Selected Essays | Anne Fadiman on Virginia Woolf

The Point Podcast

On this episode of The Point podcast series “Selected Essays,” Jess Swoboda and Zach Fine talk to the writer Anne Fadiman about Virginia Woolf’s “The Death of the Moth” (1942) and Anne’s essay from the April 2023 issue of Harper’s, “Frog”—a eulogy of sorts for the family frog, Bunky, which was partially inspired by Woolf’s meditation on a moth fluttering back and forth across a window pane.

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1. Selected Essays | Anne Fadiman on Virginia Woolf (00:00:00)

2. What is “The Death of the Moth” about? (00:01:32)

3. The moth as a symbol for life (00:01:34)

4. Woolf’s life at the time of writing (00:02:16)

5. Anne reads a passage from “The Death of the Moth” (00:04:44)

6. The moth as hero (00:06:38)

7. Lepidopterists (00:09:14)

8. Anne the editor (00:18:35)

9. Woolf’s suicide (00:19:15)

10. Pencil or pen? (00:25:24)

11. Writing as a form of stability (00:26:52)

12. Woolf’s microcosm (00:31:14)

13. Anne’s essay, “Frog” (00:32:00)

14. Honoring Bunky the aquatic frog (00:34:56)

15. Balancing humor and sadness (00:37:26)

16. The common or familiar essay (00:40:21)

17. A family of compulsive proofreaders (00:43:26)

18. Swamp driver or diamond polisher? (00:47:36)