How did my experiences in London teach me more about writing by British women? Well, the class discussions definitely taught me more about the women writers we studied, but some of the walking tours gave more facts on the writer’s day to day life that really stuck in my head. The Bloomsbury walking tour was one of my favorites because The guide gave so much detail on how these writers lived and it still shocks me the way in which they lived. All the writers and artist living together like a neighborhood of swinger, but I guess inspiration has to come from somewhere. I enjoyed how the guide mixed in the Bloomsbury writers with prominent figures at the time. The crazy King who was poisoned by everyone close to him and the Queen who never knew what pug really meant. Also the Darkest Victorian tour and the Geffrye museum taught me the conditions in which the people of that time lived. From the poorest of poor to the middle class that appears to be better than ‘middle class’ today. Overall, each day I learned something new about the techniques these women were using to tell stories. The story drove awareness through a love romance to wake up the society like in North and South, or it shined light on a culture not fully understood like Brick Lane. My time in London was once in a life time. And I know that sounds cliché, but learning while experiencing a major city like London truly made me love British women writers more.

I like Zadie Smiths writing a lot and that’s probably because she is so modern and I can understand the flow of her words. I’m confused as to who is speaking, but after research the narrator becomes clearer in the whole short story book. It reminds me of Brick Lane in the way she is inspired by swimming like Nazneen was to ice skating. Living in a foreign city and having to adapt to a world that has a completely different culture can tear ones spirituality but Fatou finds herself when swimming.

WWII is the most fascinating war of the 20th century to me because it was merciless and such immense  technology was created then. This war changed the world more drastically than others before, yet writings were similar to other war-time or post-war narratives. I love Bowen’s short story “Mysterious Kôr” because it discusses the defensive mechanism humans take up when war is brought to their doorstep. I thought of Kôr as this place like Never Never Land in Peter Pan. Both stories allude to this place far from the worries people have to face everyday in London. Pepita seems to go to this place quite often, and I got the sense she stays there for long periods of time. Kôr is her fantasy world she thinks of when daydreaming and sleeping. I used to daydream a lot, but now when I catch myself doing it I try to silence my mind. I like being in the present, and for the people living back then the present was a living nightmare. Pepita’s Kôr allowed her to keep her sanity longer because I assume she didn’t want to truly face what was happening. I infer this because she didn’t want to go to the bars and be looked at by the people or even walk through the park. The outside world on a well lit London night was too much to bare, so she shuts it out and plays Kôr with Arthur. I also enjoyed how this story ends. At first, I was confused by this part: “She still lay, as she had lain, in an avid dream, of which Arthur had been the source, of which Arthur was not the end.” I understand it now as Callie going back to bed and after the conversation with Arthur she is trying to fall back asleep and thinks of Arthur, but I don’t see it as being sexual. The last three very long sentences say to me that Arthur is taking Callie to Kôr and then she explains that he gave her the idea, but he is not the escape; it is Kôr that allows her to drift away.

Today’s discussion in Virginia Woolf’s old drawing room was truly beautiful. The park view really made it memorable! When we began talking about the way Woolf uses the passage of time in the book it reminds me of the way movies also work. The constant cuts and shots seamlessly flow together while time jumps, moves forward and stops. This type of editing wasn’t popular when invented, because the producers thought no one would understand how to compared the change in time. Though unknown to them, humans already altered time in narratives with books. Mrs. Dalloway is a great example of how time can be stopped in the narrative and it can still be understood with the usage of flashbacks to progress the story. The way this book changes points in time is my favorite part!

I really enjoyed today’s tour, mainly because the weather was better than the others! The main reason why I found it fascinating is the tour guide mixed the Bloomsbury writers with the other prominent people of that day so well. I enjoyed learning the dirty little secrets of all the writers and I couldn’t help but compare them to our society today. They are just like the free spirited writers we see in literature now days. And yet in a time when scandalous actions were frowned upon, the Bloomsbury writers could careless! Also the tour around this part of London was more uplifting than the Darkest Victorian tour.

As for the discussion this morning, I liked hearing more on how the role of women and men were so strict with the upper class. Margaret is one of those heroine characters I can’t help but compare to modern heroines. First to come to mind is Tris from the Divergent series. Both come from such fixed normed societies and they break these rules without much thought processing. Tris does this a lot faster, but the point is that the heroine takes action and never just allows society control her life.

I think Gaskell explains the class systems in the Victorian period very well in North and South. The characters that represent each class stay within their system they were born into and on the rare occasion they rise above. Thornton was the odd exception to this rule, being a man who made his own fortune. I love that Gaskell put in a character like him because it changes how people today see the class system back then. The majority knows how the system works and that it was nearly impossible to move class ranks, but it was capable. Thornton to me was a light of hope in the beginning, being the strong man he is, but he lost his business from a lack of understanding the wealth in people. His workers were the reason his mill kept afloat, and when he replaced them with the Irish the failure was on his hands. Those hands were his skilled workers not just mindless bums off the street. The workers are the ones with all the true power, not the master. I don’t believe labor unions are the most efficient solution for corrupt masters; further education is the solution. Gaskell doesn’t reveal this as being a solution, but her books were educating the upper class. Furthering knowledge to all people will only continue to raise a society. Cheers to Gaskell!!!

In what I like to call the chaotic climax in Ali’s Brick Lane, Nazneen visits her friend Razia to talk about her expected departure back to Bangladesh. 

“There were three more days to go. Three more days to take action, if any action was to be taken. Chanu had bought more suitcases. The girls and Nazneen gathered around them as at a graveside. The knocking grew louder. It became a pounding. Razia got up. She rubbed her arthritic knees. Approaching the door, she walked against an unseen drag, as if wading in chest-high water. Nazneen felt the bubble expand. Her collarbone would snap. She breathed carefully”(356).

This quotation stands out to me, because both characters are experiencing two completely different situations, but they are experiencing it together. Nazneen is having anxiety about finally having to tell Chanu she will not be leaving London. In comparison, Razia is dealing with her issue head on by locking her heroin addict son in his bedroom to kick the habit. To me, Razia is a role model and sort of foreshadow to Nazneen because she deals with  the struggles that come in her life with courage.

This dramatic part in the book is important because it parallels the two characters’ situations and ties it together to make a climax in the next chapter. I believe after Nazneen sees Razia struggle with her son, and then experiences  her own with Shahanna, she finally builds the courage to tell Chanu the trip to Bangladesh will never happen.