The Masterpiece

While reading "A Room of One's Own," I was introduced to a lot of new ideas and opinions that I have never really thought of before. So, my discussion this month will come from Virginia Woolf's essay. Question 2 from chapter 4 asks us to discuss the statement, "For masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice." The masterpiece she is discussing is a novel written by a woman that did exceptionally well. What Woolf means by this statement is that the one woman did not write and make this novel successful alone. Because of all the women who came before her, her novel was able to be taken seriously and accepted in her society. If it wasn't for those women who came before her, she would have had to gone through what they did in the 16th century and her "masterpiece" wouldn't have been considered that anymore. This ultimately relates to the whole essay because Woolf basically explains the timeline for women writers and what they had to go through in able to allow a woman's novel to be considered a masterpiece.

I definitely think this statement can still be applied today, just in a somewhat different manner. I actually think this statement has a lot to do with famous movements that changed the world, like women's rights and desegregation. But a more recent example would be gay rights. Most people wouldn't think of legalizing gay marriage as a masterpiece, but it could be. It wasn't just one couple who wanted to get married and changed the law, it was a lot a couples throughout many years that made it possible for that first couple to get married. Another "masterpiece" so to say, could be something completely different like a company like Apple. Apple didn't become an extremely successful business just because of Steve Jobs. It took many years and a lot of help and support of others, especially from its customers, to make it what it is today. Steve Jobs might get all the credit for it, but it actually has the mass behind his single voice.