“Frigid” seems a ridiculously simplistic description

[breathedout]

But Virginia Woolf’s sexual squeamishness, which plays a part in the deflections and self-censorship of the novels, is combined with a powerful, intense sensuality, an erotic susceptibility to people and landscape, language and atmosphere, and a highly charged physical life. “Frigid” seems a ridiculously simplistic description of this complicated, polymorphous self.

—Hermione Lee, Virginia Woolf

I’m re-reading the section of Lee’s biography spanning 1913, for Strachey-related reasons, and remembering why I love it so much. Lee’s nuanced yet unflinching understanding and refusal to oversimplify her subjects, even when easy labels present themselves, is consistently inspirational to me.

Because I also have a long-term interest in fleshing out some workable, historically respectful version of Woolf’s sexuality for my eventual Virginia/Vita/Irene story, I am squirrelling away this kind of insight for future reference. The bit about the complicated, polymorphous self is very key to my love of Woolf and my understanding of her own self-conception, and this kind of… decentralized, non-genitally-centered but experientially intense eroticism is I think very compatible with the character arcs I have in mind.