Joan Didion explains to us in the essay “On Keeping a Notebook” that her point of “keeping a notebook has never been, nor is it now, to have an accurate factual record of what I have been doing or thinking” (77).
Throughout “On Keeping,” Didion tells us her reasoning for keeping a notebook is to see the types of expressions of how a person is feeling at a point in time, rather than keeping a diary which is just a record of dated events.
Didion tells us that keepers of private notebooks are lonely and nervous children who were afflicted at birth (76).
At such a young age, Didion could not stop whining, so her mother decided to give her a notebook in which she could amuse herself by writing down the thoughts that came to her mind. Her first entry at the age of five is about a woman trapped in two different worlds waiting for death to come get her.
Somehow Didion has been afflicted at such a young age that she sometimes envies reality but does not possess it, thus causing her to keep a notebook based upon lies. Didion states that “we are brought up in the ethic that others, any others, all others, are by definition more interesting than ourselves […]” (78).
As we grow older we tend to be shy and modest about our achievements, that only a certain type of people may ponder about oneself, while the rest of us are here to absorb their affections.
This is why our notebooks are not used for the general public to understand our writing but instead they are for ourselves to keep an open mind of our private thoughts. Only to keep what some would call lies, entries about our lives at a point that we never wanted to end. Keeping notes about only certain memories of someone so we never think wrong about them, or never forget how great that time was. Didion thinks that “we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be whether we find them attractive company or not” (81).
The Essay on Golden Age Of Athens And Women
The Golden Age of Athens was one of the most brilliant eras in Athenian history. Yet this brilliance did not reflect womens roles during this time period. The Golden Age of Athens was a low point for women; through societys opinion of women, the citys politics, and their household lives. The Athenians viewed all classes of women as an unimportant distraction to society. The most constant view of ...
She uses her notebook to keep in touch with the people who she once used to be, so they never turn up unannounced one night with questions of who left them. Didion uses specific ways to remember her past, like writing down random words and facts so she could reconnect with her past selves and relive a certain moment. That is why she never overlooks those people that she no longer wants to distinguish herself with, never forgetting why we abandoned those lives and the people with it, and never forgetting who we were.
Towards the end of the essay Didion says “We are all on our own when it comes to keeping those lines open to ourselves” because the things we write in our notebooks are only meant for us to understand what they mean, ultimately that is why ones notebook will not help another and vice-versa. So whether you lie or tell the truth in the notebook, only the writer will know what kind of feelings those lines will bring. This is why Didion only wrote down certain things so she can only remember the good or bad out of a certain outcome.
