I'm reading Proust was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer. In essays he portrays eight artists from the Modern Period (late 19th through 20th centuries) and looks at their insights into the ways the mind works. He includes writers as well as Cezanne, Stravinsky, and interestingly Auguste Escoffier. I jumped to the chapter on Virginia Woolf which he subtitles "The Emergent Self." I'm going to read all eight essays but I want to compare his analysis with Woolf's To The Lighthouse.
He says something specifically that relates to Woolf's use of the stream-of-consciousness technique which I find fascinating: "Experiment after experiment has shown that any given experience can endure for about ten seconds in short-term memory. After that, the brain exhausts its capacity for the present tense, and its new consciousness must begin anew, with a new stream. As the modernists anticipated, the permanent-seeming self is actually an endless procession of disjointed moments."
Woolf believed that during an ordinary day one experienced what she called "moments of being" in which perception, intuition and truth seem to come together. She portrays this throughout Lighthouse. Reading about the science and applying it to the literature is going to be fun!
test. Tried to post earlier. bbl if this works.
ReplyDeleteHi Bluecat. It worked. Sorry you were having trouble.
ReplyDeleteWhew, this post is a bit more than my brain can take at this moment. But, I was reading P & P and the beginning relationship between Darcy and Elizabeth reminded me of Benedick and Beatrice in "Much Ado". There was something else that reminded me of one of the Bard's plays, but can't remember right now. I'm going to have to figure out how to do notes on the Kindle.
ReplyDeleteThey are similar to Beatrice and Benedick. More word play with B&B and social debate with D&E I think.
ReplyDeleteTo write notes on the Kindle, click "menu" then go down to "add a note or highlight" and click. There will be directions on the top of the screen how to write a note.
Just wanted to say your monologues are very informative and fun to read.
ReplyDeleteI'm fascinated by the ways the mind works and the ways science is studying consciousness because it seems to me the more they learn, the more they find to be mysterious. There's a copy of To The Lighthouse somewhere in the house - off to find it.
Thank you Bluecat. Virginia Woolf is my favorite author.
ReplyDelete"Experiment after experiment has shown that any given experience can endure for about ten seconds in short-term memory. After that, the brain exhausts its capacity for the present tense, and its new consciousness must begin anew, with a new stream….”
ReplyDeleteI actually agree and can relate to this weird wisdom. The only time this probably doesn’t happen and the time frame is longer is when something someone has done or said makes them feel really bad and convicted. Then the 10 seconds is prolonged until some resolution happens to dissolve the situation. Until then they are stuck dwelling on an event in the past.