Tuesday 3 November 2009

no signposts in the sea















We've been spending lots of time thinking about names lately, and Vita seems to be a hot favourite. I suppose meaning life, vitality, it makes me think of celebration and joy. Of course, it also brings to mind the writer Vita Sackville-West, with whom I have long been fascinated. Her transcendence of the boundaries of gender (admittedly only made possible through her status and wealth) has been celebrated by some-time lover Virginia Woolf in the novel Orlando, in which the central figure lives for hundreds of years and flicks between genders. Culturally constructed limitations present no boundaries in Orlando's quest for life. Our baby would have a lot to live up to, I suppose, with a name like Vita.

2 comments:

  1. I went to Sissinghurst this summer to visit the place where Vita created some of the most beautiful gardens you will ever hope to see on these here English shores. They are still there though she is not. You should take little'un when she pops out, I think you might rather like it.

    Love,

    Rosey x

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  2. If the little bundle of joy isn't here by Saturday morning I think a trip to Sissinghurst might be in order just to encourage her.

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