Wednesday, September 05, 2007

By the pear tree

"How then did it work out, all this? How did one judge people, think of them? How did one add up this and that and conclude that it was liking one felt or disliking? And to those words, what meaning attached, after all? Standing now, apparently transfixed, by the pear tree, impressions
poured in upon her of those two men, and to follow her thought was like following a voice which speaks too quickly to be taken down by one's pencil, and the voice was her own voice saying without prompting undeniable, everlasting, contradictory things, so that even the fissures and humps on the bark of the pear tree were irrevocably fixed there for eternity."

from To the Lighthouse
by Virginia Woolf
p. 33

5 comments:

Elliot said...

Yeah, I used to feel that way, until I found the right meds...

;-P

Anactoria said...

Why on earth would you take meds to cure yourself from thinking critically like that???

Anactoria said...

(Maybe you misread it? Its not meant to be a dark or depressing quote.)

Elliot said...

Well, taken one way, it sounds like she's describing the rushing, uncontrolled, and very tiring thoughts that anxious or obsessive people can get.

Anactoria said...

When I read it, I hear it being said very slowly and consideringly. She's pondering the questions, weighing them.