In class we are assigned a reading, and we read and annotate it for homework and post the response and pictures of the annotation here.
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
‘On Keeping a Notebook’
Through this chapter Joan Didion tries to translate the feelings she has about writing in a notebook to her readers. The overall feelings are negative ones towards having people with notebooks. She seems to be contradicting herself a few times throughout the text, for example she talks about her daughter not writing because she is delightful, accepting,blessed and unafraid, which means that the opposite is true for people who do write. At another point she discusses how useful the ideas she has written down will be on a rainy day, of having no inspiration or drive on a certain day. Most of the text comes off as negative with a hint of sarcasm and strange humor, but towards the end Joan Didion says, “We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. We forget the loves and the betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were. I have already lost touch with a couple of people I used to be.” This, seems negative at first, but after analyzing this sentence one can learn something great from Didion.
We are in a period where everything is constantly evolving. From technology, personal growth, clothing to national rules, we become completely surrounded by change. Adapting to these changes has become a societal norm and ability. One is forced to change and therefore naturally forget the way things originally have been to make ‘room’ for the new information. People change, from high school to college to the ‘real world’ we are forced, thrown, into new worlds but forced to adapt just as quickly as we are thrown. I believe we accepted this mechanism to help people to let go of the past, the good or bad, to move on. This is such a deep-seemingly dark concept thrown in the middle of Didion’s writing but it is something that we should learn from. We should accept the present and the change that is happening all around us while remembering and learning from the past, but we shouldn’t hold on and get stuck in it. Not so heavy and dark after all, Joan Didion.
