I have been silent so far today. It's only 6:58, but many waking hours have elapsed, and they have been silent, except for the occasional words spoken aloud, inadvertently, or a sigh or burp or throat clearing.
I like the publication The Christian Century, and a recent issue focused on Silence. Almost immediately after I began reading some of the articles, I thought about how I can bring a study of silence and its impact into my current text study. What happens during the silences of our book? Choose a moment that is silent, and work out what you think is going on in the minds of the characters. What can silence hold? Is it benign? What different flavors can it contain? Certainly the silences in our story so far have been conspiratorial, wistful, disbelieving, frightened, anxious, resentful, full of animosity, and broken. Students would surely come up with more.
Silence had an interesting appearance in Mrs. Dalloway this morning.
The narrative has taken an abrupt turn in tone since Ms. Woolf shifted her attention from Clarissa and Peter and Richard and their extravagant unhappiness to Septimus and Rezia and their attempts to find help on the path toward peace and comfort, which the doctors Holmes and Bradshaw promise them ludicrously.
Septimus struggles with mental illness, but is told repeatedly that there is "nothing at all the matter" and that he lacks only "a sense of proportion," and needs six months "rest" at a house where the nurses will "teach" him the art (of proportion).
The silences in this book rage with past memories, unspoken turmoils, pressing questions that never pass lips. All is either much contained for the sake of decorum (Woolf seems critical of the British reticence and obligation to control oneself) or contained because the person who might express it feels too despondent to attempt the task. That is Septimus. It seems that trying to make his inner thoughts heard has resulted only in upraidings and absurd advices from the likes of Holmes and Bradshaw. Thus he is listlessly silent.
Rezia, his wife, suffers greatly for his silences, and her own are charged with despair.
These seem very different silences, for Rezia and Septimus, than others described for Peter, Richard and Clarissa. Their silences are in full bloom with the outgrowths of their self-centered dramas. At one lunch with Lady Bruton, Woolf lifts the curtain on the silence:
________
“D’you know who’s in town?” said Lady Bruton suddenly bethinking her. “Our old friend, Peter Walsh.”
They all smiled. Peter Walsh! And Mr. Dalloway was genuinely glad, Milly Brush thought; and Mr. Whitbread thought only of his chicken.
Peter Walsh! All three, Lady Bruton, Hugh Whitbread, and Richard Dalloway, remembered the same thing — how passionately Peter had been in love; been rejected; gone to India; come a cropper; made a mess of things; and Richard Dalloway had a very great liking for the dear old fellow too. Milly Brush saw that; saw a depth in the brown of his eyes; saw him hesitate; consider; which interested her, as Mr. Dalloway always interested her, for what was he thinking, she wondered, about Peter Walsh?
That Peter Walsh had been in love with Clarissa; that he would go back directly after lunch and find Clarissa; that he would tell her, in so many words, that he loved her. Yes, he would say that.
_____
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| Silent companions this morning |
I like the publication The Christian Century, and a recent issue focused on Silence. Almost immediately after I began reading some of the articles, I thought about how I can bring a study of silence and its impact into my current text study. What happens during the silences of our book? Choose a moment that is silent, and work out what you think is going on in the minds of the characters. What can silence hold? Is it benign? What different flavors can it contain? Certainly the silences in our story so far have been conspiratorial, wistful, disbelieving, frightened, anxious, resentful, full of animosity, and broken. Students would surely come up with more.
Silence had an interesting appearance in Mrs. Dalloway this morning.
The narrative has taken an abrupt turn in tone since Ms. Woolf shifted her attention from Clarissa and Peter and Richard and their extravagant unhappiness to Septimus and Rezia and their attempts to find help on the path toward peace and comfort, which the doctors Holmes and Bradshaw promise them ludicrously.
Septimus struggles with mental illness, but is told repeatedly that there is "nothing at all the matter" and that he lacks only "a sense of proportion," and needs six months "rest" at a house where the nurses will "teach" him the art (of proportion).
The silences in this book rage with past memories, unspoken turmoils, pressing questions that never pass lips. All is either much contained for the sake of decorum (Woolf seems critical of the British reticence and obligation to control oneself) or contained because the person who might express it feels too despondent to attempt the task. That is Septimus. It seems that trying to make his inner thoughts heard has resulted only in upraidings and absurd advices from the likes of Holmes and Bradshaw. Thus he is listlessly silent.
Rezia, his wife, suffers greatly for his silences, and her own are charged with despair.
These seem very different silences, for Rezia and Septimus, than others described for Peter, Richard and Clarissa. Their silences are in full bloom with the outgrowths of their self-centered dramas. At one lunch with Lady Bruton, Woolf lifts the curtain on the silence:
________
“D’you know who’s in town?” said Lady Bruton suddenly bethinking her. “Our old friend, Peter Walsh.”
They all smiled. Peter Walsh! And Mr. Dalloway was genuinely glad, Milly Brush thought; and Mr. Whitbread thought only of his chicken.
Peter Walsh! All three, Lady Bruton, Hugh Whitbread, and Richard Dalloway, remembered the same thing — how passionately Peter had been in love; been rejected; gone to India; come a cropper; made a mess of things; and Richard Dalloway had a very great liking for the dear old fellow too. Milly Brush saw that; saw a depth in the brown of his eyes; saw him hesitate; consider; which interested her, as Mr. Dalloway always interested her, for what was he thinking, she wondered, about Peter Walsh?
That Peter Walsh had been in love with Clarissa; that he would go back directly after lunch and find Clarissa; that he would tell her, in so many words, that he loved her. Yes, he would say that.
_____
What a thing to think in the silence! How much, and how quickly, raged during this moment of lunch! And I could analyse any of a million silent moments in the classroom and become aware at least of my own raging thoughts and my perceptions of what rages chez mes étudiants. I don't use the word "rage" in an angry way - I want to convey swift and powerful, uncontrollable movement.
Then, my favorite - the employee Milly Brush has been watching this silence like a soap opera, it seems, because the narrator tells us:
_______
Milly Brush once might almost have fallen in love with these silences;
_______
Milly Brush once might almost have fallen in love with these silences;
______
The last silence is one in which a great deal of overt communication takes place. I also engage in this kind of communication in the classroom. I give a lot of thumbs up, a lot of nods, encouraging smiles, discouraging head shakes, and sometimes a wheel my fingers in a circle as in to propel a hampster wheel, by which movement I hope to encourage my students to "say more about that". In this silence, the coffee is hurried along. In the silence left behind the narration, we understand, as we haven't (or at least I didn't) that lunch has drawn out undesirably long.
___
Mr. Dalloway was always so dependable; such a gentleman too. Now, being forty, Lady Bruton had only to nod, or turn her head a little abruptly, and Milly Brush took the signal, however deeply she might be sunk in these reflections of a detached spirit, of an uncorrupted soul whom life could not bamboozle, because life had not offered her a trinket of the slightest value; not a curl, smile, lip, cheek, nose; nothing whatever; Lady Bruton had only to nod, and Perkins was instructed to quicken the coffee.
______
______
I love when authors leave silences in the narration when the reader can determine what's going on. Woolf, Hemingway, Colson Whitehead - three writers who immediately come to mind when I think of stories that allow me some latitude to determine unspoken meaning.
One thing I read this summer about classroom design reminded me that it's important to create spaces for quiet in the classroom. I have been mulling over the idea of a day every two weeks or so during which I could have students move through three stations, one of which would be a silent reading and conferencing-with-me-about-reading station.
I very much like the idea, because it would be a day without my direct instruction, even for giving instructions, at all, and I have the impression I talk to much to my classes, especially explaining how assignments will work. I drafted some station ideas this morning:
Station one: In the annex, reading on comfy chairs and having 2-3 min. check-ins with me about reading.
Station two: On the left side of the classroom, watching a short video related to something we are studying, and reacting to it with your group, your partner, and coming up with questions and comments for a brief, whole class follow-up discussion the following morning.
Station three: On the right side of the classroom, a Writer's Workshop, where students choose one piece of writing from the past two weeks to edit carefully for spelling and grammar, and then word process. (I need to work on this station, because I know that task will take more than 20 minutes. It could be their job to edit during class, then type on their own time at home or in the library or in my classroom after school.)
These stations would be far from silent, but the teacher megaphone would be turned off for the day, and students would be pursuing their own thoughts. I like the thought.
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