Lately I've been thinking about the blur that is the self and the ways we try to define it. I first focused, this week, on this idea because of Sheila Heti's "Diary in Alphabetical Order" that's appearing in installments in the Times. Heti loaded ten years worth of journaling into Excel and ordered her sentences alphabetically, then cut them down and blurred her characters, creating something more akin to fiction. She says it best in her intro to the piece: "The self's report on itself is surely a great fiction." The de- and re-contextualization of her thoughts provides a poignancy and power oftentimes missing from streams of consciousness or purely diaristic writing. The D section really got me-- all those "dont's."
Lately #3:The Blur of the Self
Lately #3:The Blur of the Self
Lately #3:The Blur of the Self
Lately I've been thinking about the blur that is the self and the ways we try to define it. I first focused, this week, on this idea because of Sheila Heti's "Diary in Alphabetical Order" that's appearing in installments in the Times. Heti loaded ten years worth of journaling into Excel and ordered her sentences alphabetically, then cut them down and blurred her characters, creating something more akin to fiction. She says it best in her intro to the piece: "The self's report on itself is surely a great fiction." The de- and re-contextualization of her thoughts provides a poignancy and power oftentimes missing from streams of consciousness or purely diaristic writing. The D section really got me-- all those "dont's."