Dear Bruno,
First of all, thank you SO much for allowing me to switch sections from Friday morning at 9 to Wednesday at 4 — I couldn’t get out of that super important conflict I was telling you about and I just needed to be in your section after hearing that you were a student of philosophy in Germany, a country that I totally have on my list of places I’d like to visit.
This is my first reading response (I’ll get those other four in to you ASAP!). Let me start off by saying, “WOW!” This material is interesting. Who knew that Virginia Woolf could write like that? I certainly didn’t. In my reading response, I would like to focus broadly on the themes of maternity discussed on the dedication page. Woolf writes, “For my mother” (Woolf, pg. ii). Who is this mother that she is dedicating the book to? Does “my mother” mean Woolf’s mother or the mother of humanity? Perhaps she is alluding to some kind of god. While reading her work, I felt very close to God. That could have just been because I’m really passionate about schoolwork.
Next, I would like to respond to the passage from the Bible that you asked us to read. I found this passage particularly riveting. I noticed that there were a lot of words that were used to describe nature. If you are just glancing at the page and not even trying to read it, you can see the word “tree” a total of six times, and it’s probably written even more times if you actually go back and read it.
What kind of tree is this tree that God is talking about? Pine? Oak? Palm? And is God talking? Does God talk? Out loud? Who is talking in this passage? I was confused about that. I’m sure that other members of our class will be confused as well. Maybe we could talk about this in section?
Over the summer, I worked on a research project about the roles of women in literature, television, poetry, social justice, county fairs, contemporary society, Renaissance France, and the Third Reich. I think this relates a lot to our reading for this week, and I’d be happy to talk to our section about it at length on Wednesday.
Virginia Woolf, who is a woman, dedicates her book to her mother, who is also a woman (if we’re thinking in Western gender roles) (Are we?). And if this “mother” is also the mother of humanity, we could even go so far as to say that Woolf envisions the world as a matriarchy. I know this is probably a really controversial position, but I would be happy to speak, again at length, to our section about matriarchy on Wednesday.
The summer before last, I worked on a narrative essay on Western thoughts about Eastern concepts — including, but not limited to, a discussion of 16th century xylophones and their counterparts in Korea. I thought you should know that, because you are from Germany and I could probably tell you about xylophones in Germany if you were interested and wanted to get a latte with me after section.
Lastly, I would like to ask a question about lecture. At one point, the professor turned his head a little and coughed at me. I didn’t know why, so I looked up from the crossword puzzle on my lap and gave him a quizzical look and a little shrug. He continued speaking. I find this teaching style a little aggressive. If you could maybe just talk to him about that, I would really appreciate it.
Side Note: It was super fun seeing you at BAR on Tuesday night. It is totally freaky to see T.A.’s outside the basement rooms of WLH.
I didn’t even know you had legs.
I’m really looking forward to section. I’m sure it will be a really productive discussion. As you can see, I have really engaged with this material. I’m thinking about writing my senior essay on the word “tree” as it appears in the work of Virginia Woolf, Nabokov, Tolstoy and Rowling.
Eli Clark has never slept with a T.A., unlike certain other scene columnists.