Thursday, November 20, 2008

Virginia, a bird-sized Virginia, lets herself metamorphose into an ornament on a hat

It was shocking to see how death seemed to always be on the minds of all these different characters. But it shows how apparent and unchanging this order is. You live, and then you die. What is in between is what you choose, but you cannot choose to go on living forever. Even though I myself am still at a young age I too have these thoughts cross my mind, perhaps not everyday, but in moderation but still there. Although both novels were brilliant, it made me start thinking about being mortal and having this final destination. I was honestly scared and disturbed, especially when reading Cunningham's novel because he seemed to right about it in more of a grim way, whereas with Woolf it was on the characters' mind, but was so cryptic in nature that it didn't shock me as much. Also, in general it seemed to be more of a blissful thing to die after living a full life, whereas Cunningham had many terminally sick and depressing characters that openingly talked about death in such a crude and raw way. He only seemed to parallel Woolf's characters' views on death in the not so terrible way through his portrayal of Woolf just wanting to lay in that bird's tomb. It was quick and simple and only hinted at the absurdity that one would only have after realizing that death/suicide was being talked about.

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