WOOLFING # 36

“(…) I was just thinking about her death. That's always been such a strong image: going to the river with your pockets full of stones."

Florence Welch – on VW’s death

Virginia Woolf left us 75 years ago. As soon as her pockets were full of stones so as she could drown ‘till death, her pain came to an end. However, her legacy as a novelist and intellectual still remains with us after this period.

One of VW’s latest influences is Florence Welch, lead singer and composer from Florence + The Machine. Ceremonials (the band’s second album) brought one of the most powerful songs about Virginia’s tragedy: “What the Water Gave Me” is not only inspired by Woolf’s suicide, but also shows the importance of Frida Kahlo’s painting to Welch’s song-writing…

Frida Kahlo - "Lo Que el Agua Me Dió" (1938)

“WHAT THE WATER GAVE ME”

(Florence Welch & Francis "Eg" White)

Time it took us

To where the water was

That’s what the water gave me

And time goes quicker

Between the two of us

Oh, my love, don’t forsake me

Take what the water gave me

Lay me down

Let the only sound

Be the overflow

Pockets full of stones

Lay me down

Let the only sound

Be the overflow

And oh, poor Atlas

The world’s a beast of a burden

You’ve been holding up a long time

And all this longing

And the ships are left to rust

That’s what the water gave us

So lay me down

Let the only sound

Be the overflow

Pockets full of stones

Lay me down

Let the only sound

Be the overflow

‘Cause they took your loved ones

But returned them in exchange for you

But would you have it any other way?

Would you have it any other way?

You couldn't have it any other way

‘Cause she’s a cruel mistress

And a bargain must be made

But oh, my love, don’t forget me

When I let the water take me

So lay me down

Let the only sound

Be the over flow

Pockets full of stones

Lay me down

Let the only sound

Be the overflow

So lay me down

Let the only sound

Be the overflow

Pockets full of stones

Lay me down

Let the only sound

Be the overflow

We really hope that Virginia Woolf may rest in peace after having an intense life characterised by genius, pain and sorrow…

WOOLFING # 35

On this day in 1917 Leonard and Virginia Woolf purchased a small, used handpress; it was delivered to Hogarth House, their West London home, a month later, and the Hogarth Press was born. Over the next three decades the Woolfs would refine their "rather eccentric and amusing printing antics", eventually publishing 525 titles over three decades, many of them by other influential modernists and most of them collector's items today.

Source: http://www.todayinliterature.com/today.asp?Search_Date=03/23/2015

WOOLFING # 34

On this day in 1913, thirty-one-year-old writer Virginia Woolf delivers the manuscript of her first novel, The Voyage Out, to her publisher.
“I want to write a novel about Silence," he said; “the things people don’t say.”
― Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out

WOOLFING # 33

Happy Women's Day!

 
"Love, the poet said, is the woman's whole existence." 

Virginia Woolf, Orlando (1928)