A London Adventure: Response

The essay is about appreciating what one sees during everyday life. The simple beauty of everyday goings on can be easily lost in the sole minded search for one's own goal. Finding her goal simply marked the end of her wandering and observing. It allowed for her story to begin and end but. She needed a goal in order to justify her journey through the city. The journey is described by the people around her and her attempts to understand what they were feeling. She seemed to focus on other people and their journeys in life. The dwarf woman struck me in the essay. By focusing only on her normal sized feet the narrator seems to forget that the dwarf is deformed. After the dwarf’s normal feet are out of focus the reality of her state comes back into the spotlight: “the ecstasy faded, knowledge returned, the old peevishness, the apology came back,”( 4). The language shifts from when we first meet the dwarf to after we see her feet and then back again. She is first described as having an “apologetic expression”. Her feet were then described as “aristocratic” and that “she looked soothed and satisfied”. This change is interesting, and is a positive message about searching for the beauty in all things.

a little bit of insight into an imagination..

Virginia Woolf welcomes the reader to her own personality through her style of writing in this piece. She grabs the reader’s hand when she mentions the universally recognized lead pencil, which is so malleable in its uses. The pencil represents the capability to recreate- take what has been done and gradually change it, which is what Woolf does through her essay’s journey. In fact, the pencil is really just an excuse to take the reader on her journey through the London streets. The journey, as are many of the journeys we have studied in this course, takes the protagonist full circle. The journey is a journey of experience and observation. Our protagonist introduces us to the range of lives of the London streets. The tone of the piece carries the reader through this journey, peaking at the entrance of each new character. First, however, we are brought into a setting where “in winter the champagne brightness of the air and the sociability of the streets are grateful.” After examining this statement further, the words themselves are the setting. Champagne brightness conjures up Christmas festivities, the bubbling of the champagne-colored light echoes onomatopoeically in “sociability.” The alliteration of “sociability of the streets,” also embraces the reader’s attention having lured her in with the often passionless, yet on occasion, that supreme desire to obtain that seemingly and, “accidentally, but miraculously sprinkled with beauty,” mundane lead pencil. Woolf’s image of the pearls gives insight into her imaginative twisting of reality into unreality. She draws the picture of these characters on the street and then goes further to comment on their lives behind the scenes she witnesses. “Let us choose those pearls, for example, and then imagine how, if we put them on, life would be changed.”

Street Haunting: A London Bridge Adventure response (final)

This essay is about different people in the world and how other individuals percieve them. Without really ever knowing someone, one can always look at them from the outside with a positive perspective. "Passing, glimpsing, everything seems accidentally but miraculously sprinkled with beauty...with no though of b uying, the eye is sportive ang generous; it creates;it adorms; it enhances." We are only given a mere glimpse into indiviuals lives, the moments we spend with them are all we are left to know about them. "Into each of these lives one could pentrate a little way, far enough to give oneself the illusion that one is not tethered to a single mind, but can put on briefly for a few minutes the bodies and minds of others." We put a mask over the harsh realities of the world, like the homeless, and the blind, and the crippled, and try to tell ourselves that regardless of their true state, they in fact live a good life and they too have something to go home to each night. In this essay Woolf gives us these images and different types of people and she then chooses to create imagery and inferences of her own. When we pass an individual on the street the observer knows nothing more then what the common eye sees, yet in this essay Woolf is expressing the fact that we feel the need to cover up what their lives could be and paint them in a positive light in order to make ourselves feel better. In the end of the day, the most comforting thing to the individual is still themselves, and their home. While each "room is a new adventure," yet "still as we approach our own doorstep again, it is comforting to feel the old possessions, the old prejudices, fold us round."

Street Haunting: A London Adventure

The essay is about how we pass individuals without knowing them or there background, yet we paint them in a positive light. We don't know them personally, but we tell ourselves that there living a positive life in order for us to feel better. We try to block out all the negative aspects of that person and believe that there living positively. We do not wish to look at that person's past since the way they present themselves is better. We do this everyday when were walking on the street and strangers walk past us. We are only recognizing that person as we see them currently, we don't recognize that person's past.
The tone of the piece seems to gets gradually angrier. The voice is very angry and passionate. She sets out to describe her feelings and thoughts without knowing where she'll end up. She pours out her emotions and her mood at this point in her life into this essay. Her mood and voice carries this essay. It feels that a certain depression lingers on in her and that she feels the need to describe her feelings through her essays.

Elements of Woolf's Journey

Woolf definitely leads the reader and herself through the experience of perusing London all for the sake of a lead pencil. Like James Joyce's Ulysses, Woolf both literally and figuratively trails off weaving together her thoughts and what she has seen in a train of thought fashion. The journey is not only a walking journey but a thinking journey. As Woolf walks she takes note of things like the dwarf, the butcher's window and the boy leading the two blind men. The journey is described with an ardent curiosity, which is both mysterious and complex as Woolf continues to delve deeper than the scope of the eye. Woolf emphasizes the experienced life not a life propped by the objects one acquires. The journey is described not with color but rhythmn and sound, it also speculates on emotions and deals with the the stages of the journey by creating scenarios and episodes. The emotions she feels also seems to help her write as she describes the desolation that causes her to linger on. Woolf approaches everything with a matter of fact neutrality, she maintains a contrast in her writing between light and dark, the seen and the unseen. What defines the piece is the opposition between the mental and material world.

London

This essay does not focus on one character in an extreme but several characters some unique but others so normal, all who forgo some sort of journey in their own world. For the midget just going to the shoe store was her place to escape, to feel, special, and mostly to feel normal. another chacarater enjoys venturing off into her own town in winter because its not normal like the other months, there are no distractions, the streets are quiet and she really enjoys this mini journey, nevertheless shes needs a back bone, her home. After wandering the streets its great to go back to the place you call home. She does not try to cut off all of her other ties when on her journey like chris McCadnles did. Her journey was comfortable and easy. Despite being a grown adult it is odd to me that she needs an excuse to wander. Why cant someone just go for a walk, why cant she just wander the city she calls her home. Maybe she needs to justify to herself why she is wasting time that she doesn't have to waste in her adult life. Or possibly do you need some sort of goal no matter how irrelevant or small it is to set of on this journey of hers. So its not the goal that is important in this cases, its the mere fact of having a goal. You are not wasting time, you are not wandering the streets without reason, you are simply trying to accomplish a goal. Chris had a set goal set in place too that at times was very far away from his actions, like delaying and taking time off and working at Mcdonalds or living with me for a time. I think we should all have goals, but we also need to have spontaneity and the freedom to be able to do whatever, forget everything and just do something we enjoy whether its taking an hour and walking around the streets in the winter or anything else.

Street Haunting: A London Adventure

8.

I think that the essayist does, in fact, stay consistent with the class definition of a Journey. The journey portrayed in this writing is on a much smaller scale, although it most definitely qualifies as a certain type of voyage; one around the London streets. It is extremely descriptive in the portrayal of the surrounding of the streets. For instance when Woolf says, "How beautiful a London street is then, with its islands of light, and its long groves of darkness, and on one side of it perhaps some tree-sprinkled, grass-grown space where night is folding herself to sleep naturally and, as one passes a iron railing, one hear those little cracklings and stirrings of leaf and twig which seem to suppose the silence of fields all round them, an owl hooting..." I mean we must remember that the purpose of her journey here on the surface, is buying a pencil. Yes, this is a goal, yet, the overall goal is only meant to thwart her smaller goal. She does this in order to give herself some time to wander around the London streets. She purposefully concentrates on small, seemingly futile objects and parts of the city, and then really goes on a mental journey through her existence. Her trip to the store to get a pencil really defines her as more of a meandering wanderer.

"Street Haunting: A London Adventure"

On the streets of London there is much to be seen. Virginia Woolf describes a journey down these streets with great detail. A particular scene that stuck with me was that of the dwarf. Here was this woman who had an obvious disability and the shame showed on her face. It was apparent she needed the two "benevolent giants" that accompanied her for security and help but at the same time they made her disability that much more notable. "She needed their kindness, yet she resented it." On the streets of London, the dwarf woman probably felt self conscious. "She wore the peevish yet apologetic expression usual on the faces of the deformed." However, when trying on shoes in the shop, everything changes. All the women stared at her not for her disability but for the beauty of her feet. She loved this type of spotlight. Back on the street, the dwarf went back to her usual apologetic expression. For Woolf, the dwarf didn't stand out as much anymore, because she noticed everyone else's deformities as well. The point here is that no matter how apparent one's imperfections are, everyone has them and that they should be appreciated, not ridiculed. This is a very minute detail in the overall scheme of the essay as Woolf explores the perspective one can gain by paying attention to the journey while working towards a goal.

Journal Entry #1

1. What is the Essay about?
Literal: going into the city to buy a pencil .... exploration, travelling throughout the city
* There are contrasts between light and dark (or references to) (ex. "the hour should be evening and the season winder, for in winter the champagne brightness of the air and the sociability of the streets are greatful." and (2nd page) "How beautiful a London street is then, with its islands of light, and its long groves of darkness, and on one side of it perhaps some tree-spinkled, grassgrown space where night is folding herself to sleep naturally,")
* There seems to be a variety of small themes, which consist of:
-Sleep
- “The Eye” (what the eye sees/ seeing past the literal)
- "Army's"
- Winter
-Appreciation of life/ seeing the beauty
-Thought/ Thinking
- The over all need for protection
("smiling at the shop girls, they seemed to be disclaiming any lot ir deformity and assuring her of their protection.”) Then the concept of who are they protecting themselves from? Maybe the “army”?

LONDON

This essay is all about a person setting out to buy a pencil. This idea of a pencil is not concrete but just a way to get away from her stressful life for a while with a pointless goal. Being taken in by the descriptions of ordinary people, she realizes the beauty of average city life and the abnormality of it. The idea of the perfections in imperfect people such as the midget shows this idea of the beauty of life to the greatest extent. This story reminds me a lot of the moth as it describes these things in life that seem completely normal until you look at them. The idea of venturing from expected path gives forth to a more powerful goal of adventure. With the idea of a pencil as a goal it seems surreal to me. The fact that a pencil, being so small and insignificant, can lead to a much greater good in expresing the deepest of thoughts. The insignificance of the pencil also mirrors society and shows all of the tiny things in society can matter the most in life. The building of the plot greatly leads up to the character being able to buy a pencil yet she decides not to buy a pencil in the end. The ending is teriffic and i think that it is a great way of summerizing this idea of a prolonged journey.

- Dan

(4) Street Haunting: A London Adventure

After reading Street Haunting: A London Adventure by Virginia Wolf, I was immediately reminded of a book I read several years ago entitled Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. This book describes the mind and its ability to make inferences without thinking and relying solely upon instinct. Similar to Virginia's essay, I felt that there was an emphasis placed on the ability to see things without fully appreciating their beauty and significance. We don't realize how we make inferences about individuals without fully comprehending their past.
"For the eye has this strange property; it rests only on beauty."
This quote was not only thought provoking but I found it as somewhat of an admonition. It's true, no matter how shallow it may sound, that the eye rests on beauty. The essay focused on people’s instinctive nature to place emphasis on physical characteristics as opposed to what truly defines a person- their inner beauty… something that cannot be seen by the naked eye. We tend to imagine other individuals' lives as peaceful and complacent, when in actuality, many are far from it. As Virginia passed several individuals, she made assumptions as to how their lives were panning out despite the fact that she was completely unaware as to how these people felt. The individual who piqued my interest was the midget; the woman whose face lit up when she was trying on shoes, but her happy disposition evaporated as she stepped outside. Virginia assumed that this woman was displeased with what she had to face outside, but she had no way of knowing this to be true. We ultimately are forced to make assumptions, and in most cases, this is done unintentionally. As Virginia mentioned later on in her essay, "One is forced to glimpse and nod and move on after a moment of talk, a flash of understanding, as, in the street outside."

"Street Haunting: A London Adventure" Response

Woolf's essay starts with the simple task of possessing a lead pencil and eventually turns into a journey to acquire this object. Like in a play, she perfectly sets up the stage with acute detail, providing the reader with an exact image in mind: "The hour should be the evening and the season winter." She also sets up a sharp contrast between winter and summer. By doing this, she communicates to the reader her ideas about life and the way people are composed on an attainable level. Woolf's imagery and language also help display a journey. At first, the essay reminded me of a word association. The ideas that Woolf brought up were consecutive and related in some way, but in many cases they still seemed random and even fleeting. When I finished the essay, however, I realized that these thoughts weren't actually random, that in they end they formed a flowing, cohesive piece. Each scenario Woolf describes is inextricably related and significant to the journey of attaining this lead pencil. I think both the reader and the essayist do ultimately get a sense that this is a journey. It isn't a heroic journey, but with imagery and uses of hyperbole, Woolf manages to compile these moments into a journey that isn't defined by the narrator's ultimate goal but by the experiences she has along the way.

Journal Entry 2

This essay is in form true to its content. Virginia Woolf seems to ramble in her writing even as she writes about ambling through the streets of London, seeking adventure above any other petty goal. That's really what this essay is about. It's about the idea that you can journey just for the sake of journeying, because you never know what you might find and so you could be rewarded far more than if you had a fixed goal from the start. Woolf uses the idea of buying a pencil, such a menial task, to represent starting a journey with a set goal in mind. It never really amounts to much, she seems to comment, for if you know your goal at the start, the amount of journeying you undergo is necessarily limited. I very much agree with Woolf's sentiment, and greatly admire the randomness of some of her observations in the essay. In some ways, it's harder to write without a set topic in mind, but maybe it's more rewarding. Thus I think it is with a bit of irony when Woolf conclues her essay by saying, "the only spoil we have retrieved from all the treasures of the city, a lead pencil."

An Intellectual Foray

2. Woolf presents a different sort of journey in buying a pencil, and one that occurs mentally rather than physically or spiritually. Just as the mind constantly strays along tangental paths, the author moves from thought to thought during a broader, overarching shopping trip ("But what was it? Ah, we remember, it was a pencil." [2]). In fact, the narrator's true adventure occurs in thinking about the relation between intellectual and real existence. He or she moves from materialism and impressionability by beauty ("the eye is sportive and generous; it creates; it adorns; it enhances." [5]) to considering that "nothing of this [imaginative] sort matters… so that we sport with the moment… lightly," then back to escaping reality by books, which have "a seat in the warm corner of the mind's inglenook," until finally deciding he or she is happy with familiar and personal ideas ("it is comforting to feel the old possessions, the old prejuidices… and the self" [9]). (5,6) Woolf's short story does not attempt to convey some tangible experience but, rather, the meandering, inner workings of a mind that gradually approach an abstract conviction about "the insecurity of life." (8) The narrator stuggles against the impediment that is "duty" until he or she finally accepts it is impossible to "put off buying the pencil" (i.e. disregard duty), because that dreamy, past, and ideal situation is all but unattainable in reality, and "we [should] be not again as we were." (8) Or, in other words, the narrator claims that we cannot re-choose something that has already been decided, nor ignore this decided duty of buying a pencil, as it is now the chasis for our entire, present excursion. This extraordinary mental realization reveals to her that "the future is even now invading our peace. It is only when we look at the past and take from it the element of uncertainty that we can enjoy perfect peace," an insightful conclusion to the narrator's long series of thoughts, which wander from one rumination to the next and blossom outward in much the same manner as a progressive protagonist's character would develop (e.g. Siddhartha, from the eponymous novel). (8) Street Haunting: A London Adventure is a journey, to be sure, however atypical an example it may be.

—Joseph Conrad

P.S. On another note, it is perfectly possible that the true journey here occurs in this story's organic development toward an irrelevant end, specific thoughts, memories, and experiences along the way notwithstanding. Put another way, the The reader is forced to appreciate the process, rather than final aim, of the narrator's trip into town.

John Krakauer

Hi, I am John Krakauer...
I was born in Brookline, Mass. was the Third of 5 children, and was raised in Corvallis, Oregon.
I am a mountaineer. That means I like climbing mountains, and various other assorted activities like sitting on busses and starving to death, or ditching my car and money....oh wait, actually thats from the book that I wrote: Into the Wild. I also wrote a book called into thin air. I wrote a monthly column on fitness in Playboy magazine.
thats about all for now!
love,
~Johnny

About me: Jan Burres

My name is Jan Burres and I'm writing you from Slab City, California. I was an acquaintance of Chris McCandless'... actually... i considered myself one of his closest friends. He was a wonderful individual who would discuss numerous topics with me, and he seemed to confide in me. In retrospect, I wish i encouraged Chris (even more) to contact his family. I knew that this was a sensitive subject with him, thus, i refrained from bringing up this topic. Bob and I are still going strong, but we think of Chris on a daily basis. He served as an inspiration to the both of us. We now have a child on the way, and we plan on naming him Chris Burres.
I also feel that the film, Into the Wild directed by Sean Penn did not accurately portray the close relationship Chris and I shared. Catherine Keener is a wonderful actress, but i feel that it's not possible to convey the loyalty Chris and I felt towards one another.
If any of you plan on passing through Slab City and have stories about Chris, please feel free to stop by and pay Bob and I a visit.

the Voolf-ster

I am Virginia Woolf. I am English. An avid feminist and writer, I founded the Bloomsbury Group where I came to know my husband Leonard Woolf. My real name is actually Adeline Virginia Stephen. I've written a multitude of books with titles including; Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and a Room of One's Own. My influences were Marcel Proust, George Eliot, and Leo Tolstoy. Although I was married, I swing both ways. I am most noted as being a turn of the century writer, who suffered from depression. Later I committed suicide by drowning in the River Ouse. I enjoy swimming with my friends and eating mince pies.

Howdy Yalll

I am Ron Franz. Ron is short for ronald!!!!!!!! I met chris along a his journey and he changed me, he got me back on me feet. After loosing my family chris really touched me and showed me my life wasnt over, and still isnt. I AM SOOOO happy to be living in a van traveling around! I love working with leather adn i LOVE chris. I wanted to adopt him but he DIED! i Miss HIM


Xoxoxoxo R

Westerberg Bio

Hi, my name is Wayne. I am from South Dakota and I work in a grain elevator. I am a very reasonable man who is quite lonley. I miss my good friend Chris. He was the closet friend I've had in quite sometime. I am a quite man and I enjoy harvesting wheat. I also enjoy watching sunsets along the great plains of South Dakota.

Vasudeva-About me

I am a ferryman. I spend my days travelling on the river. Everything I know and everything I am, comes from the river. I devote my life to ferrying people, wanderers, anyone-across the river and in some cases to enlightenment. I help those who wish to reach enlightenment attain their goal by telling them to follow the river. A key figure in Siddhartha's journey to enlightenment, I helped him not by preaching to him my philosophy, but instead I showed him the river and its wisdom. When I realized that Siddhartha attained enlightenment, I left him. I successfully helped him in his goal so I move on to help others as well.

Autobiography

I am an author whose writing derives predominantly from personal experience, and so am, in many respects, my characters. In youth I coped with my father's political exile within the Russian empire, and my mother's poor health, until age eleven, by which point both had passed away. My uncle took me in, though he quite leniently permitted me to gain sea-legs and travel abroad. Perhaps I could be described as an adventurer (goodness knows I've traveled enough—Venezuela to Congo to British India—to qualify), but primarily I am an observer. I've seen my share of human nature aboard boat and upon foreign soil, and, however unfortunate, it is not so pretty a picture. I suppose that seeking out humanity brings out the same in myself, and inward insights have a tendency to taint my literature. Which is not necessarily bad, in the presence of decent, moral judgment; but I fear a rather bleak and pessimistic streak must cross my works: seeing more of the world makes me only doubt it all the more. Yet I am at ease now in Britain, content to write myself into fiction and unafraid of presenting what subjective view of the world I have accrued in my sixty-seven years within it—and eighty-two more without.

—Joseph Conrad

P.S. You may be familiar with my story, "Heart of Darkness?" Please feel free to constructively critique it, and I will gladly entertain your suggestions.

Little Sid

My father seems like a great man however i ran away to be free and followed my dreams. My father whom i have only known for mere days somehow expects me to live with him and a strange man who smells like dirt. My mother treated me so well and took me shopping to buy nice clothes but my father finds rags draped over trees and makes me wear them as clothes. We barely eat and when we do it is small bowls of bland rice without any seasoning or salt. I could not stand the life which my father provided so at age 11 i ran into town to get a bite to eat and just fell in love with the town. If any of you have a nice house or barn which i could stay in that would be great since i have absolutely no money left.

Sincerely,

Young Siddy

I'm Zorba the Greek

but my real name is Alexis Zorbas. I'm Greek, like in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." I'm a working man who likes to tell long-winded stories about all I've done. My advanced age has not diminished my love for life and I make the most of every day. I have a flare for the dramatic.

Marlow

I am a riverboat captain and I grew up in England. I traveled to the Congo in search of adventure. I learned of a man named Kurtz who was described to me as a universal genious. As I learned more of him I became gradualy more interested in the man. I had to meet him. I did and it was okay but not great and now I'm home again.

Marlow

About Me: Kamala

Wat up?

My name is Kamala, and I was Siddhartha's lover. We were in love, but then he left me to find enlightenment, and raise our son on my own. (He was unaware that I was pregnant--he's not a deadbeat!) I died when I was bit by a poisonus snake, on my way to cross the river. I left my son in the care of his loving father, and I hope they're both living happily.

Govinda

I am Govinda, Siddhartha's childhood friend. I followed Siddhartha's path to enlightenment until we parted and I followed the Buddha. I love to meditate in nature. My time with the Buddha was filled with learning and peace. However I never found enlightenment. I am still searching for Nirvana.

(The Narrator)

I preferred to remain anonymous in my time within The Heart of Darkness. I was one of five characters on the boat listening to Marlow while he retold his lengthy tale. My shipmates were the Director of Companies, the Manager, the Lawyer, and Marlow himself. My exact purpose is undefined, besides my short commentary, what do I represent? In my initial observations I personify the river Thames, and discuss how it has conveyed men to both greatness and death. I may appear as though I am passively absorbing Marlow's experience, however, I am also making small judgments along the way...
Although the reader has no idea who I am beyond the world of the ship, he or she knows me and the way I think best. After all, readers are hearing the story through my ears, aren't they?

as always,
the narrator

About Me: Chris McCandless

Hey guys.

My name is Chris McCandless and pretty much I've wanted to get away from civilization for awhile.
I went on a long journey around the country living off the land.
I met some awesome people along the way, but my goal was to get to Alaska.
It was hard to find rides to get there, but finally I did.
I found a bus to stay in for a while but eventually I wanted to leave.
I crossed a shallow river to get to this bus, but when I tried to cross it to leave it was wider, a lot more rapid and too deep for me to get across.
I eventually died in the bus, but I led a good life.

-Chris

the Intended

Grettings folks.. I am the Intended. I am the woman that Kurtz left behind before he journyed into the "Heart of Darkness." I am white skinned and I continue to mourn Kurtz's death even though it is over many years ago that he passed. When Kurtz was away on his journey, I sat at home and knit for months and months awaiting his return. I never got to reconnect with the man I loved considering that he died on his extravagent journey. I hold onto the little memories that I have of Kurtz considering that there were many years I was sepererated from him. I am looking for a new man to love, even though I am sure that they will not be the same as Kurtz. If anyone is interested please contact me! xoxo, the Intended

Intro

Greetings,
My name is Siddhartha. I grew up in a rather large city, born into a family of Brahmin's. I was sheltered through wealth and class, elevated from all of the others. However, something was missing. I felt that I didn't deserve the rank and respect that I was given. I hadn't done anything that deserved respect. But, all of this made me feel empty, lost and alone. My life was so sheltered, protected. How could I possibly be given so much respect if I am relying on everyone else. I needed something to make myself feel whole. I needed something new. I left my town in order to find my inner "om". My "om" is what I consider to be my center, my meaning.
I finally had learned to depend on nothing, to be capable of relying on myself. While my progress was significant, I needed something else. I needed to be with my people, the "child people". I needed to experience the subtleties of the common folk.
The first thing I saw was remarkable. A vision of beauty. She was the farthest thing from common. She was followed by many men, wrapped in garments fit for a Goddess. She was poised, proper and perfect. My emotions immediately latched on to her glory, they longed to be with her.
Once she had settled, I approached her. I asked her what I had to do to win her over. I had to do a variety of things. The most significant was that I had to become wealthy, again. I had nobody to support me, now that I had left my hometown. I worked for a wealthy merchant, and gained the wealth I needed to love my queen.
As time passed I grew maddened by the simplistic lifestyles of the common-folk. I forced myself to leave the town and continue to my original path.