On Keeping a Notebook - Joan Didion

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However, notebooks can mostly be understood by the person who wrote them. Didion can adhere to that because she says that the amount of bias and imagination used can create a note log that she could possibly interpret. “Remember what it was to be me: that is always the point (paragraph 11).” When she writes in her notebook, she puts it down as she took that moment, how it made her feel, not someone else and how it affected them. The point of keeping the notebook was to see things in life, and then write down how one thing or more made her feel. “…not that I should ever use the line, but that I should remember the woman who said it and the afternoon I heard it (paragraph 17).” This quote refers back to the notebook being a personalized set of entries. Someone could read Didion’s notebook, but they wouldn’t know what they were supposed to get out of it. This is because it was written for her; she used her own imagination and her own bias in her notebook. It wouldn’t be useful for anyone else. Just like if Didion read someone else’s notebook, she wouldn’t be capable to comprehend what that person was getting at.

Though Didion uses bias and imagination in her notebook, it has strongly impacted her life. Keeping a notebook has allowed her to express her feelings, and amused her with her account logs. Notebooks are personalized, so to read someones other than yours will not get you anywhere; you can only understand what you have written in your notebook.

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