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Okay, I hope they're actually going to Norfolk now lol

The Trip to Norfolk

Net over verlatingsangst gelezen, met als oorzaak een gebroken familiestructuur.

The book presents small essays which give you a general idea of the topics included. For example: part one "How Climate Works" contains essays that amusingly explain the role of CO2 during previous periods of mass extinction; human evolution (hunter-gatherers to herder-farmers to the force that decides the evolution of all species and their habitats) and the connection between human civilization and extinction.

Prologue: Graphs first featured in An Inconvenient Truth, a movie probably most people my age are familiar with, which have gotten significantly worse since its 2006 release. This alone illustrates the gravity and sincerity of climate change.

Net de proloog uitgelezen. Ik vind het moeilijk om de 'Ik'-persoon en Bolaño (Belano) van elkaar te scheiden. Het lijkt allemaal een beetje een puberale fantasie. De personages zijn wel levendig en ik kijk uit naar waar dit allemaal verder zal leiden, of er gevolgen zullen komen, maar het was wel zwaar om zover te geraken. Dit is leuk om te lezen maar tegelijkertijd moeilijk om vol te houden.

Dikke memmen in een vellen frak

Boeren weten waarom ze op bedevaart vertrekken. ... 'Maria heeft geweend...! Wenen is vruchtbaar. Er is nooit een onvruchtbare traan geweest. Zoals de regen die van boven valt, het boerenland besproeit en het klaarmaakt om in alle vruchtbaarheid de gewassen, het zaad en de vrucht te ontvangen die te zijner tijd tot rijpheid zullen komen, zo gebeurt het ook in het rijk van de geest.'

Het moet psychologisch heel bevrijdend werken je niet langer meer te schamen om je immense lelijkheid. Afstotelijkheid ten teken van de goede smaak, naar analogie met de moderne kunst. ... Een beetje verder in het water roestten autowielen en dreven kinderen op de banden ervan. ... Een moeder liet haar kind met zijn warme pamper pootje-baden tussen de blikjes bier.

Uit: 'Ja, kamperen is een mooie zomersport'

Time Passes, the reason why I wanted to read this book in the first place, neatly describes how the beach house decays during the Ramsays' absence, their disintegration because of war and the sudden death of Mrs Ramsay. The focus shifts to the maîtresse Mrs McNab, reminiscing the family, their friends who visited, and how the house is restored when peace time arrives. With peace comes Lily Briscoe. Here she was again

Putty; dahlias; did Nancy go with them? ; p70; brooch; weeping willow; pother; holocaust; boeuf en daube; rebuked; prostration; salt cellar; boobies; p97; What was that? ; Luriana, Lurilee; Steer, hither steer your winged pines, all beaten mariners; sonnet 98.

Dress shirt; sprig; irascibly; wantonly; forlorn; cairns; p35; acrostics; The very stone one kicks with one's boot will outlast Shakespeare;cropper; helter-skelter; catch of her paintbox.

Incongruous; deerstalker; galoshes; freak of idiosyncrasy; to doff;

Up with the lark; the sound of poplar trees; leaves whitening before rain; our frail barks founder in darkness; odious; elucidate; jaunt; basking; capacious paunch; blandishments; somnolence; glibly; hoary; cyclamen and wild violets; deference; caustic; ephemeral as a rainbow; jacmanna; covey; colloquy; imputation; disparage; sweet Alice; capped; flamingo clouds; ponderous; in effigy; a flock of starlings;

Some of the lay-out got mixed up and again this seems like an exercise of trying to describe things fleetingly, as if it were an experimental movie, but I simply don't get it. Is this a jab at being called the Salinger of her generation? Do we need color coding to understand everything, and if so, why are the few external references always the landscape?

Also, more Joyce references (The Lass of Aughrim).

Had to pause sometimes because Alice's chapter was heartbreaking. Still, I love her clarity of thought, even when she's sad or angry she doesn't let those things rule her mind.

I got confused in Eileen's chapter (19) because stream-of-consciousness prose was introduced, which only made sense when we got back to where it originally started - like how a character daydreams in movies, but then everyone simultaneously.

also: kip is a word

Pages 209 & 212 are golden.

Prostrate (think: soumission)

Indignation (anger and disgust, a particular kind of shame, that rises out of social conditions)

Chapter 14 is golden on explaining forgiveness.
Chapter 15 feels like a wonderful short story in itself. (+ To The Lighthouse: Time Passes)

Chapter 10 felt like reading Sally's diary, telling me to stop reading this book as if it were her actual diary!

Thought it was really cool they attended mass in Chapter 11.

Eileen is starting to get on my nerves, even though she's become self-aware. Everything she comes up with is definitely autobiographical, in an ostentatious manner. Is it to impress Alice, or is her life simply that dull?