Tuesday, October 6, 2015
The Diary
The Diary is a concept I have always struggled with. It's why I took this class- I've taken a stab at writing about my life and writing for passion, but I just don't know how to start on my own. The Diary has been an elusive figure throughout my life; it has collected, emptily and massively, on my shelves, gifts from aunts who don't know me nearly as well as they should and friends who, frankly, should have known better. The Diary is dangerous to me because you open it and you hold a whole life in your hands, regardless of whether you deserve to. It's hard for me to imagine someone picking up my diary and getting sucked into it without cringing. I don't think there could be an invasion of privacy more grossly unforgivable than setting up camp in someone's mind without letting them know, and I hate to be the victim, so I've kept well away from The Diary. If you've ever read The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, which I'm sure many of you have, you'll know it is a work of fiction, loosely based on his time in the Vietnam War. Before he wrote it, he had an autobiography published, but it didn't make the reader feel what he wanted them to. In using fiction to get across the honesty of his experience, he uses lies to tell the truth. That's how I'm coming to terms with the idea of The Diary- my fiction has parts of me hidden in it, and because I'm not writing as myself, I feel I can capture what my life is at the present moment more honestly. In short, I am trying to open my mind to the possibility that maybe I've been wrong not to write all along, and I may not be good, but it certainly does feel good.
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I understand, when I was younger I always wanted to start a diary. The only problem was that I could never stick with it. I would start and stop, start and stop, start and stop. I always felt like it wasn't a real if I started something I never finished.
ReplyDeleteI loved the line, "The Diary is dangerous to me because you open it and you hold a whole life in your hands." I think that's what most kids have a fear of when writing in a diary was that someone could easily find it, (or at least that's what I think of). I loved the language of this piece and your internal struggle with it. I also loved how you called it The Diary, as if you were personally addressing it.
ReplyDeleteI loved the line, "The Diary is dangerous to me because you open it and you hold a whole life in your hands." I think that's what most kids have a fear of when writing in a diary was that someone could easily find it, (or at least that's what I think of). I loved the language of this piece and your internal struggle with it. I also loved how you called it The Diary, as if you were personally addressing it.
ReplyDeleteI really liked hearing your thoughts on keeping a diary. I also like the way you referred to it as The Diary, it gave it a more powerful feel. I personally think that a journal or diary is a great way to keep track of what is happening in your life. I keep one when I am at camp and when I was abroad so as to remind myself of all the good (And bad) times. I think it is defiantly a love or hate kind of thing.
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