In this poignant and humorous work, Virginia Woolf observes that though illness is part of every human being’s experience, it has never been the subject of literature—like the more acceptable subjects of war and love. We cannot quote Shakespeare to describe a headache. We must, Woolf says, invent language to describe pain. And though illness enhances our perceptions, she observ...
In this poignant and humorous work, Virginia Woolf observes that though illness is part of every human being’s experience, it has never been the subject of literature—like the more acceptable subjects of war and love. We cannot quote Shakespeare to describe a headache. We must, Woolf says, invent language to describe pain. And though illness enhances our perceptions, she observes that it reduces self-consciousness; it is "the great confessional." Woolf discusses the cultural taboos associated with illness and explores how illness changes the way we read. Poems clarify and astonish, Shakespeare exudes new brilliance, and so does melodramatic fiction!
On Being Ill was published as an individual volume by Hogarth Press in 1930. While other Woolf essays, such as A Room of One’s Own and Three Guineas, were first published by Hogarth as individual volumes and have since been widely available, On Being Ill has been overlooked. The Paris Press edition features original cover art by Woolf’s sister, the painter Vanessa Bell. Hermione Lee’s Introduction discusses this extraordinary work, and explores Woolf’s revelations about poetry, language, and illness.
原文摘录
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That illusion of a world so shaped that it echoes every groan, of human beings so tied together by commom needs and fears that a twitch at one wrist jerks another, where however strange your experience other people had it too, where however far you travel in your own mind someone has been there before you — is all an illusion. We do not know our own souls, let alone the souls of others. Human beings do not go hand in hand the whole stretch of the way. (查看原文)
In illness words seem to possess a mystic quality. We grasp what is beyond their surface meaning, gather instinctively this, that, and the other — a sound, a colour, here a stress, there a pause — which the poet, knowing words to be meagre in comparison with ideas, has strewn about his page to evoke, when collected, a state of mind which neither words can express nor the reason explain. (查看原文)
3 有用 Decem 穿窗皓月 2022-09-03 11:31:02
伍尔夫的轻盈幽默的关于疾病，关于肉体VS精神，关于文学史的思考，文笔怎么能那么好，溪水一样轻盈明快，又给人一种剑桥/牛津的那种历史感和文字感（什么）很想摘抄，思考也很有意思，比如人们总是觉得肉体像是玻璃，灵魂可以轻松地透过，但其实身体才最影响灵魂啊；病床上你会躺着看天，看到平时忙碌的人看不到的色彩；生病的时候你读书，可能不能读长段了，但是诗歌中的短词短句会像是有魔法，留在你的脑子里；你在健康的时候... 伍尔夫的轻盈幽默的关于疾病，关于肉体VS精神，关于文学史的思考，文笔怎么能那么好，溪水一样轻盈明快，又给人一种剑桥/牛津的那种历史感和文字感（什么）很想摘抄，思考也很有意思，比如人们总是觉得肉体像是玻璃，灵魂可以轻松地透过，但其实身体才最影响灵魂啊；病床上你会躺着看天，看到平时忙碌的人看不到的色彩；生病的时候你读书，可能不能读长段了，但是诗歌中的短词短句会像是有魔法，留在你的脑子里；你在健康的时候是用reason去读书的，会夹杂着很多别的思考，比如评论家XX说过的话，但是病痛中就像是只剩下你的本质跟作家交流，然后因为这样elated的精神状态可能很普通的书都能焕发出惊人的光彩... (展开)
0 有用 Grovicor 2022-09-28 16:02:27 浙江
写得太好了，可惜我没完全看懂。
1 有用 至秦 2018-09-12 07:37:16
这个写得太漂亮了
3 有用 Eroland 2021-06-28 12:04:00
有趣的是这篇在Hogarth出成了单行本，像那种病中小手记。据说是英语里第一篇讨论疾病的随笔，但并没有找到中译。Woolf还是一贯地迂回缠绕，一贯地喜欢调侃英语，一贯地分号大王，一贯地善于演说修辞。要是有录音就好了，还能给作曲家们提供新的混音素材。
1 有用 Crumbs 2023-01-18 15:39:20 上海
读伍尔夫一如既往的感受：遇到金句时觉得精准、震撼；下一秒不知她为什么飘到了别处，怀着对她的信念前进，但往往还是迷失在了我仅能坚持7秒的逻辑里……结尾好像结束得有点突然。