Virginia Woolf's Orlando - Lecture Three (Chapters V-VI) (Patreon)

'Was not writing poetry a secret transaction, a voice answering a voice?'

We draw to the close of Orlando with heavy hearts. And in today's discussion, we're meditating upon the difficulty of endings, anxiety of modernity, world as projection of the mind, finding one's true self, how to read like Virginia Woolf, and much more.

Timestamps:

• 0:00 the pain at the heart of Orlando
• 1:00 identity crisis & our many selves
• 2:00 why is the end of Orlando difficult?
• 5:00 the difficulty of ending a book
• 7:00 the relationship of Virginia and Vita
• 8:00 ‘Do you exist? Have I made you up?’
• 9:00 the cruelty running through the work
• 11:00 searching for one’s self in the culture
• 12:00 how everything & nothing changes
• 13:00 change comes over England’s climate
• 15:00 on modernism & style over substance
• 16:00 the dampening of men’s minds
• 18:00 the shrinking of the modern world
• 20:00 is endless choice ultimately no choice?
• 24:00 great books as the writer’s self
• 25:00 yielding to the spirit of the age
• 28:00 finding one’s true self in nature
• 29:00 seeking happiness in many ages
• 30:00 Virginia Woolf’s great blanks
• 32:00 anxiety of the spirit of the age
• 34:00 ‘I am myself but a vile link’
• 36:00 national crisis as personal crisis
• 38:00 has been Orlando just been reading?
• 39:00 on waking up to the present moment
• 41:00 Woolf’s anxiety of modernity
• 45:00 is the world a projection of our minds?
• 47:00 feminism as love of reading
• 49:00 Orlando as rewriting of Don Quixote
• 50:00 love as always the love of reading
• 51:00 what do we make of ‘The Oak Tree’?
• 52:00 remaining the same through the changes
• 53:00 the transaction between self and age
• 54:00 how to read like Virginia Woolf
• 55:00 being a writer as part of one’s reading
• 56:00 introducing time to one’s reading
• 57:00 on understanding before judgement
• 58:00 our responsibility as readers
• 59:00 the bond between reader & writer
• 1:00:00 healing at the end of the work
• 1:01:00 the varied reasons why we read
• 1:02:00 Orlando meets her true self
• 1:05:00 ‘a voice answering a voice’
• 1:07:00 what have we learnt from Woolf?
• 1:08:00 on exploring more Virginia Woolf
• 1:10:00 congratulations on reading Orlando

Questions to Consider:

1) How did you find the experience of reading Virginia Woolf?

2) How would you characterise the spirit of our age? What would Orlando be like if it ended today?

3) How would you persuade another to read Orlando? And what advice would you give to facilitate a meaningful reading experience?

And please do share with us your impressions and favourite passages from the ending  of Virginia Woolf's Orlando.

Congratulations on reading Virginia Woolf's Orlando with so much love. Thank you for making this such an incredible experience!