unflinchly, it begins @tothelighthousenotwoolf - Tumblr Blog

“the word was bioluminescence. there was in every living thing this elusive capacity. in lovers. in the newborn. in the congregation at a temple. in the man who was killed by a mirror and lay on his back looking at death. every person was a lighthouse, a signal of presence. this was nothing sentimental: it was the single, wise thing that she utterly knew.” ⋆˚꩜

#sixty lights #gail jones #english #literature #writing #⋆˚꩜#hi mr bannerman !!! you'll find the most recent posts at the top and the older ones at the bottom #some posts are my original ones and some are reblogs [posts by other people]#my likes are also public which should be considered as part of my multimodal #ive kind of themed this blog a bit after virgina woolf's to the lighthouse #this has no bearing on the actual content of my story. i just like the name and the aesthetic #so please dont expect woolf references in my actual story #sorry about that

mournfulroses

Makenzie Campbell, from a poem featured in "2 a.m. Thoughts," originally published in 2017

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connection to sixty lights ⋆˚꩜

motif of light:

throughout sixty lights, particularly the page 171 extract, light is used as a symbol of connection. in my story, i subvert this idea of light as a positive thing and instead use it as a representation of burden, repetition, and isolation.

motif of lighthouse:

the passage compares people metaphorically to lighthouses, which i extracted and turned into a physical signifier. the man literally lives in a lighthouse. in the same way that photography and "special things seen" are lucy's connection to the exterior world, the lighthouse and the ocean are my protagonists connection to the exterior world.

motif of the dead man:

at points through the text, and in the extract, lucy recalls a memory of watching a man fall to his death, which comes up several times as a signifier of the importance of memory and the way that key events, particularly ones related to death, stay with you. i echo this in a more extreme way by having my protagonist be similarly followed by the memory of a death he witnessed.

#writing #lighthouse #literature #books #⋆˚꩜

mournfulroses

Jane Hirshfield, from a poem titled "The World Loved By Moonight," featured in The Asking: New and Selected Poems

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letsbelonelytogetherr

— Joseph Brodsky, Hope Against Hope: A Memoir

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summary ⋆˚꩜

the story follows an isolated lighthouse keeper who has become psychologically trapped in the aftermath of a traumatic loss he never processed. after inheriting the role from his father, his life is defined by relentless repetition – endless stairs, blaring foghorns, and the cyclical pull of the ocean – mirroring the loop he is stuck in mentally. haunted by the memory of the woman he loved who leapt to her death before him, he exists in a state of limbo, unable to move on yet unable to follow her into oblivion. his world is reduced to stark dualities – light and dark, presence and absence, sound and silence – reflecting his fractured inner state. ultimately, the story explores how unresolved grief and guilt can imprison a person, leaving them suspended between duty and escape, survival and surrender.

#writing #literature #⋆˚꩜

mardatann

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academic-vampire

𝔞 𝔰𝔲𝔪𝔪𝔢𝔯 𝔰𝔭𝔢𝔫𝔱 𝔦𝔫 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔩𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥𝔬𝔲𝔰𝔢

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thyme-in-a-bubble

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application of psychoanalytic theory ⋆˚꩜

freud's theory of the id, ego, and superego.

the ID appears in his pull towards the ocean, his compulsion to jump, and his desire to dissolve into nature.

"the man can’t say he has never looked down into the waves before and imagined himself weightless."

the EGO appears in his feeling of being caught in limbo, his rationalisation, and how he neither jumps nor leaves.

"he is caught in limbo, always too close to and too far." "she isn’t coming back, he tells himself."

the SUPEREGO appears his inability to leave the lighthouse, and the deep internalised obligation he feels.

"his father had stood by the door, held a burlap sack in his hands, and said, this is yours now."

freud's theory of repetition compulsion can also apply:

"repetition compulsion is the unconscious tendency of a person to repeat a traumatic event or its circumstances." [wikipedia] "repetition compulsion describes the pattern whereby people endlessly repeat patterns of behaviour which were difficult or distressing in earlier life." [transference and projection, jan grant]

the man is unconsciously trying to “redo” the moment of the woman's death, but remains stuck before action. this appears in his inner monologue.

"around, and around. again, and again." "again. again. again." "the same endless journey up and down those winding stairs." "years, and years, and years."

#writing #literature #literary theory #⋆˚꩜

unflinchingly, it begins.

like the sharp snap of an ankle upon impact, the foghorn commences. the world is swallowed in sound, enveloped in its enormity. bright light blinks into existence, a painful cracking open of the sky. around, and around. again, and again. the ocean, an illuminated unknown, terrifying and tranquillising. the man can’t say he has never looked down into the waves before and imagined himself weightless.

this town holds secrets the way a lake holds water. that is its purpose– to contain. he lives on the outskirts, an elusive figure, semi-present, but he keeps a few truths of his own tucked inside his palm. like seaglass, they are; beautiful, and made of shattered things. it is not his job to know, but he does anyway. concealed truths fall into his palm like raindrops from the open sky.

#writing #literature #my writing #⋆˚꩜