Way back in the day (and I am coming up on the 19th anniversary of starting this blog – CRAZY) – but I used to do “commonplace book” entries, and even started a Tumblr called Commonplace Book. I’ve always kept little notebooks of quotes, stuff I see, hear, want to remember. Part of my cataloging, archivist sensibility. The idea of a commonplace book I’ve always loved, although I didn’t know what it was called or that there was a whole history to this kind of thing when I started it up. I can see how it was a way to catalog things, mark things down, for easy access, in the days before the internet. How else could you find one damn quote in all the volumes in your library? So I thought it would be fun to post some here – AT RANDOM. The random-ness of it is what makes it fun, similar to those Music Shuffle posts I do. Open up the commonplace book to any page, and then share whatever entry I see first. So here’s the first: Maybe it will spark discussion. Maybe it will fight against the PLAGUE of statements like “Retweets do not equal endorsements”. As though anything you say or find interesting is something you ENDORSE. Like a political candidate. The internet has forced such ridiculous and stupid statements like “Retweets do not equal endorsements” upon us and I resent it. I don’t share things because I ENDORSE them. I’m not a political candidate. The infiltration of political language into everyday discourse by regular citizens is one of the marks of encroaching fascism. Look it up. Orwell knew all about it. If everything is about what you do and do not “endorse”, then conversation becomes impossible. <\/p>\n
So. Without further ado. This one has eerie resonance<\/a> for me. I don’t “endorse” this – because that’s political language, dammit, stay in your corner – but I find it truthful and there’s a reason I copied it down. <\/p>\n “It is always thus, impelled by a state of mind which is destined not to last, that we make our irrevocable decisions.” <\/p>\n — Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time<\/em>, volume 2, page 209<\/big><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Way back in the day (and I am coming up on the 19th anniversary of starting this blog – CRAZY) – but I used to do “commonplace book” entries, and even started a Tumblr called Commonplace Book. I’ve always kept … Continue reading