Week Seven Entry
First and foremost, modern literature is so much better than I predicted. In a way it seems to encompass many of the good qualities from other eras, because pasts lessons cannot be forgotten, my personal favourite being the resonant value of art for arts sake. I think that the biggest thing that has come out of modern literature, specifically pertaining to poetry, is the embodiment of physical representation, metaphor and simile in the seemingly intangible. I love the way poems are physically shaped to provoke a whole new meaning OR to reiterate the underlying meaning of the poem. Mina Loy’s Feminist manifesto epitomises this as her use of font size and colour adds a whole new dimension. For example, “are you prepared for the Wrench-?” . When I read this I stopped briefly on the word wrench and conjured up all the possible meanings and connotations. I thought initially she was talking about the anguish to be faced, but she also emphasised the intensity of the fight against oppression. I also wondered if she was calling men, or women’s oppressor’s wrenches… I love the atmosphere her style creates as it makes it so much more intense, powerful and liberating.
However, the question remains, does Mina Loy’s Feminist Manifesto still have relevance for women of today. I feel that it is still relevant because it depicts much of what women still have to overcome. Women have strived for equality and recognition and have got it, yet there are still so many expectations of us. As a young woman, I feel there is too much pressure on my shoulders to be a successful, educated, independent, career woman, as well as a nurturer, carer and perfect mother and wife. Women, as Loy said, need to “Leave off looking to men to find out what you are not - seek within yourselves to find out what you are”.
I think that Loy's ideas regarding the “unconditional surgical destruction of virginity through-out the female population at puberty” is incredibly interesting. In a way, it would be very liberating, because a female’s virginity seems to be representing her purity. Females of today hold onto their virginity for the right person as though it’s a gift for a man, which just seems so passive, as though the female isn’t to enjoy it herself, like there’s something wrong or disgusting about a woman enjoying sex.
However, in a way, Mina Loy reminds me of Julia from Nineteen Eighty-Four, because she seems to only be a “rebel from the waist down” as Winston describes it. I actually didn’t think that Julia was suitable enough for Winston in the first place because she didn’t seem too concerned with the slow evaporation of the past. She didn’t even notice that war against Eurasia was once against Eastasia and when she was reminded, she didn’t care! I think there is a lot more to life, relationships and femineity than sex alone as these women seem to suggest.
And this is what I had to say to Rhanihf,
Virginia Woolf also had an impact on me and my daily life, quite the opposite to yours initially, yet we seemed to share a similar consequential revolutionary moment! Woolf’s Modern Fiction states: “Life is not a series of gig-lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end”. This provoked my sense of imagination and possibility in regards to creative expression. I agreed with the sentiment that art should come first, and the rest will follow. I often put off thinking, reflecting, analysing and expressing so I can do the washing, vacuuming, cleaning etc etc etc. So instead, I got home and thought, stuff it, I'm going to be alone with my thoughts before I unstack, selfish as it may be, I felt it was for the greater good. I soon discovered, much to my dismay, I'm not very much of a creative person, nor do I tend to express myself artistically. Being alone with my thoughts wasn’t very pleasant so I went along and busied myself for a while. I wonder what Woolf would say to that…
I think what you said about music sort of being an unappreciated means of aesthetic indulgence rings true. I often find that a Red Hot Chilli Peppers song will provide me with much more spiritual rejuvenation than an entire book a literary masterpieces.
Anyways, good chatting,
Imelda
=)
However, the question remains, does Mina Loy’s Feminist Manifesto still have relevance for women of today. I feel that it is still relevant because it depicts much of what women still have to overcome. Women have strived for equality and recognition and have got it, yet there are still so many expectations of us. As a young woman, I feel there is too much pressure on my shoulders to be a successful, educated, independent, career woman, as well as a nurturer, carer and perfect mother and wife. Women, as Loy said, need to “Leave off looking to men to find out what you are not - seek within yourselves to find out what you are”.
I think that Loy's ideas regarding the “unconditional surgical destruction of virginity through-out the female population at puberty” is incredibly interesting. In a way, it would be very liberating, because a female’s virginity seems to be representing her purity. Females of today hold onto their virginity for the right person as though it’s a gift for a man, which just seems so passive, as though the female isn’t to enjoy it herself, like there’s something wrong or disgusting about a woman enjoying sex.
However, in a way, Mina Loy reminds me of Julia from Nineteen Eighty-Four, because she seems to only be a “rebel from the waist down” as Winston describes it. I actually didn’t think that Julia was suitable enough for Winston in the first place because she didn’t seem too concerned with the slow evaporation of the past. She didn’t even notice that war against Eurasia was once against Eastasia and when she was reminded, she didn’t care! I think there is a lot more to life, relationships and femineity than sex alone as these women seem to suggest.
And this is what I had to say to Rhanihf,
Virginia Woolf also had an impact on me and my daily life, quite the opposite to yours initially, yet we seemed to share a similar consequential revolutionary moment! Woolf’s Modern Fiction states: “Life is not a series of gig-lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end”. This provoked my sense of imagination and possibility in regards to creative expression. I agreed with the sentiment that art should come first, and the rest will follow. I often put off thinking, reflecting, analysing and expressing so I can do the washing, vacuuming, cleaning etc etc etc. So instead, I got home and thought, stuff it, I'm going to be alone with my thoughts before I unstack, selfish as it may be, I felt it was for the greater good. I soon discovered, much to my dismay, I'm not very much of a creative person, nor do I tend to express myself artistically. Being alone with my thoughts wasn’t very pleasant so I went along and busied myself for a while. I wonder what Woolf would say to that…
I think what you said about music sort of being an unappreciated means of aesthetic indulgence rings true. I often find that a Red Hot Chilli Peppers song will provide me with much more spiritual rejuvenation than an entire book a literary masterpieces.
Anyways, good chatting,
Imelda
=)