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Nazish Nasim's avatar

This was an absolute pleasure to read, Artemisia. The idea of a zibaldone as a living, chaotic archive of thought is so ...new.

P.S. I love Oscar Wilde too!

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Artemisia Writes's avatar

(Also btw I’m working on an Oscar Wilde piece. Got a bit too long so it needs more time. I don’t want to focus on commonplace details - there was nothing commonplace about him or his work obviously, but in the sense of things already well known)

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Nazish Nasim's avatar

My first interaction with Wilde’s work was “The Picture of Dorian Grey”. An incredible work.

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Artemisia Writes's avatar

Yes. Strange he only wrote one novel. I can never have enough of The Importance of Being Earnest. It is exquisitely constructed, funny every single time, and razor sharp for social satire. Plus he deals a just card to both genders 😅.

Ironic that his life took the tragic turn as soon as this success was out.

I am feeling motivated now to not delay my draft...! 🙏🏼

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Artemisia Writes's avatar

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! I had no idea either.

But in fact I might need to edit this article to point out that it's the invention of paper notebooks specifically that enabled their use as we know it. Because of the qualities of paper for mark making and preserving the marking, and because cheap to mass-produce quickly compared to parchment.

I didn't want it to become too long to read but it's an important point.

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Matthew Donnellon's avatar

Fascinating

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Barbs Honeycutt's avatar

I'm all for bringing back the zibaldone ;) and I like your haphazard take on 'notes to future-self'

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Artemisia Writes's avatar

I have a lot of fun with that. But just the idea of how much potential lies within the pages of a notebook, any notebook, from any place or time. Or rather, the potential a notebook can unlock.

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Barbs Honeycutt's avatar

I am curious, have you read 'the midnight library' ?

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Artemisia Writes's avatar

I haven’t read it but I am 80% I own a copy. Tell me more?

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Barbs Honeycutt's avatar

The protagonist gets to experience her life if she made different decisions, and she could stay in that timeline to discover more or snap out at any point and let her other self continue with a minor memory lapse. But why did I mention it? Because sometimes I find handwritten notes I forgot writing, and it's like another barbs left me a sign. Like leaving notes in a diary and letting future you piece the storyline together ;)

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Artemisia Writes's avatar

... or letting future you look back and find directions you did not take...

I'm having a similar experience at the moment, having re-opened an old Word Doc where I used to save my poems. I used to write poetry almost regularly, until about 9 years ago when I settled into my current job which left no space for poetry (the chaotic notebook keeping is in fact a kind of replacement). Looking at those poems now I see distinctly different selves, except unlike with handwritten notes, those selves are stuck in the past, they aren't me anymore. It's a good thing, but it's funny how it's so different from notes, which manage to hold a sense of promise and possibility.

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Barbs Honeycutt's avatar

I'm sorry to hear about your poetry-sucking job :/ but I'm glad your creative spirit found a way haha

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Sarah Bringhurst Familia's avatar

I loved reading this. I’ve been making my way slowly through Allen’s book, since I found it at the Rijksmuseum Library in Amsterdam, and you can only read their material at the library. Then someone else requested it, so I’ve been bereft for the past three weeks. I think I need my own copy! I love the part where he talks about what a game changer paper was. A couple of years ago, I was in Amalfi, Italy, and visited a wonderful 14th century paper factory, and it made me feel so connected to that time.

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Artemisia Writes's avatar

Hello! Thank you SO much for reading and for taking a moment to write back, I really enjoyed your comment. I am jealous that you read some of the book at the Rijksmuseum library, what a treat! I have to confess that my copy is on Kindle because there are times when I struggle to read real books (but of course every time I finish anything on Kindle I desperately want to own it on paper! You can highlight quotes there too but I forget about them whereas a real book can be picked up and browsed again any time).

I actually have a long-term mental note to add the detail about the paper revolution when I revisit this article (aiming to revisit all my articles). I should have done it in the first place but my articles get too long.

Wonderful that you visited a paper factory in Italy! I've lived and worked for 12 years in Rome but never went south from there, only northwards. One day...

Enjoy the rest of the book when you can. I was hooked on immediately - what a topic, at once unexpected and fascinating.

There is a similar book about papyrus, but I haven't checked it out yet.

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Sarah Bringhurst Familia's avatar

I read a lot on Kindle too. Kindle keeps a document with all your highlights, so I’ve taken to going back from time to time and copying those down into a commonplace book. It’s still a bit of a work in progress, since I’m rather chaotic too, but I like having my favourite passages down in one notebook even better than having passages marked in the book itself.

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Artemisia Writes's avatar

I could really make better use of my Kindle quotes, being less chaotic would be a good start :D

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KV's avatar

Another fascinating piece! I need a zibaldone, and quickly. I completely grasp that queer sensation where you go back in your journal and read something you wrote and can’t recall in what state of mind you wrote it with, with what memories in mind; it’s just become a shadow of who you are now. I’ve also always been a bummer with keeping my notes in order, because ideas just come and if you don’t jot them down they vanish like a handful of dust. I love the quotes; ‘we are writers who carry novels like strange countries within us’. Aren’t we all. And thankyou for sharing those inspiring pages of your own journal :))

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Artemisia Writes's avatar

I'm actually terrible at keeping notebooks. I have several on the go at any given time, some mainly scrapbooks. But when I travel, which is less often than it might seem, I use just one notebook all the way through for focused entries alongside the mad ones in a less serious and more multi-media notebook.

You've just reminded me of a funny quote I could have used!!!

I'll edit later and show you it 🙈😅

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Scarlette's avatar

I love this piece!! So much insight into the tradition of keeping record of life and emotion. I also, often, turn to my past journals and feel like it’s an anthropology of life’s chapters. Sometimes I sit in my sunroom and open a few of them up to the closest day at hand and reflect on what was happening at that point in my life over the years.

Your scrapbook-type journaling of volumes of life and experience is gorgeous and inspiring ☺️ and what beautiful catalogues of existence; such a treasure.

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Artemisia Writes's avatar

Oh what a beautiful phrase, 'an anthropology of life's chapters'! Fitting title for one's journal collection. Or even for a series of articles. And I love your description of reading in the sunroom.

I'm not very consistent with my journals, unless I am away from home, when I really get into them. But I realised that even if we're not consistent, including very long gaps, what we do record still makes for valuable memories.

Also useful for looking back on moments that seemed impossible 'at the time' - and seeing we did get through them, often even managing to also leave them completely behind. Powerful reminders of the resilience within us for when the going gets tough.

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Nobody's Business's avatar

I love love love this post, especially your whimsical idea of writing on pages ahead in a new notebook. It somehow feels like time travel. Future you meeting with old you or vice versa...(it's confusing). But still, very endearing. ❤️

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Artemisia Writes's avatar

Time travel! Yes! Didn't think of that!

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Debbie Liu's avatar

What a glorious tribute to notebooks!! I love your writing haunt at the Caffe' del Castello!

How odd that this Allen feels the need to look down upon the legendary Sappho! He must be a sad boy indeed!

And here is a new word for me, the zibaldone! here's to 'thriving in chaotic, free-form nature’,

Another great post from you!🥰

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