The Sufferings of a Creative Genius

"His apartment is, as always, dim and close, overheated, full of the sage and juniper incense Richard burns to cover the smell of illness. It is unbearably cluttered, inhabited here and there by a wane circle of pulverized non-dark emanating from the brown-shaded lamps in which Richard will tolerate no bulb more powerful than fifteen watts" (56). The squalid tenement apartment, the decaying chair, and even the neighborhood where Richard lives represents the physical and mental deterioration that Richard is undergoing. His apartment is cluttered and stuffy, which is a symbol that he has given up on day-to-day living. It is also in sharp contrast to the spacious lovely environment that Clarissa lives in. When she visits Richard, she is bothered by the rotting essence of the chair. It is almost like it is a corpse. Cunningham beautifully describes its decay in the following words: "The chair smells fetid and deeply damp, unclean; its smells of irreversible rot" (59). Clarissa thinks that Richard should get rid of the chair, but he refuses to. As long as he has the chair, Richard will hope that he can get better.

Later in the novel, Richard does not want to attend Clarissa's party. He feels that his experimental novels have only been marginally successful, so he believes that people only want to honor him out of pity. He knows that he is not getting any better and knows that his impending death will keep him from writing. He feels cheated because he has not accomplished what he wanted to. Clarissa pities him because she knows if he had gotten the proper anti-viral medicine, the HIV virus would not have spread to his central nervous system and not caused dementia. She thinks about their friend Walter Hardy whose lover, Evan, has responded well to the anti-viral medications.

Richard's despair keeps him from enjoying simple pleasures like the coffee machine Clarissa once gave him. "Here is the Italian coffee maker she bought for him, all chrome and black steel, beginning to join the general aspect of dusty disuse" (57). Clarissa tries to change his attitude by opening up the shade where he is sitting, but the sight out the window is pretty grim and when she turns around and looks at his face she feels that he is close to death and he has given up all hope.

When Clarissa goes to get Richard ready for the party, she finds him sitting on the edge of the windowsill. Richard's emanciated body looks like a scarecrow and tells her that he cannot face the party or life anymore. Inside, the chair sits empty and exposed. She tries to convince him that he still has a lot to live for, but he tells her that he is so sick and has felt death for a long time. Richard says: "I have felt it for some time now, closing around me like the jaws of a gigantic flower" (198). He then tells her that he has failed in his work by never creating anything beautiful. This is similar to what Virginia Woolf thinks earlier in prologue of the novel: "She herself has failed. She is not a writer at all, really; she is merely a gifted eccentric" (4). After Richard tells Clarissa that he loves her, he commits suicide.

After Richard's suicide, Clarissa feels guilty that she pressured him for trying to be part of her ordinary life. She feels that she should never have asked him to come to her party and speak to her guests. She wishes she could tell him how courageous he has been for loving her as long as he has. She also realizes that she is lucky because she did not have to face the demons of Richard's illness. I have always found it interesting that gifted people often have to suffer so much and die before they should, such as Mozart, Van Gogh, Keats, and Woolf.

The Effects of Imperialism

A Passage to India is a realistic documentation of the attitudes of British colonial society in India during the days of the British Empire. The novel characterizes the attitudes the English had towards the Indians. For example, Mrs. Turton, the wife of the collector, the man who governs Chandrapore is overwhelmingly self-righteous, rude, and racist. She and the other Anglo-Indian women ignore the natives who have been invited to the Bridge Party in Chapter Five. When Mrs. Moore asks Mrs. Turton who they are, she replies: "You're superior to them, anyway. Don't forget that. You're superior to everyone in India except one or two of the Ranis, and they're on an equality" (42). Later in the novel, Mrs. Turton is horrible to Adela when Adela proclaims Aziz's innocence. Mrs. Turton is enraged by Aziz's release and screams insults at Adela. Like the other English, Mrs. Turton wants vengenance.

The novel also explores the rights and wrongs of British India emphasizing the way the native Indian population is oppressed by the British colonials. Insensitivity of the English generates unease, mistrust, and a sense of inferiority in the Indians. According to Forster, the Anglo-Indian relationships failed because the colonial rejects everything and everyone Indian. The colonizer refuses to interact with the colonized in order to retain their superiority. Even when they try to interact with the natives like at the Bridge Party, it does not work and the event is considered to be a failure.

Forster also focuses on the typical British perspective of the right to rule India when he focuses on relationships. He challenges the idea that the coloniser is privileged over that of the colonised. The British colonial, such as Turton, believes that it is his duty to control colonised people by having them conform in a specific way. It is the expectation of conformity that contributes to the struggle that Fielding and Aziz have over forming a cross-cultural relationship. By the end of the novel, Fielding conforms to being a typical Anglo-Indian and Aziz like many others in India detest everything British.

It is Aziz who realizes that this type of relationship will only happen when India becomes an independent nation. The traditions of British colonial control prevent equality. Aziz states this towards the end of the novel when he says: "we shall drive every blasted Englishman into the sea, and then...you and I will be friends" (361-62). Ultimately, Forster gives the reader the impression that maybe someday in the future when India is free of colonial rule, the British and the Indians might develop an understanding of each other's cultures. A day will come when they can become friends.

The Aftermath of The Dreadnought Hoax

Adrian Stephens vividly described a caper perpetrated by some of his Cambridge friends and his sister Virginia in his essay "The Dreadnought Hoax." It was as an elaborate hoax as any of the pranks pulled by Frank Abagnale Jr. in the movie "Catch Me If You Can." In 1910, Anthony Buxton, Guy Ridely, Duncan Grant, and Virginia Woolf imitated foreign diplomats from Abyssinia by dressing up in elaborate Eastern robes, mustaches, false beards, and blackened faces. Horace Cole and Stephens attempted to look like British foreign office officials. Cole and Stephens learned some Swahili to convince the Admiralty that they were real interpreters. They got so involved in their roles that they almost forgot it was a hoax. Stephens wrote: "We were almost acting the truth. Everyone was expecting us to act as the emperor and his suite, and it would have been extremely difficult not to" (35). This group duped the Royal Navy into letting them inspect the H.M.S. Dreadnought, one of Britain's most important warships. They were shown secret areas of the ship and were even able to fool one of the officers on the ship who knew Virginia and Horace Cole, yet did not recognize them.

The group's secret was revealed when someone leaked a photo and sent a letter into the newspaper, Daily Mirror. The ruse proved to be an embarrassment to the Royal Navy and the Foreign Office because Cole and his friends were known pacifists. The Navy became an object of ridicule, because many thought the sailors were stupid to be duped by Cole and his friends in the first place. The Royal Navy tried to retaliate by having Cole arrested, but Cole and his friends had not broken any laws. Then the Navy sent two officers to cane Cole, but Cole jested that the Navy officers should be caned instead because they were the fools. He was finally given six taps on his hindquarters and six ceremonial taps were given by him in return. One positive outcome of the incident was that security was tightened on the British naval ships after the incident. In fact, when the real Emperor of Ethiopia, Menelik II visited England, he requested to see the Royal Navy ships. His request was denied by a senior Admiralty officer to avoid further embarrassment.

To Cole, Stephens, and other members of the Bloomsbury group, the H.M.S. Dreadnought, was a symbol of British imperialism which they felt England should be renouncing. It was a reminder of the past - the Victorian Age. Most of the Bloomsbury Group were against war of any kind, yet Stephens did acknowledge that he did not want to demean the bravery of the naval officers. He stated: "Bravery is as much a matter of professional pride to them as is the quality of his potatoes to a greengrocer" (43). This seemed to be his way of apologizing for his part in the hoax.

The Struggle of the Artist

Clive Bell states: "For works of art, unlike roses, are the creations and expressions of conscious minds" (103). Roses are perfect creations and beautiful in themselves. Both Bell and Roger Fry believe that art is more than a perfect beautiful creation. In their view, art is both imaginative and emotional. As a defender of abstract art, Bell's philosophy is that the aesthetic qualities in an object evoke emotion. Art then is not just an intellectual endeavor of the artist. In striving to create a new form, the artist of the modern era often breaks away from traditional forms which may shock the sensibilities of the viewing public. The modern artist is searching for a form that expresses truth.

Bell explains that a work of art is the result of several factors, which include an intense sensibility, a creative impulse, and an artistic problem. First, the artist is put into a situation where he/she feels the need to express himself/herself. Sometimes this only lasts for a short period of time because during the creative impulse phase, the artist's inspiration can grow cold as he/she is executing or constructing the piece. What starts as a passion does not necessarily maintain itself throughout the creative process.

Bell defines the artistic problem as making a match between the emotional experience and a form that has yet to be created. Bell calls this the "significant form." The artist needs more than desire to develop a form that will fit the experience. Bell emphasizes that the great artists of the past such as Shakespeare or Picasso perfected a form which speaks to the depth of the human soul. Their creations appeal to the aesthetic emotions of the viewer and reader. It is a strong emotion almost like a religious experience. What inspires artistic experience and what an artist compresses into their art is an intense feeling for the object itself.

Bell concludes his essay by saying that an "artist must submit his creative impulse to the conditions of the problem" (106). He is saying that an artist must set himself/herself to create a particular form. Artists and writers struggle to find that significant form to fit the creative ideas they are trying to express. Bell also emphasizes that aesthetic value of the art work has nothing to do with whether it is an accurate representation of something. It is somewhat difficult though to apply Bell's theory to the great art work of the past, such as the paintings of the Impressionistic era. Did they also not have something valuable to express?

Virginia Woolf's "An Unwritten Novel"

Woolf's "An Unwritten Novel"

The spirit of free thought and intellect is encouraged by members of the Bloomsbury Group. Woolf, a member of the group is encouraged to develop her independence. She eventually uses novel ways to express her vision of the modern world. For example, in her short story, "An Unwritten Novel," Woolf experiments with style and form which she later uses in her novels Jacob's Room (1922) and Mrs. Dalloway (1925).

In "An Unwritten Novel, a parody, Woolf makes fun of the contrived plots the narrator fantasizes about. For example, the narrator renames the old woman on the train, Minnie Marsh. She envisions Minnie as a spinster, but in actuality she is a mother. This is symbolic because the narrator is a mother also - the creator of stories - "the unborn children of the mind." The narrator then is the creator and ruler of the fictional world. In fact, she is a writer of the type of fiction that Woolf did not admire. Her fantasies are absurdly melodramatic and disconnected from reality.

As a writer, Woolf is more concerned with the process of the story and the artist's response to the external world through the creation of a fictional world. In this short story, as the narrator continues to daydream, her thoughts become more chaotic, which is a sense of her unrestrained imagination. Woolf's feelings about art was that it should be imaginative and intellectual, not emotional. She wants to express truth by searching for a form of literature that breaks traditional rules. One of the patterns that she breaks is that she does not use conventional order of action.

"An Unwritten Novel" dramatizes the problem of writing and how difficult it is to close the gap between the narrator and the woman she is describing. Are the narrator's daydreams reflective of her own emptiness?

Bibliography

Bishop, Edward. Virginia Woolf. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991.

Farjarod-Acosta, Fidel. "An Unwritten Novel." World Literature Website. 8 Sept. 2009.

<http://fajarodacosta.com/world/lit/woolf>.

Gorsky, Susan Rubinow. Virginia Woolf: Revised Edition. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1989.

Marcus, Jane. Virginia Woolf and the Languages of Patriarchy. Indianapolis: Indiana

University Press, 1987.

Sellei, Nora. "The Snail and the Times: Three Stories 'Dancing in Unity.'"

Short Story Criticism. Vol. 79. New York: Thompson Gale, 2005.

Woolf, Virginia. "An Unwritten Novel." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. 8 Sept. 2009.

http://www.bartleby.com/85/4.html.

Woolf, Virginia. "Modern Fiction." Norton Anthology: English Literature.

Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: Norton, 2006.

Who is the real Virginia Woolf? - Forster's Views

Virginia Woolf was a woman of many talents, but writing by far was her passion. She wrote for the sake of writing. In Forster's Rede lecture on the author, he said that Woolf had neither the desire for money nor the desire for reputation nor philanthropy could influence her (206). She enjoyed writing and it was her sense of humor that kept her from tiring of it. She experimented with syle and form and this kept her writing fresh. "Literature was her merry-go-round as well as her study" (207).

Even though she enjoyed the humorous side of life, she was always in control of her writing. She was a perfectionist which sometimes made life difficult for her. For example, her first novel, The Voyage Out, took seven years to complete, but she was always supported by her friends in the Bloomsbury Group, including Forster, whose opinion she valued. It was obvious that Forster was most impressed with her novels Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and the Waves. In his description of these novels, Forster focused on her development of the characters in the novels as well as a sense of poetry in these works.

In her works, particularly her short stories, Woolf allowed her characters to melt into one another. What mattered to her was what happened inside the characters. They were symbolic of the human community - both unique and typical. Woolf's gift was her development of character rather than plot. According to Forster, her characters can be remembered on their own account.

Woolf was an experimenter. Even though she wrote a few conventional novels, she liked to take chances. Forster pointed out that her ideas did not always work out, particularly when she was inspired to write about Feminism. He referred to her Feminism as extreme and said that she was sometimes not really aware how much progress had been made since her support of the Suffragette movement during her youth. He characterized her as a snob, particularly shince she was more attuned to an upper-class upbringing than what people of the Labour class endured.

It was amazing the amount of work Woolf accomplished during her short period of life. It was unfortunate that her mental illness cut her great literary career short. I think that Forster summed her up best with this description: "She is like a plant which is supposed to grow in a well-prepared garden bed - the bed of esoteric literature - and then pushes up suckers all over the place, through the gravel of the front drive, and even through the flagstones of the kitchen yard" (204-5). What is it that fascinates you , the reader about Virginia Woolf?

This is one of my favorite vacation spots. Many people who live in Telluride are free-spirited and creative. The creative arts is important to this town. During the past twenty-three years, I have hiked, fished, and enjoyed the scenery many times. When I am not traveling or going to class, you might find me running on the Trinity Trails.

I am in my last year at TCU and I am majoring in writing and minoring in English. I am presently studying for the GRE and I hope to continue my studies in graduate school. I am also volunteering one day a week at Wedgwood Academy where I am helping some middle-school students with their writing. The director of the school has appointed me as chairman of the First Annual Geography Fair. I am looking forward to this since traveling is one of my favorite pastimes.

I enjoy creative writing, especially writing short stories. I also enjoy reading novels such as the Harry Potter series and I have recently gotten interested in novels written by Lisa See. I am looking forward to participating in the Bloomsbury blog because I think it's a great way to communicate ideas and thoughts about what we are reading and discussing in class.