Why the sneer in "All she's done is publish her diaries"? It's as if this were cheating. As if it were lazy. As if there were no work involved in keeping a diary in the first place: no thinking, no discipline, no creative energy, no focusing or directing of creative energy; no intelligent or artful ordering of material; no choosing material, for God's sake; no shaping of narrative; no ear for the music of human speech; no portrayal of the physical world; no leaping between inner and outer; no examination of motive; no imaginative use of language.
It's as if a diary wrote itself, as if it poured out in a sludgy, involuntary, self-indulgent stream -- and also, even more annoyingly, as if the writer of a diary were so entirely narcissistic, and in some absurd and untenable fashion believed herself to be so entirely unique, so hermetically enclosed in a bubble of self, that a rigorous account of her own experience could have no possible relevance to, or usefulness for, or offer any pleasure to, any other living person on the planet.
"I"
Helen Garner
Meanjin (March 1, 2002)
(For a sense of how my journal page evolved, take a look here. A highly recommended exercise too!)
Having read at least one Mary Sarton book/diary, I say "Stop the Sneering"!! ;)
ReplyDeleteI love that article from Helen Garner, I have it saved somewhere! I think her words also apply to blogs. I've lost count how many times I've seen a review of a book by a blogger where someone has written "this is just their blog in book form"...as if, to paraphrase, there was no discipline and effort involved in keeping a blog and it just wrote itself ;) x
ReplyDeleteI love this and couldn't agree more with Phillipa ... after all what is a blog!! xx
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