Daily Archives: February 20, 2014

The deeper meaning of gay

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“Helen Furr had quite a pleasant home. Mrs. Furr was quite a pleasant woman. Mr. Furr was quite a pleasant man. Helen Furr had quite a pleasant voice a voice quite worth cultivating. She did not mind working. She worked to cultivate her voice. She did not find it gay living in the same place where she had always been living. She went to a place where some were cultivating something, voices and other things needing cultivating. She met Georgine Skeene there who was cultivating her voice which some thought was quite a pleasant one. Helen Furr and Georgine Skeene lived together then.” (Miss Furr and Miss Skeene, first paragraph)

In this text, the overuse of the word gay is done purposely and repeatedly. In this simple paragraph, i can understand that Mrs. Furr was married to Mr. Furr, but decided to instead “cultivate” her voice and live with Georgine Skeene instead. This shows that she decided that although her husband was a pleasant man, she instead wanted to find herself more and be with this woman instead. The poem goes on to use the word gay very many times, and i feel like is this done so the message of the poem is blatant: they were gay and they were happy together, together both women were able to find their voices more and be happy together. However in the end, they did not end up together. I believe Steins’ point here was to show that the whole experience of them finding each other and finding their voice and living together shows that it changed them as people and made them better and braver, as after Helen Furr was able to tell people about being gay. The meaning of the word gay seems to change in the text. In the beginning, gay seemed to be used for “happy” but later on in the story, it is clear that gay now means the relationship between two of the same gender. Stein uses simple language with a much deeper rooted meaning in order to convey the story of Miss Furr and Miss Skeene.

Queer

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Queer- adj

Definition- beyond or deviating from the usual or expected

reference the dictionary app

“A very  queer , composite being thus emerges ”

A Room of Ones Own, chapter 3 first sentence

I am understanding that the being which was emerging was a unique individual. This person was not average nor ordinary, and was developing from something to be known as lesser.

 

What was imagined

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This passage is from A Room of Ones Own Chapter 3 In the 5th paragraph. The paragraph began with ” A very queer, composite being thus emerges” .  Virginia Woolf then goes on to say “Imaginatively she is of the highest importance; practically she is completely insignificant. She pervades poetry from cover to cover; she is all but absent from history. She dominates the lives of kings and conquerors in fiction; in fact she was the slave of any boy whose parents forced a ring upon her finger” . My understanding of A Room of ones own so far is that the author is speaking to the injustices which were being done to women in those times. 

“imaginatively she is of the highest importance”

this statement helps helps me to understand that In those times In order for a woman to be of importance she could only have imagined it. I however do respect the fact that although women were not treated with the respect that they were deserving of , there was still an idea in their minds that they should be accepted and respected. “Practically she is completely insignificant “. In fact that statement confirms the thought that women were said to be of little or no relevance in those times. Though this passage is in reference to writing it signifies the notion that women were not recognized for their literary work, or looked at as intellectual beings. In the rest of the passage it mentions  her being present In history, dominating and conquering through her poetry. Women in those times could have absolutely been more intelligent than they were given credit for. Women were actually very significant , but treated in a way which made them unaware of their worth. This passage for me ties itself into the entire reading because it helps me to visualize the ongoing battle in which women fight with society.

Gay?!

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***Miss Furr and Miss Skeene****

Page 500, second paragraph

“They were regular in being gay , thy learned many little things that are things in being gat , they were gay everyday , they were regular ,there were gay,they were the same lentgh of time everyday , they were gay , they were quite regularly gay ”

The first piece I read was “Miss Furr and Miss Skeene” , after reading the few lines I was very interested. In just the first paragraph the word gay was use countless times. Considering that this was written in 1925, I thought it was normal. As I began to read i noticed  that the word “fay ” was very significant in this couples relationships. In the story the word Gay didn’t just mean happy, there where times that the word “gay”. in the story the word “gay” was used not only as happiness , i believe that it was used as satfiactfied or content. i was believe that the tone of the story change throughout the story.

In the quote above the author uses gay many times , but they way the word Gay was used was in a different tone then it was throughout the story . the word gay meant many different things throughout the story other than happy .