Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid

by Virginia Woolf

The Germans were over this house last night and the night before that. Here they are again. It is a queer experience, lying in the dark and listening to the zoom of a hornet, which may at any moment sting you to death. It is a sound that interrupts cool and consecutive thinking about peace.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Classics, Feminism, Philosophy, World War II, British Literature

105 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1941

About the author

(Adeline) Virginia Woolf was an English novelist and essayist regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.

During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929) with its famous dictum, "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This slim collection (roughly 100 pages) of ten essays by Virgina Woolf, published as part of the "Penguin Great Ideas" series may be the best book I've read in the past ten years. It's also one of the hardest to review. The explanation is straightforward - every time I try, the review just devolves into tired cliches ("shimmering prose", "scintillating wit", "a writer at the height of her powers", anyone?) or fills up with direct quotes from the work itself. Not just skimpy little quotelets either, but huge, copyright-infringing, chunks of text. Pagesfull. I want to share every genius-soaked paragraph with you, and once I start, I just can't stop.

So, how to proceed? Why not implement a little self-restraint by resorting to that tired old device of listing the individual essay titles (easy) and - for a selected few - giving a few brief comments on wherein I think their genius lies (hard).

Well, duh, the genius lies in Virginia, of course. It pains me to acknowledge that, until about 6 months ago, I had this image of VW that was pretty much completely at odds with her warmth, wit, and ability to write prose that sparkles and enchants. (I'm sorry - that sounds so ridiculously pretentiously critspeak, but it's bloody well true. I will try to avoid the words "limpid" and "limn" in this review, if that's any consolation). How could I have been so wrong - she's smart as a whip, she's funny, and writes as if taking dictation from on high. Boy, can this woman write. I really, really, really hope that you will beg, borrow, or steal this collection to experience it for yourself.

So what does she write about here?

1. Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid.
2. Street Haunting.
3. Oxford Street Tide.
4. Craftsmanship.
5. The Art of Biography.
6. How it Strikes a Contemporary.
7. Why?
8. The Patron and the Crocus.
9. Modern Fiction.
10. How Should One Read a Book?

Each of the 9 essays I've read so far has blown me away, either because it contains one or more flashes of pure insight, or because of the incomparable quality of the writing, and - in most cases - some combination of the two. In six pages, the title essay contains some of the sanest observations about war in anything I've read outside of Orwell. The second two essays capture the quotidian pleasures of walking the streets of London with a wit and perspicacity that leaves me slack-jawed in admiration. Essay #4, one of my favorites (together with the final essay, which is simply perfect) is a spellbinding discourse on the slippery charm of words. Essays 6, 8, and 9 contain some of the most cogent remarks about writing that I have ever read. #7 is a hilarious takedown of those who would write or lecture about literature.
But it's the final essay in this book that raises the whole collection to my top 5 books of all time list (there's going to be some ugly rearranging that will have to take place on my "top 20" shelf, and a difficult choice lies ahead).

"How Should One Read a Book?" is where my self-discipline breaks down. This is an essay that demands to be quoted from. In whole chunks. With difficulty, I will confine myself to three:

The only advice, indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusions. ... To admit authorities, however heavily furred and gowned, into our libraries and let them tell us how to read, what to read, what value to place upon what we read, is to destroy the spirit of freedom which is the breath of those sanctuaries. Everywhere else we may be bound by laws and conventions - there we have none.

In your face, Harold Bloom!

Perhaps the quickest way to understand the elements of what a novelist is doing is not to read, but to write; to make your own experiment with the dangers and difficulties of words.

I have sometimes dreamt, at least, that when the Day of Judgment dawns ... the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy, as He sees us coming with our books under our arms: "Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. They have loved reading."

By the time the title essay of this collection was published, Virgina Woolf had already filled her pockets with stones and walked into the river Ouse. I find her suicide enormously saddening, particularly given the brilliance of these essays. Subsequent deaths, such as those of Sylvia Plath and David Foster Wallace, suggests that such brilliance comes at a price.

But the work lives on. You have to read these essays! They are astonishing, in the best possible way.

[Nazin · Rating 3 out of 5]

«بمبی فرو می‌افتد. تمام پنجره‌ها به لرزه می‌افتند. ضدهوایی‌ها به کار می‌افتند... تمام نورافکن‌ها روشن شده. آنها به جایی بالای این سقف اشاره می‌کنند. هر لحظه ممکن است بمبی بر روی این خانه فرو افتد. یک دو سه چهار پنج شش... لحظه‌ها می‌گذرد. بمبی سقوط نکرده، اما در طی آن لحظات تردیدآمیز تمام تفکرات متوقف شده بود. میخی تمام هستی را به یک صفحهٔ سخت کوبیده بود؛ از این رو تمام هیجان ترس و نفرت بی‌ثمر و بی‌حاصل است. به محض اینکه ترس می‌گذرد، ذهن خود را می‌نماید و به صورت غریزی خود را با تلاش برای خلاقیت احیا می‌کند...»

چند دقیقه قبل صدای چند هواپیما اومد و الان که یک لنگه پا، کنار تیر و زیر پود ساختمون، دور از شیشه‌ها و لوستر ایستادم، گوش سپردم به صدای ضدهوایی و این متن رو می‌نویسم! صدای انفجار... دومی و سومیش... اما الان به چی فکر می‌کنم؟ بین این صداهای رعب‌آور و لرزش شیشه‌های پنجره، جز مرگ، جز سایهٔ شوم جنگ، به چه چیزی فکر می‌کنم!؟ بازهم فرصت دارم تا در چنین موقعیتی به خود موقعیت فکر کنم چون جنگ ادامه داره، انفجار ها و مرگ ادامه داره...
فکر کردن به اینکه در زمان عبور جنگنده، درحالی که نمی‌دونم تا چه حد با هدف فاصله دارم و چقدر از این موج انفجار آسیب خواهم دید هم موضوع جالبی هست! اینکه وولف هم در شرایطی مشابه دقیقاً به همین فکر می‌کرده، جالب‌تر.

کتاب رو در درست‌ترین زمان ممکن خوندم! وقتی وولف می‌گفت صدای ضدهوایی میاد، واقعاً صدای ضدهوایی می‌اومد و صدای انفجارهای کتاب با انفجارهایی که از بیرون به گوش می‌رسید مصادف می‌شد (زندگی در خاورمیانه سینمای پنج‌بعدی هست برای خودش!). اما من با توجه به عنوان کتاب حقیقتاً انتظار «اندیشه»¹ داشتم و سراسر کتاب با احساسات رو به رو شدم. نوعی خاطره‌نگاری که روزهای پرتنش حملهٔ هوایی رو برای نویسنده قابل تحمل‌تر کرده بود، شیرین بود، اما «اندیشه در باب صلح» نبود. تمام کتاب مثل یک مقدمهٔ خیلی طولانی برای کتاب دیگری نوشته شده بود که ما رو تشویق می‌کرد به فکر کردن و اندیشیدن و اهمیت این امر، اما خود کتاب به بخش اندیشیدنش نرسید! به جز توصیف اتمسفر جنگ با قلم به‌خصوص وولف، یک سری آرمان و اهدافی وصف شده بود که از راه رسیدن بهشون خبری نبود، یا شعارهایی برای آزادی و صلح نوشته شده بود که مسیر وصال به این ارزش‌ها در مه و تاریکی فرو رفته بودند.

شاید در نگاه اول از اثری که در زمان جنگ و بمباران نوشته شده، نباید توقع زیادی داشت. نوشتن همیشه ابزاری برای روشنگری و آگاه‌سازی نیست؛ گاهی به وسیله‌ای برای تاب‌آوری تبدیل می‌شه و رویکرد وولف بیشتر به این کاربرد از نوشتن مایل شده بود. اما نوشته‌هایی از این دوران به جا مونده که توقع ما رو شدیداً بالا برده. مثل روزنامه Combat (در زبان فارسی معروف به «روزنامه مقاومت») که در طول جنگ جهانی دوم در فرانسه منتشر می‌شد و افرادی مثل ریمون آرون، آلبر کامو، ژان‌پل سارتر، آندره مارلو، برتی آلبرشت و... برای این روزنامه می‌نوشتند. در این نوشته‌ها حقیقتاً با «اندیشه» طرف هستیم؛ با اینکه چرا اینطور شد؟ چه عاملی سبب رخ دادن فجایع جنگی شد؟ چه راهکارهایی برای بیرون رفت از جنگ یا حتی تحمل جنگ وجود داره؟ جستارهای کامو در باب آزادی و تحلیل‌های تاریخی-سیاسی ریمون آرون در این دوره بسیار درخشان هستند و در مجموع تحلیل‌های بسیار عمیق و دقیق فلسفی، سیاسی، تاریخی و اجتماعی از جنگ در خود جنگ منتشر شده. این یعنی می‌شد در زمان جنگ، جز زانوی غم بغل گرفتن، کار دیگه‌ای هم کرد. اما وولف بیشتر مرثیه سرایی کرده این هم به جای خود جالبه اما تاکید بر این دارم که «اندیشه» نیست....

به دنبال کتابی از نشر روزگار نو بودم که این رو پیدا کردم و برخلاف باقی وقت‌ها که توجه چندانی به اسم کتاب ندارم، عنوانش شدیداً جذبم کرد! چرا که کاملاً متناسب با شرایط فعلی ماست. و چه زمانی بهتر از وقت‌ آزاد این روزهای جنگ زده با حملات هوایی، برای مطالعهٔ «اندیشه‌های صلح در حملات هوایی» وولف وجود داره!؟ احتمالاً هر زمان دیگه‌ای جز الان بود نمی‌تونستم تا آخرش بخونم و الان هم واقعاً دست بالا امتیاز دادم.

ترجمهٔ خانم مرضیه خسروی نسبتاً خوب بود؛ دوست داشتم نسخهٔ انگلیسی کتاب‌های وولف رو بخونم، اما در قطعی اینترنت به بیشتر از این دستم نمی‌رسید.

1. نام اصلی کتاب «Thoughts on peace in an air raid» هست و این کلمه اندیشه که تاکیدی زیادی روش داشتم در ترجمه فارسی به وجود نیومده!

آخرین روز از این سال پر از درد و زخم...
جمعه 29 اسفند 404, 20 MAR, روز بیست‌و‌یکم جنگ

[Digdem Absin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Virginia Woolf’un ağırlıklı olarak Londra, edebiyat ve yazmak konularındaki denemelerinden oluşan bir kitap.

Okumaya karar verme sebebim, kitaba başlığını veren Bir Hava Taarruzu Sırasında Barış Üzerine Düşünceler, ilk denemeydi. Kendine Ait Bir Oda tadında ilerlerken bir anda bitti. Woolf’un kurgu dışı eserlerini sevenlerin ilgisini çekecek bir eser.

[Kusaimamekirai · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is only my second Virginia Woolf having previously read her fantastic essay "Three Guineas" which I frantically marked up with notes. I didn't think I'd do that to that extreme again but here I am with "Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid" which is equally stunning.
I really don't know what to say about her that hasn't been said already other than she is in my mind the most outstanding, persuasive, uncompromising social critic of the 20th century. Reading her essays, I often imagine her at a cocktail party and some poor fool trying to debate her about women's rights, modern literature, or the necessity of warfare, only to have her rip him apart and scurrying back to his room to break down in tears.
Her ability to cut right to the heart of an argument with wit and unassailable logic truly is unparalleled. In this collection, all of her literary gifts are on full display but in particular, "Street Haunting" and "Why?" are exceptional.
In the former, she walks aimlessly around London at dusk and observes all of the wonderful little things in a city so many of us take for granted.
In the latter, she constructs an ode to simply asking questions. Why in fact, do we do what we do? I laughed out loud when she wondered about the purpose of lectures. One she attended in particular whose speed resembled:

"...the painful progress of a three-legged fly that has survived the winter. How many flies on an average survive the English winter, and what would be the thoughts of such an insect on waking to find itself being lectured on the French Revolution? The inquiry was fatal. A link had been lost – a paragraph dropped. It was useless to ask the lecturer to repeat his words; on he plodded with dogged pertinacity. The origin of the French Revolution was being sought for – also the thoughts of flies. Now there came one of those flat stretches of discourse when minute objects can be seen coming for two or three miles ahead. ‘Skip!’ we entreated him – vainly. He did not skip. There was a joke. Then the voice went on again; then it seemed that the windows wanted washing; then a woman sneezed; then the voice quickened; then there was a peroration; and then – thank Heaven! – the lecture was over.."

This book of essays is filled with wonderful passages such as these which I'm sure Woolf would be gratified to know that I enjoyed far more than any lecture I've ever attended.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

'We must help the young Englishmen to root out from themselves the love of medals and decorations. We must create more honorable activities for those who try to conquer in themselves their fighting instinct, their subconscious Hitlerism. We must compensate the man for the loss of his gun.'

'Tonight, let us think what we can do to create the only efficient air-raid shelter while the guns on the hill go pop pop pop and the searchlights finger the clouds and now and then, sometimes close at hand, sometimes far away, a bomb drops.'

[Gabrielle Alves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Livro curtinho, mas poderoso — ainda mais agora, quando podemos ver, ao vivo, bombas cruzando o céu em movimento, em vez de apenas nos depararmos com elas nos frames estáticos dos livros de história. Nesse ensaio, Woolf me lembrou de algo que costumo esquecer nas minhas falas, no meu ativismo, na minha escrita: o papel das mesas de chá — ou seja, do espaço doméstico — na construção da paz.

Não são apenas nas grandes mesas de negociação que as decisões importantes são tomadas. Afinal, se as mulheres são excluídas de um espaço, elas criam outro, porque ninguém detém a nossa força seminal.

O ensaio, como um todo, me levou a refletir sobre nossas definições reducionistas desses espaços de decisão. O que é, afinal, um espaço de decisão? Quanto já foi decidido ao redor de uma mesa de plástico, ou diante de um fogão? Quanta paz podemos construir nos espaços cotidianos?

Acompanhe as minhas leituras em @leiturasdagabrielle

[merve · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
• thoughts on peace in an air raid, street haunting & craftmanship were my favs

[sama · Rating 5 out of 5]

это было очень-очень хорошо. я обожаю эссеистику, особенно эссеистику вулф 😭
легенда

(прочла несколько раз подряд)

[Nathália · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paguei pra ler pq fiquei pensando em como estamos de certa forma numa mesma: no caos e tentando sobreviver (seja guerra ou pandemia).

Virgínia tem uma forma muito interessantes de colocar as coisas.

Em dado momento ela diz que "Hitler foi gerado por uma escrava", e embora me incomode um pouco o uso da escravidão sem levar em consideração a questão racial (embora né... Hitler), a ausência de liberdade faz sentido.

Ela fala do pensamento como uma forma de combate, mas também vai além e não diz que é só pensar, tem que haver mobilização.

Enfim... Super curtinho e muito interessante, principalmente quando ela escreve falando dos sons de aviões e bombas e nó estamos aqui usando máscara na rua pra não contrair um vírus e morrer, além das guerras de sempre pelo mundo. E a tal da paz?

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

1. Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid.
2. Street Haunting.
3. Oxford Street Tide.
4. Craftsmanship.
5. The Art of Biography.
6. How it Strikes a Contemporary.
7. Why?
8. The Patron and the Crocus.
9. Modern Fiction.
10. How Should One Read a Book?

[Mijke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just read the one essay with the title of the book… it’s the size of a article so I cannot give it more then 3 stars but it’s good tho… like everything she wrote!

[Turgay Bayindir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Türkçe çeviriyi yapan çevirmenim :)

[Ana Beatriz · Rating 5 out of 5]

uma faceta de virgínia que eu ainda não conhecia: os ensaios que ela escreveu tão potentes e grandiosos que, mesmo curtos, não podemos deixar passar. virgínia era pura sabedoria.

[Jassmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thinking is my fighting.

I read this more or less as an accident. Because I thought that the quote above was part of this extremely short essay. Spoiler alert, it's not. It's actually from her diaries, though the idea is definitely in the core of this work.

The sound of sawing overhead has increased. All the searchlights are erect. They point at a spot exactly above this roof. At any moment a bomb may fall on this very room. One, two, three, four, five, six ... the seconds pass. The bomb did not fall. But during those seconds of suspense all thinking stopped. All feeling, save one dull dread, ceased. A nail fixed the whole being to one hard board. The emotion of fear and of hate is therefore sterile, unfertile. Directly that fear passes, the mind reaches out and instinctively revives itself by trying to create. Since the room is dark it can create only from memory. It reaches out to the memory of other Augusts—in Bayreuth, listening to Wagner; in Rome, walking over the Campagna; in London. Friends’ voices come back. Scraps of poetry return. Each of those thoughts, even in memory, was far more positive, reviving, healing and creative than the dull dread made of fear and hate.

And as always with Woolf, it's hard to distinguish whether something is a short story or an essay. This piece very much feels like both. Because there is a whole story. A woman lying in her bead with a gas mask on her nightstand can't sleep because for a second night in a row there are planes above London. You can feel her dread and fear radiating from the pages, but she is trying to take her mind away from it by trying to find a solution to this problem. How to stop wars? She asks which certainly isn't a small question. I consequently just finished Earthsong which deals with a similar question of how to end violence and even though their answers are different they feel strangely related to me.

Therefore if we are to compensate the young man for the loss of his glory and of his gun, we must give him access to the creative feelings. We must make happiness. We must free him from the machine. We must bring him out of his prison into the open air. But what is the use of freeing the young Englishman if the young German and the young Italian remain slaves?

Not that Woolf really gave us a straight answer. Or that her answer doesn't seem a bit naïve from contemporary point of view. Intellectually, this probably isn't one of Woolf's best essays, but damn is it exquisitely written!

You can read it for free here: https://newrepublic.com/article/11365...
Disclaimer: Most of the editions on this page are actually collections of essays, I really only read this one.

[E. Artyom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Романы как-то производят куда больше впечатления.
Эссе, несмотря на всю комплиментарность послесловия (с ожидаемым душком современного нареза феминизма), остаются продуктом своего времени и своих реалий. Менее наблюдательной автор не становится, слог не теряет остроты и красоты, но, чтобы понять изюминку отдельных моментов, воображения и фантазии не хватает - надо бы быть там.
В будущем, шутят, будет ещё полная версия поздних эссе Вулф, потому что текущий вариант уже является расширенным и улучшенным. Буду ждать, наверное.

[Livia Faleiro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Em Pensamentos de Paz durante um Ataque Aéreo, Virginia Woolf analisa o lugar da mulher no século XX em meio à guerra. A reflexão expõe como estruturas sociais antigas sustentam um “hitlerismo inconsciente"" (como ela mesma chama), ou seja, padrões de dominação que existem mesmo longe do campo de batalha. Apesar de reconhecer esse ponto, vejo o ensaio como idealista. A autora projeta uma saída ética para a violência que, no contexto real da Segunda Guerra, parece distante das condições políticas daquele momento.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed some of these essays, the first and last in particular but I don’t think I have this book the time it deserves to absorb it fully.

[Jessie Betts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, thought provoking and poetic. Am very tempted to read it again soon.

[Melika Jadidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pure genius✌🏽

[Mojtaba Asgharzadeh · Rating 4 out of 5]

به نظرم نوشتارهای به نام "اندیشه‌هایی در باب صلح هنگام حمله‌ی هوایی" و "چطور باید کتاب خواند" ارزش چندبار خواندن را دارند.

[Amanda Lins · Rating 4 out of 5]

ela literalmente no meio da guerra

[Healthy Dose of Self-Destruction · Rating 5 out of 5]

★★★★★★★★★✩
9/10 Extremamente bom

[vasja · Rating 4 out of 5]

больше всего понравилось «мастерство», но запомнилось ещё эссе о покупке карандаша и о кинематографе, потому что его немного разбирали на ридинг группе о видеоэссе

[chloe :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars
Kind of makes me want to read everything she s ever written
At the very least it undid the damage from that awful play
This is what we should be studying in school in my opinion

[matei · Rating 5 out of 5]

хороший сборник эссе, отличный перевод, как будто читаю текст, который в оригинале был написан на русском
вирджинию вульф люблю и обожаю

[Pedro · Rating 5 out of 5]

What luck is to live after Virginia Woolf.

[Tatty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sorry Virginia but this one just isn't for me. Probably the weakest pages to reading pace ratio of any book I've ever read - just didn't enjoy it.

[Natalia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now i know how to read a book

Also

RIP Virginia Woolf
You would have loved having bookstagram or other book media

[Tatiana Medeiros · Rating 5 out of 5]

(li apenas o ensaio em si): Adorei tanto este ensaio que esqueci-me que era para fins académicos! Uma excelente visão da guerra e do feminismo! Adoro Virginia Woolf!

[Berat Chavez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Street Haunting, among the others in the book was one of the most beautiful essays I read by Woolf.