Comments on: Puddles and food and Virginia Woolf. http://literarylens.org/2009/10/virginia-woolf-on-food/ Sat, 28 Aug 2010 20:20:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Becky http://literarylens.org/2009/10/virginia-woolf-on-food/comment-page-1/#comment-1039 Becky Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:40:28 +0000 http://literarylens.org/?p=615#comment-1039 I think a lot of people feel as if that's the only way they can control their lives - through regulating and controlling one's weight. If a woman's relationship with her mother leaves her feeling helpless, she could turn to anorexia as a way to achieve the control she needs. Very interesting analysis of the book. Makes me want to read it! Also, lovely photograph as usual. :D I think a lot of people feel as if that’s the only way they can control their lives – through regulating and controlling one’s weight. If a woman’s relationship with her mother leaves her feeling helpless, she could turn to anorexia as a way to achieve the control she needs. Very interesting analysis of the book. Makes me want to read it!

Also, lovely photograph as usual. :D

]]> By: kate http://literarylens.org/2009/10/virginia-woolf-on-food/comment-page-1/#comment-1038 kate Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:15:07 +0000 http://literarylens.org/?p=615#comment-1038 ... which would send me back to the central scene in *To the Lighthouse*, in which Mrs Ramsay, the pre-war matriarch, serves a huge, steaming dish of boeuf en daube (you wouldn't like this - too meaty...) which looks and smells quite wonderful - though once again, I don't remember anyone - the daughters, the guests - actually *tasting* it - it's used for aesthetics - like a dish of fruit in the middle of the dining table. Here, though, the maternal coercion, even if not consciously there, is food used as family/household unifier - emphasizing her own centrality, her own power to bring people together and have them merge. It couldn't have been done with some cold cuts and wilted salad. Which would reinforce your excellent point about manipulating food (though I'm quite sure she didn't cook it herself) as a surrogate for all kinds of other manipulation... … which would send me back to the central scene in *To the Lighthouse*, in which Mrs Ramsay, the pre-war matriarch, serves a huge, steaming dish of boeuf en daube (you wouldn’t like this – too meaty…) which looks and smells quite wonderful – though once again, I don’t remember anyone – the daughters, the guests – actually *tasting* it – it’s used for aesthetics – like a dish of fruit in the middle of the dining table. Here, though, the maternal coercion, even if not consciously there, is food used as family/household unifier – emphasizing her own centrality, her own power to bring people together and have them merge. It couldn’t have been done with some cold cuts and wilted salad. Which would reinforce your excellent point about manipulating food (though I’m quite sure she didn’t cook it herself) as a surrogate for all kinds of other manipulation…

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