So+Many+Details

Precise details are obviously very prevalent in __Jacob's Room__. Woolf includes so many descriptions and details in her novel. These details are an important part of Woolf’s style, but are they an important to the novel itself? Woolf wanted to write a different kind of novel and this was her way of doing it. I think that the amount of precise detail that is included in the novel isn’t necessary to the story being told, but is necessary to the novel because it is part of the author’s creation. We can’t add things to novels that aren’t there so we shouldn’t take things out of them. Although much of the detail seems to be unimportant and meaningless it defines the novel. These details may make the novel more difficult to read and unnecessarily lengthy, but they are part of the novel none the less.

In another topic it was mentioned that it is as if Woolf or the narrator is observing everything with the readers. This may explain the extreme amount of description and detail that is included in this novel. If you were there observing everything from within the story you would experience all of the details and descriptions first hand. They would all be running through your head as you observed what was happening around you. Sometimes we don’t realize the amount of details that we experience every day, because we usually dismiss most of the senses we experience. Woolf includes many of these details in a flowing poetic style. It really does make her writing very unique.1200625108

I too find that Woolf uses an excessive amount of detail often stopping the flow of the story itself. However, __Jacob's Room__ is not the typical narrative that readers are accustomed to. Instead of focusing on the story, Woolf examines the minds of different characters and the interactions between them and their surroundings. They cannot be removed from the novel because these details are precisely what Woolf wanted to create. Without detail, there would be no novel because there is no story. She is exploring different ways of creating images in the reader's mind by her use of detail. The reader understands the different characters because of Woolf's descriptions and details.

Her writing style is extremely unique and difficult to understand. When I first started reading the novel, I began looking for a story line and realized that it does not exist. This makes it very difficult to keep track of what is occurring in the novel. However, the different style does make sense if in fact Woolf or the narrator is observing every detail. 1201035068

I agree that, when I began to read, the volume of detail in this novel seemed excessive and overwhelming. Ultimately, having begun to finish the novel and understand Woolf's method, those details are what makes the "story". Ok, really, there is no coherent story with everything jumping around, but the novel manages to get a message across simply by jumping and jumbling things around. Several times, we have discussed why Woolf writes the way she does, and I have come to conclude that Woolf wanted to give us an accurate look at the world--the way it would be witnessed in real life. Therefore, Woolf presents her imagined world in the same way we would observe the real one. My favorite instance of this is when Mrs. Flanders is reading the letter of proposal, but is interrupted by thoughts about minute things like dinner and Rebecca and the food she bought. This is how I think in real life--just now I noticed that the pencil on my desk is out of place, and I wonder whether dinner will be ready soon, but all at the same time, I am keeping my focus on the task at hand. In most novels, we are used to being presented with a very focused idea, very organized, but in real life, we are constantly thinking about millions of other details, and Woolf captured that in this novel. 1201047899

The form of the novel, in all its detail, may not be agreeable to us as readers who are not familiar with this type of writing, but as bga mentioned, this is part of Woolf's writing. Also, the novel is from the modernist perspective, and follows a stream of consciousness; because this is the case, it would follow that detail would be excessive and the story line would be abruptly stopped by inconsequential thoughts of the characters. The name is self-explanatory; it follows the stream of consciousness of whoever is being written about, and people don't think concisely. When a person is experiencing something, they experience all the detail, and while all thoughts aren't vocalized, they are still passing through the mind and basically that's what Woolf is doing. She's showing us the inner workings of the characters, whether or not it always makes sense is another thing, but it seems unlikely that any person's uninterupted stream of thought could be written down and make perfect sense. If anything, the detail given helps the story because it makes the less than logical stream of consciousness a little more sensible for the reader. 1201121141

The importance of detail depends on the novel. In a book like Harry Potter, or really any book read for entertainment, most details are unimportant. It does not matter what color the character's shirt is because it has no importance to the plot. The difference between books we read at home, and books we read for english class is that we read the first not necessarily because they are written well, but because of the emphasis on the plot, and for the latter, the exact opposite is true. When details begin to matter is when they do influence the plot. In chapter four, for example, there is a strong emphasis on color, and more specifically, changing color. Because Woolf made color such a strong presence in this chapter, it almost becomes a character because of the effect it has. The colors convey the idea of constant change, of fear, of uncertainty. Her use of detail can be tedious at times, but I do have to admit that some of her detail use is artful and I can respect the talent she has even though I may not enjoy reading her books. 1201223698 //This page was last revised by {$revisioneditor} on {$revisiondate}.//