Learning Paths » 5B Interacting
moments of being
by - (2012-03-24)
Up to 5B - Modernist Fiction. V. Woolf and J. Joyce
Virginia Woolf is recognized as one of the great innovators of modern fiction. Her experiments with point of view have influenced many writers that followed her. But one particularly interesting technique is her use of MOMENTS OF BEING... To wonder why some moments are so powerful and memorable, even if the events themselves are not 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 MOMENTS OD BEING. 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 consciusly aware of, even as she exeperiences them. She knows that people perform routine tasks such as walking and shopping without thinking about them. This part of the life is "not lived consiously", but instead is embedded in "a kind of non-descript cotton wool". It is not the nature of the actions that separates moments of being from moments of non-being.
One activity is not intrinsically more mundane or more extraordinary than the other, instead it is the intensity of feeling, one's consiousness of the experience that separates the two moments. A walk in the country can be 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 dealy life, and that we " i mean all human human beings-are connected with this"; that the whole world is a work of art; that we are part of that 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 fully consious of his experience, a moment when he is not only aware of himself but catches a glimpse of his connection to a larger pattern hidden behind the opaque surface of daily life. Unlike moments of non-being, when the individual lives and acts without awareness performing acts as if asleep, the moments of being opens up a hidden reality
The writer explains even if not explicitly what she means by MOMENTS OD BEING. 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 consciusly aware of, even as she exeperiences them. She knows that people perform routine tasks such as walking and shopping without thinking about them. This part of the life is "not lived consiously", but instead is embedded in "a kind of non-descript cotton wool". It is not the nature of the actions that separates moments of being from moments of non-being.
One activity is not intrinsically more mundane or more extraordinary than the other, instead it is the intensity of feeling, one's consiousness of the experience that separates the two moments. A walk in the country can be 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 dealy life, and that we " i mean all human human beings-are connected with this"; that the whole world is a work of art; that we are part of that 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 fully consious of his experience, a moment when he is not only aware of himself but catches a glimpse of his connection to a larger pattern hidden behind the opaque surface of daily life. Unlike moments of non-being, when the individual lives and acts without awareness performing acts as if asleep, the moments of being opens up a hidden reality