The Essay: Moments of Being

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The Essay: Moments of Being: Moments of Being

Moments of Being

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Moments of Being, Moments of Being

Unlike Virginia Woolf, Joanna Robertson celebrates the minutiae of daily life.

Unlike Virginia Woolf, who saw the minutiae of daily life as 'moments of non-being', Joanna Robertson celebrates the moments that shape, frame and colour our lives.

The minutiae of life have always fascinated Joanna Robertson. Moments like opening the curtains or shutters in the morning, putting the key in the lock when returning home, making dinner, or smelling the cooking of the neighbours.  The author Virginia Woolf dismissed everyday repetitive rituals as 'moments of non-being', by contrast to epiphanies of experience or understanding that she saw as 'moments of being'.  

Joanna Robertson argues that on the contrary, the deceptively insignificant everyday is actually what our lives are made of. They shape, frame and colour our waking moments. Other writers, like Proust, or painters like Vermeer or van Hooch, appear to agree, and have captured the essence of the everyday in their art. 

Written and presented by Joanna Robertson
Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Editor: Penny Murphy
Sound engineer: Nigel Appleton 
Production Coordinator: Janet Staples

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The Essay celebrates the everyday moments that shape, frame and colour our lives.

The Essay celebrates the everyday moments that unconsciously shape, frame and colour our lives.

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