Woolf wanted to say dangerous things in Orlando but she did not want to say them in the missionary position.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the desire for creative expression that challenges norms while avoiding conventional constraints.
Jeanette Winterson reflects on Virginia Woolf's intention to express bold and provocative ideas in her novel 'Orlando'. The phrase 'missionary position' suggests that Woolf aimed to convey her messages in a manner that was not traditional or limited, instead seeking innovative and daring forms of artistic expression that break free from societal expectations.
In practice
A speaker at an art seminar might quote this to discuss the need for freedom in artistic expression.
What is remembered is not a deed in stone but a metaphor. Meta = above. Pheren = to carry. That which is carried above the literalness of life. A way of thinking that avoids the problems of gravity. The word won't let me down. The single word that can release me from all that unuttered weight.
Reading things that are relevant to the facts of your life is of limited value. The facts are, after all, only the facts, and the yearning passionate part of you will not be met there. That is why reading ourselves as a fiction as well as fact is so liberating. The wider we read the freer we become.
I have a list of titles that I leave at the [library] desk, because they are bound to be written some day, and it's best to be ahead of the queue.
In that house, you will find my heart. You must break in, Henri, and get it back for me.' Was she mad? We had been talking figuratively. Her heart was in her body like mine. I tried to explain this to her, but she took my hand and put it against her chest. Feel for yourself.
History is a string full of knots, the best you can do is admire it, and maybe tie it up a bit more. History is a hammock for swinging and a game for playing.
I cannot assume you will understand me. It is just as likely that as I invent what I want to say, you will invent what you want to hear. Some story we must have. Stray words on crumpled paper. A weak signal into the outer space of each other. The probability of seperate worlds meeting is very small. The lure is immense. We send starships. We fall in love
The old idea of a composer suddenly having a terrific idea and sitting up all night to write it is nonsense. Nighttime is for sleeping.
When I was in Cambridge reading mathematics, I went to Amsterdam for the International Mathematics Congress. There I saw M.C. Escher's fascinating work. That inspired me to try my hand at drawing such impossibilities.
It's always about the music, never about anything else.
Writing is the hardest work in the world. I have been a bricklayer and a truck driver, and I tell you β as if you haven't been told a million times already β that writing is harder. Lonelier. And nobler and more enriching.
It still amazes and fascinates me that women of color have kept my work alive for these many generations.
I mean, give me a guitar, give me a piano, give me a broom and string, I wouldn't get bored anywhere.
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