The many notebooks I’ve filled in recent years are normally scattered across various drawers and desks but last week I gathered them into a single pile and they look like this.
At first sight, I thought you had stolen *my* notebooks. A second look, and I was pretty sure you had, except for the fact that my handwriting has improved, perhaps from being "laid up", like scotch in a barrel.
Here's an apposite item from a notebook I was keeping in 1978:
"Runaway thought, I wanted to write it; instead, I write that it has run away"
(Blaise Pascal, quoted by Roland Barthes, in 'Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes')
Brilliant read. I’ve often found the process of note taking to be more important than the actual product.
Mellis’ notion of the waste book seems to be reminiscent of how everyday rituals first become concretised before being embedded within the broader taxonomy of life.
My last bevvy in an actual pub was at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street, on a windy saturday afternoon in March 2020, to jot down some review notes on Carolyn Thompson's show 'Post Moderns', which I had just visited at the nearby Eagle Gallery. This was Dr Johnson's local, as it is literally a stone's throw from Gough House, and must have acted as a sort of late 17th century break out space when his labours in the Dictionary Loft became overwhelming, even for a lexicographic titan like Johnson. Today the Cheese (which is a catacomb pub perhaps only matched in England by The Trip to Jerusalem in Nottingham -where I also have previous), has a ground floor chop room as well as a monk's cellar, but alas no patio or garden, so its future under Covid restrictions looks uncertain.
The Cheshire Cheese is my favourite pub! I had a launch party there in 2010 for the book that incorporated the notes on commonplace books mentioned, below. There were boat-shaped cheese boards.
At first sight, I thought you had stolen *my* notebooks. A second look, and I was pretty sure you had, except for the fact that my handwriting has improved, perhaps from being "laid up", like scotch in a barrel.
Here's an apposite item from a notebook I was keeping in 1978:
"Runaway thought, I wanted to write it; instead, I write that it has run away"
(Blaise Pascal, quoted by Roland Barthes, in 'Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes')
Mike
Nice. I suspect many notebooks are full of essentially the same notes, over and over.
Brilliant read. I’ve often found the process of note taking to be more important than the actual product.
Mellis’ notion of the waste book seems to be reminiscent of how everyday rituals first become concretised before being embedded within the broader taxonomy of life.
Thanks, Josh! Agreed re process.
My last bevvy in an actual pub was at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street, on a windy saturday afternoon in March 2020, to jot down some review notes on Carolyn Thompson's show 'Post Moderns', which I had just visited at the nearby Eagle Gallery. This was Dr Johnson's local, as it is literally a stone's throw from Gough House, and must have acted as a sort of late 17th century break out space when his labours in the Dictionary Loft became overwhelming, even for a lexicographic titan like Johnson. Today the Cheese (which is a catacomb pub perhaps only matched in England by The Trip to Jerusalem in Nottingham -where I also have previous), has a ground floor chop room as well as a monk's cellar, but alas no patio or garden, so its future under Covid restrictions looks uncertain.
The Cheshire Cheese is my favourite pub! I had a launch party there in 2010 for the book that incorporated the notes on commonplace books mentioned, below. There were boat-shaped cheese boards.