The F-word discussion

Happy June everyone! This month The F-Word book club will be reading A Room of One's Own .

From GoodReads: A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf. First published on the 24th of October, 1929, the essay was based on a series of lectures she delivered at Newnham College and Girton College, two women's colleges at Cambridge University in October 1928. While this extended essay in fact employs a fictional narrator and narrative to explore women both as writers of and characters in fiction, the manuscript for the delivery of the series of lectures, titled Women and Fiction, and hence the essay, are considered nonfiction. The essay is seen as a feminist text, and is noted in its argument for both a literal and figural space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by patriarchy.

Since many of us are still in some form of quarantine due to COVID I have pulled the link for this title on a few platforms. Audible carries the title and there are a few different narrators to chose from:

https://www.audible.com/pd/A-Room-of-...

My library also carries this as both an audio-book as an e-book. You can check to see if your library has the rights to a copy.
https://www.overdrive.com/search?q=A%...

I was also able to pick up a physical copy of the book from my local library, so definitely reach out to your to see if your library has crubside pick up!

If you would rather own a copy and support your local indie book store you can use the below link to see about shopping for in online
https://www.indiebound.org/search/boo...

I'm so excited to read this! I feel like i'm known about this book forever, but I've never read anything by Virginia Woolf. I will also admit that between the pandemic and the brutality of the police against black American citizens, I'm feeling pretty distressed, angry, and sad. I am grateful to have a slim book to carry around with me for when I need a 15 minute break from everything that is happening.

Does anyone have their copy yet?

I would like to acknowledge that the brutal murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahumaud Arbery has greatly shifted many peoples attention to the issue of systematic violence against black citizens. I believe it would be time well spent if we all took the month of June to read a black author who writes about their lived experience, the historical context of oppression, combating racism, etc., etc. Really, any non-fiction book that you may have on your book shelf or on your "to be read" list that you believe is appropriate to this moment we are experiencing.
We could then come to the book discussion thread to share things we are reading about or have learned to better educate one another and have a space to process.
I'll put a poll together and will either change the book discussion thread or we can continue with A Room Of One's Own. Please feel free to post (or directly message me) any questions or comments!

Hello, I have just joined the group! I'm not really a big non-fiction reader but like Honore I have been meaning to read Virginia Woolf for a long time but never actually gotten around to it. I'm not sure my current brain is up to reading an essay right now but if anyone has any suggestions on the best place to start with Woolf's fiction I'd love to hear your recommendations.

I like your idea of reading the lived experience of a black author Honore and would like to suggest Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward. It seems fitting considering current events and is available on Scribd as an ebook and audio (if you haven't used Scribd before you should be able to get a free trial)

I really enjoyed A Room of One's Own, I was surprised at how much I liked it because the blurb didn't appeal to me. But, it is one of those necessary feminist readings, so I read it. I noted a few of the more memorable sections from my reading and will post them here.
Chapter 2:
Possibly when the professor insisted a little too emphatically upon the inferiority of women, he was concerned not with their inferiority, but with his own superiority.
Right?

No force in the world can take from me my five hundred pounds. Food, house and clothing are mine for ever. Therefore not merely do effort and labour cease, but also hatred and bitterness. I need not hate any man; he cannot hurt me. I need not flatter any man; he has nothing to give me.
Pretty much right off of the bat she acknowledges how money makes all the difference in a woman's quality of life. She acknowledges that her money and her status afford her the freedoms that so many other women don't have. And her argument, essentially, is that we all need financial security as part of the foundation to living our own/best lives.

@ Hannah, The only other Woolf's I've read are Orlando and Night and Day, and they were both quite strange. I'm chuckling just trying to think about them. She was a clever writer and I don't think her works are meant to be read just one time.

It also looks like our first non-fiction from the polls will be Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge, I think it's important to read books like this all the time and taking this opportunity to open up dialogue is a fantastic idea Honore. I think The F-Word will be able to discuss and learn a lot by reading this together.

I read Orlando ages ago and it was very strange and beautiful. The writing is lovely but requires you to really focus - it's not an easy or relaxing read by any means but it is rewarding.

I haven't read A Room of One's Own yet, which surprises me because it is a feminist classic, so I'm quite looking forward to it. Seems to me like it would be best to let any discussion of A Room of One's Own continue in this thread, and start a new thread for discussing books about racism?

Anita, I like your idea of dropping the memorable quotes in the thread, I'll do that too!

I'm very happy to read out scheduled book, just wanted to be sensitive to everything that is going on in the world and how people are feeling. Happy to hear that we will be reading "Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race" by Reni Eddo-Lodge soon!

Honore wrote: "I'm very happy to read out scheduled book, just wanted to be sensitive to everything that is going on in the world and how people are feeling. Happy to hear that we will be reading "Why I'm No Long..."

Absolutely. In fact, members may want to check the wait times at their library and place this one on hold now or soon. Something to keep in mind. There is an estimated 7 week wait at my library for this ebook.

Chapter three:

Indeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.

So what really struck me about this famous quote is the context. I've always taken this to mean that women haven't gotten, nor taken, credit for their work because women couldn't publish or women couldn't successfully publish. Within this period, though, Woolf argues that women wanted to publish anonymously because they could get paid without having to deal with harrassment, pretty much.

Thanks for the recommendations, Orlando does sound really interesting.

I've read Reni Eddo-Lodge and it is very good and certainly fitting for the times; I'll give it a re-read so I can discuss it with you.

Anita's quotes have inspired me to take a shot at A Room of One's Own as well. My brain is quite fuzzy at the minute due to health problems but I can access the audiobook and I'm sure I'll get something out of it even if some of it goes over my head

Anita wrote: "Within this period, though, Woolf argues that women wanted to publish anonymously because they could get paid without having to deal with harrassment, pretty much."

Does she talk about the Brontes much? I seem to remember reading that when the rumour first went around that Jane Eyre was written by a woman critics didn't know what to think about it. If it was written by a man, it was a masterpiece, but if it was written by a woman it was a scandal.

Nick wrote: "Anita wrote: "Within this period, though, Woolf argues that women wanted to publish anonymously because they could get paid without having to deal with harrassment, pretty much."

Does she talk abo..."

Woolf does talk about the Brontë writers in this book. On page 73 she writes about how a writers gender might affect their writing...
"Now in the passages I have quoted from Jane Eyre, it is clear that anger was tampering with the integrity of Charlotte Brontë the novelist. She left her story, to which her entire devotion was due, to attend to some personal grievance. She remembered that she has been starved of her proper due of experience- she had been made to stagnate in a parsonage mending stockings when she wanted to wander free over the world.

I think earlier in the book she gives her opinion that one (sorry i've never read any Brontë books, so these details are fuzzy to me) of the Brontë women was a great writer, but that at the time women were only able to write poetry and novels in secret, and that this woman would have been better served as a writer that traveled and reported on the world.

Thank you Honore, I couldn't remember specifically myself.

Hannah wrote: "Thanks for the recommendations, Orlando does sound really interesting.

I've read Reni Eddo-Lodge and it is very good and certainly fitting for the times; I'll give ..."

I do hope you enjoy it and get anything from it. Im reminded that this is a book for writers, and even though I am not one, I enjoyed it immensely. Also wishing you a speedy recovery!

Another Chapter 3 quote:
Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.

I can't decide if this is an ode to the emotional nature of artists, or a side-eye at how 'passionate' men are viewed as artists while 'hysterical' women are viewed as a public menace. Or maybe an observation that strong emotional responses invoke great works of art - that passion is a muse?

I think it is probably an acknowledgement of the emotional nature of artists, because Woolf wasn't the only person saying it. John Keats died of tuberculosis but it was widely said in his own time that a bad review of his poetry was so painful to him that it dealt the fateful blow. Byron wrote:

John Keats, who was killed off by one critique,
Just as he really promised something great,
If not intelligible, – without Greek
Contrived to talk about the Gods of late,
Much as they might have been supposed to speak.
Poor fellow! His was an untoward fate: –
‘Tis strange the mind, that very fiery particle,
Should let itself be snuffed out by an Article.

What a treat! Thank you for sharing that with us Nick, it's delightful. Though, obviously not the subject matter, but the fact that Lord Byron wrote a poem about it. I do wonder how Keats' critic must have reacted to that!

Some thoughts at the end of Chapter One:

Woolf has such a way with words! I don't often read essays that have so much poetry and lush imagery in them!

I am giving myself whiplash, going back and forth on the issue of class in Woolf's work.

I can see why some people complain that she's a bit of a whiny snob! One the one hand, I agree that prunes and custard sounds disgusting! I agree with her that:

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.

But on the other hand, there are moments where she says things like:

Happily my friend, who taught science, had a cupboard where there was a squat bottle and little glasses - (But there should have been sole and partridge to begin with) - so that we were able to draw up to the fire and repair some of the damages of the day's living.

And I think, 'Good grief, Woolf, shut up about the partridge! Partridge is not a necessity for a good chat, beef is plenty good enough and there's many who would be glad to have it!' [It seems when I read early 20th century English, then I start thinking in that vernacular too! :D ]

But on the other hand, I think that criticising women in the gentry for caring about their issues does a disservice to all women in the long run. If women in the intelligensia didn't fight to get into universities until the problem of poverty had been solved, then the only consequence, even today, would be no women in universities. It's just whataboutery.

Incidentally, I think Woolf is half-wrong anyway. It was that squat bottle that made up for the bad meal and brought back the spirit of conviviality. I bet the mellow geniality of her lunch was more due to the wine glasses had flushed yellow and flushed crimson than the sole and partridge. A little bit of sociable drinking is the best stimulant to conversation and can be done quite cheaply!

The other thing that struck me was: For, to endow a college would necessitate the suppression of families altogether. This struck me as very prescient! It's one of the main arguments I hear today against feminism that the entry of women into the workplace is part of the reason for the below replacement fertility rates in Western countries and it's a big problem. We still haven't found a satisfying way to reconcile work and motherhood.

Anita wrote: "Possibly when the professor insisted a little too emphatically upon the inferiority of women, he was concerned not with their inferiority, but with his own superiority.
Right?"

I think Woolf really hits on something here. She says it again later in a wonderfully quotable way:

Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.

I'm inclined to also put it down to sexual frustration. Woolf was writing in 1929 so she probably couldn't say it then (or perhaps it was different then), but it does seem to me that a lot of woman-hating is projection from men who actually hate their own lack of control over their desires, who hate their emotional dependency on others. Especially from 'Professors' in a time when the academy was more like a monastery, women are a terrible distraction - how dare they!

Woolf: Of the two - the vote and the money - the money, I own, seemed infinitely the more important.
I'm inclined to agree with this too! In the same way that I'm extremely jaded about politics now, because politicians seem like mere actors, politics is kabuki theatre, and voting doesn't change much.

Woolf:No force in the world can take from me my five hundred pounds. Food, house and clothing are mine forever.
This seems like an astonishing thing to say when the poison weapons of WWI had rendered the battlefields of Europe impossible for farmers to return to, and inflation had destroyed the live savings and wealth of the German people. Woolf seems to be taking civilisation too much for granted.

Woolf: Moreover, in a hundred years, I thought, reaching my own doorstep, women will have ceased to be the protected sex. [...] The nursemaid will heave coal.
This prediction flopped!

I am strongly resenting Woolf's suggestion that Bronte is a greater genius than Austen.

Team Austen forever!

It's always interesting to me to glean the troubles ofa time from their writings. Clearly food was a top priority - if even rights came second to a regularly full belly. I absolutely shy away from forming teams around Austen or the Brontes! (Ok, I've only read 2 of the Brontes, and many Austens, but even then not in a great while... something I need to rectify). I'm also lol'ing at how reading a book changes your own tone in writing. Guilty as well.

Nick wrote: "But on the other hand, I think that criticising women in the gentry for caring about their issues does a disservice to all women in the long run. If women in the intelligensia didn't fight to get into universities until the problem of poverty had been solved, then the only consequence, even today, would be no women in universities. It's just whataboutery..."

The vicious cycle of feminist debate - which issues matter right now, and to who? Answer - all of them, and to everyone - eventually.

Chapter Four:
Where shall I find that elaborate study of psychology of women by a woman?

I can faithfully attest that once one starts looking for books by women about specific topics, reading habits change for life. There's no better way to educate one's self than to read a variety of books from a variety of authors all around the globe, and through another group I have read so many excellent non-fictions by women that are normally overwhelmed by number of male authors in the field of science or health (and many other topics that aren't necessarily 'female-centric', like the author's memoirs and biographies or books about cooking, family, health, and exercise - though I do read some of those sometimes too). In fact, I will link a few, but I have plenty on my shelves if anyone cares to look:

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
When Books Went to War: The Stories that Helped Us Win World War II
Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply
Who Cooked the Last Supper?: The Women's History of the World
At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance--A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power
Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook

lots of histories and science going on there.

Ooooh, book recommendations! Thank you! My TBR list must be thousands of books long by now, but I take such pleasure in adding to it.

That part in chapter 4 really struck me - when Woolf wished for more books by women about women, I had a very happy little daydream in which I travelled back in time to give her one of my favourites: The Gentleman's Daughter: Women's Lives in Georgian England which completely changed my idea of what it was like to be a woman 300 years ago.

Thinking about how many excellent books by women I can lay my hands on immediately really did make me feel very grateful for how lucky I am to be alive in this time.

That book sounds fun! Added and thank you! (I like that it's pretty clearly stated that it is a look at the gentry which makes me hopeful that there will be looks at class differences for the time? I bet they led astoundingly different lives!)

This was the final highlight I saved from my read, from Chapter 6:
Like most uneducated Englishwomen, I like reading - I like reading books in the bulk... Therefore I would ask you to write all kinds of books, hesitating at no subject however trivial or vast. By hook or by crook...

and this is still true. I love reading women's voices. I'm very impressed to see the diversity of our upcoming book club reads - and they're all written by women, plus 2 are translated!

Anita wrote: "(I like that it's pretty clearly stated that it is a look at the gentry which makes me hopeful that there will be looks at class differences for the time? I bet they led astoundingly different lives!"
It's very closely focused on the women of five gentry families - largely because they left copious letters which allowed a detailed and clear picture to be built up in their own words. So it does address class differences, but mostly from the perspective of those gentry women.
But it did change my perspective on class - before this book I tended to think of 'the past' as being a bit like Downton Abbey. But before the Victorian era servants had a lot more autonomy and plenty of options, or so it seems if we believe these ladies!