Patti and Virginia

Working my way through Patti Smith's Auguries of Innocence, I discovered one poem, about the invasion of Iraq, which stuck out. Of course "Birds of Iraq" stuck out because Smith uses mythical imagery to tie the invasion of Iraq into the suicide of Virginia Woolf.

I find it amazingly interesting that Smith chose to intertwine the two. Her use of language is plain and straight forward, yet there exists a kind of blue aura over everything. All of her poetry is like this, but I couldn't help focusing on this poem.

This isn't the first time that Patti Smith has used the story of Virigina Woolf. On YouTube, there is a video of Smith reading (with musical accompaniment) from Woolf's The Waves (which is also mentioned in "Birds of Iraq."

Link to Patti Smith reading from The Waves:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UzS0dwuuHg

J.

Odd Timing

Tomorrow is the 70th anniversary of the day that Virginia Woolf took her own life. Tomorrow, my freind Jason's bookstore (where I bought several of my cherrished Virginia Woolf texts and a framed photograph of her) will be closing for the last time, never to reopen. At 3pm, I will be giving a speech on Virginia Woolf. Timing is weird. J.

It occured to me

Reading Mrs. Dalloway on a long car trip over Christmas break, it occurred to me that, even though Virginia Woolf never wrote poetry (as far as I know) she still managed to have the spirit of the poet in everything she did. The single day of this lyrical novel stands locked in my mind as I read another novel in a day, Ulysses by James Joyce. I know that Virginia Woolf read Ulysses, as it was under consideration for publication by the Hogarth Press, and that she detested the novel, and yet I can see the two novels running together, running into one another like two streams joining in a river.

By Means of Introduction

I wish to say that I am here to study Virginia Woolf and her friends. Woolf has interested me since I was in my early teens, when I came across a second-hand volume of Orlando in paperback. Since then, I have pushed my way through the majority of her fictional works (though Orlando remains my favorite), and began researching her life.

I will not lie, I intend, one of these days, to write a biography of Virginia Woolf. I hope, one day, to find something new about her, that no one else has discovered.

Please, take a look around and enjoy. More developments coming soon.

JPC