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Work #993 · Mature

Orlando

Virginia Woolf
1928 (Hogarth Press) · English
Mock-biographical novel · Twentieth-century English modernist literature

A young Elizabethan nobleman lives through four centuries and changes sex midway — founding work of modernist gender-fluid literature

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute Orlando (Mature)
Time · Extent Infinite
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Infinite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Infinite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Multiple
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Partial
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Both
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency None
Observer · Moral Authority Experience
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Infinite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

Orlando

Four centuries — Elizabethan to modern.

Space

Orlando

English country house, London, Constantinople, Russian frost-fair.

Matter

Orlando

Orlando's body — male, then female, always immortal.

Observer

Orlando

Mock-biographer with affectionate irony; Orlando's shifting consciousness.

Energy

Orlando

Energies of writing, love, sex organising episodes.

Information

Orlando

Historical-cultural detail; gender-philosophical analysis.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

Orlando

Feminist and queer-theoretical reception emphasises gender-fluid dimensions; some critics find this underweights the work's other concerns.