE ARE THE WORDS; WE ARE THE MUSIC; WE ARE THE THING ITSELF thus for Virginia Woolf a moment of being IS A MOMENT WHEN AN INDIVIDUAL IS FULL CONSCIOUS OF HIS EXPERIENCE, A MOMENT WHEN IS NOT ONLY AWARE OF HIMSELF BUT CATCHES A GLIMSE OF THIS CONNECTION TO A LARGE PATTERN HIDDEN BEHIND THE OPAQUE SURFACE OF DAILY LIFE, UNLIKE MOMENTS OF NONBEING, WHEN THE INDIVIDUAL LIVES AND ACTS WITHOUT AWARENESS, PERFORMING ACTS AS IF ASLEEP, THE MOMENT OF BEING OPENS UP A HIDDEN REALITY.

NOTES OF  6.02.12      CONTINUED...

Moments of being can be found in all Virginia Woolf’s fictions. Example from her novel “Mrs. Dalloway” are to be found especially in the two main characters that are most receptive to moments of being, Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith. Clarissa experiences moments of being while she’s in the middle of what appear to be trivial acts, indicating that it is not the action BUT HER AWARENESS THAT SETS A MOMENT OF BEING APART FROM HER OTHER EXPERIENCES. For example, as Clarissa watches taxi-cabs pass by she finds them “absolutely absorbing”. Her thoughts reveal that “what she loved was this, here, in front of her, the fat lady in the cab…”.

Throughout the day Clarissa is particularly aware OF THESE THREADS OF CONNECTION BETWEEN HERSELF AND HER SURROUNDINGS.

Moments of being are immediate, they often do not allow a character to reflect all assign meaning to them.

The moments of being are marked BY PARTICULARLY VIVID AND POWERFUL LANGUAGE because they are moments of exact feeling THE LANGUAGE USED TO CONVEY THEM MUST NATURALLY BE PRECISE AND EVOCATIVE; THE FORM AND CONTENT MUST BE IN PERFECT SIMMETRY. In her moments of being Virginia Woolf uses A LANGUAGE THAT APPROACHES POETRY.