mathematical waves

Perhaps that's my problem with this one: I'm not so good with math. I enjoy listening to music, getting lost in a melody, but I don't feel the rhythm of this book. I sit down to read and wake up later with the book on my lap or my chest, only a few pages deeper. I've read sparknotes and gotten similar results.

Oh ok I get it. I'm reading with Rhoda's eyes: I'm only ok, only rooted, when I'm calm and alone. In the world, around people, I tend to float within their spheres and lose myself; which makes learning difficult. And since this is such a difficult author to read, I'm not sure how to absorb it. Rhoda is disconnected from herself, a very real and dangerous disorder today, but I'm not sure how it was diagnosed or treated in Woolf's day (maybe she needs more dairy in her diet? Or maybe I do, in a room alone and nothing but milk until this makes sense). Occasionally while reading I pick up a phrase that really speaks to me and I think this book will be different, this time I'll get it, but those phrases are few and far between and the rest of it is outside my capabilities to understand, to internalize and learn it. It doesn't help that everything we've covered this semester has been a superficial reading of complex materials as we fly through as many works as we can fit in to the class. I need more time on each piece to acquire it, to incorporate the traditions into my individual talent.