Ever have a reading epiphany?? The first ten pages of Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolfe) blew me away!

[HamdenRice]

Not because of the content, but because of the technique. I'm in the middle of writing something, using a "voice" called "free indirect discourse." It gets really difficult at times, and I often wonder, "can I do that?" I had read that the technique was substantially advanced in English literature by Woolfe (having apparently been used in French and Russian literature before her and Joyce).

Anyway, it's like having worked on a hard math problem for a year and then being shown an entire blackboard of the most elegantly worked out solutions you've ever seen.

Because of what I'm reading her for (technique more than content), it doesn't really matter what the story is about; it's they way she is telling it. It's among the most beautiful, audacious, and accomplished prose I've ever read.

I now understand why Woolfe was considered to be such a genius.

Anyone else ever read Mrs. Dalloway? Anyone else ever have an epiphany from reading -- especially a style/technique epiphany?

[japple]

1. I have had the same kind of experience. Last time it happened

was when I was reading Charles Frazier's COLD MOUNTAIN. I struggled through the first 20 pages or so, then I got into the author's groove and it was beautiful. It happens, usually, when I read anything by Toni Morrison, and until I can catch the rhythm, all I'm reading is words.

Is this what you're talking about?

[mnhtnbb]

2. I couldn't finish COLD MOUNTAIN and Toni Morrison leaves me cold.

Get on with the story! I have a terrible time with writers who can't progress the plot
without loading you down with details of every little thing.

Is that what you're talking about?

[japple]

6. Different strokes for different folks. I happen to love descriptive

passages. I don't think Toni Morrison's writing is overly detailed. What she writes is very much necessary to the story she's telling. And I love the rhythm of her writing.

Sorry you don't like her work, but I'm sure you can find plenty of good books to read without torturing yourself. If you like action and lots of dialogue, there's lots to choose from.

[japple]

9. On the other hand, I also enjoy reading Cormac McCarthy's

writing, which is very spare.

[Mira]

4. How interesting, I was tpying ToniMorrison at the same time you were n/t

[Mira]

3. I am not a writer, (but I know what I like LOL) and it happened to me once

in the way you are describing.
It's the first page of Toni Morrison's "Jazz".
On that page, a short one at that, she synopsizes a lifetime of experience in a few sentences.
I have always thought of that as the most perfect page of writing I have ever run across.

[NRaleighLiberal]

5. Yes, great book..have you read Michael Cunningham's The Hours? Brilliant book - and film

[mnhtnbb]

8. Loved the book.

[smoogatz]

7. You're right about Ms. Dalloway--pure genius.

It's the prose and the crazy, floating POV. Parts of The Great Gatsby strike me that way, too--the business of the shirts, especially.

[bottomtheweaver]

10. Ironic that you chose that word since it was Joyce's

and Mrs Dalloway is Woolf's ladylike upper-crust London version of Joyce's Ulysses. But it's still pretty good, especially that style you're talking about, even if she did lift it from JJ.

p.s. good luck on your writing project and please tell us more about it!

[Hamlette]

11. happened to me while reading Lolita. Writing so good it took my breath away.

[Jim__]

12. "The play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king"

We read Hamlet when I was a junior in high school. We had a very good literature teacher and I'm sure that it was at least partly due to him that this resonated with me.

At the time, I enjoyed literature. But, I really didn't understand what made it important. Hamlet recites the subject line after talking to "the players" about the putting on the play, "The Murder of Gonzago." Hamlet has changed some lines in the play, and by observing the king during the recitation of these lines, he'll know whether the ghost that has been appearing to him is telling him the truth.

Using a play to validate your real-world experience. I saw literature in a different light after that.