"There's no point in writing it all down if nobody ever reads it."
April 30, 2016 2:12 PM Subscribe
One breezy afternoon in 2001, two friends of mine, Richard and Dido, were mooching around a building site in Cambridge when they came across a battered yellow skip. Inside were 148 handwritten notebooks. Some were crammed into an old bottle box that had jaunty green print on the side: "Ribena! 5d!" Most were scattered across the bricks exultantly. A few had royal emblems from George VI's time. Others were bright, bubblegum colours, tangerine and mushy-pea green. A chalky jotter that Dido picked up broke like chocolate. Inside, the rotted pages were filled with urgent handwriting. Running up one of the margins were the words, "Hope my diaries aren't blown up before people can read them – they have immortal value." There was no name or return address on the books. The diarist was simply "I" who had lived, and then died, and been pitched in a skip.– Diary of a somebody: could I solve the mystery of 148 lost notebooks? is an essay by Alexander Masters about the writing of his new book, A Life Discarded.
Please sir, what is a skip?
posted by infini at 2:27 PM on April 30, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by infini at 2:27 PM on April 30, 2016 [5 favorites]
I believe it is a Dumpster. If that helps.
posted by rtha at 2:30 PM on April 30, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by rtha at 2:30 PM on April 30, 2016 [4 favorites]
this is awesome.
a skip is a big, open, metal container (maybe 4' wide, 8' long) that is usually filled with rubbish then taken away on a lorry.
posted by andrewcooke at 2:31 PM on April 30, 2016 [6 favorites]
a skip is a big, open, metal container (maybe 4' wide, 8' long) that is usually filled with rubbish then taken away on a lorry.
posted by andrewcooke at 2:31 PM on April 30, 2016 [6 favorites]
Fascinating -- I'll have to read the book.
posted by thesmallmachine at 2:32 PM on April 30, 2016
posted by thesmallmachine at 2:32 PM on April 30, 2016
Please sir, what is a skip?
[BRITISH] a large transportable open-topped container for building and other refuse.
posted by effbot at 2:32 PM on April 30, 2016
[BRITISH] a large transportable open-topped container for building and other refuse.
posted by effbot at 2:32 PM on April 30, 2016
Ah thank you. So difficult to google properly. I'd rather liked my earlier conclusion, that it was a flat bottomed boat, as are found on the river near Cambridge.
Utterly riveting read. Thanks Katullus!
posted by infini at 2:39 PM on April 30, 2016 [7 favorites]
Utterly riveting read. Thanks Katullus!
posted by infini at 2:39 PM on April 30, 2016 [7 favorites]
I will obtain this book.
posted by infini at 2:42 PM on April 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by infini at 2:42 PM on April 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
Wow, that was really interesting. I started out being increasingly annoyed with the author (Brits are very good at presenting themselves as annoying—don't get mad, you know you are!), and wound up riveted. And I loved this:
In 2011, my girlfriend and I moved again, to Great Snoring, Norfolk.
There'll always be an England!
posted by languagehat at 2:43 PM on April 30, 2016 [6 favorites]
In 2011, my girlfriend and I moved again, to Great Snoring, Norfolk.
There'll always be an England!
posted by languagehat at 2:43 PM on April 30, 2016 [6 favorites]
This is astonishing. We should always be careful when assuming that people live "ordinary", dull lives. I know of no-one who has actually led a "dull" life.
posted by jokeefe at 3:00 PM on April 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by jokeefe at 3:00 PM on April 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
infini: Ah thank you. So difficult to google properly. I'd rather liked my earlier conclusion, that it was a flat bottomed boat, as are found on the river near Cambridge.
That would be a punt.
posted by James Scott-Brown at 3:17 PM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
That would be a punt.
posted by James Scott-Brown at 3:17 PM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
Wow, that was just fantastic.
Thank you, Katullus!
(And also thanks to all the commenters above who said it was fantastic, because otherwise I probably would have put this on my list to read sometime this week and never actually gotten around to it.)
posted by kristi at 3:28 PM on April 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
Thank you, Katullus!
(And also thanks to all the commenters above who said it was fantastic, because otherwise I probably would have put this on my list to read sometime this week and never actually gotten around to it.)
posted by kristi at 3:28 PM on April 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
Could we possibly have an exchange about a deeply interesting biography with a fascinating background without fetishising the culture it comes from? It's weird and gross.
One of my favourite forms of fiction is the kind that is really no more than a made-up biography, often of a life that is no more extraordinary or mundane than yours or mine. I am fascinated by the idea of book and I am rabid to read this.
posted by DarlingBri at 3:36 PM on April 30, 2016
One of my favourite forms of fiction is the kind that is really no more than a made-up biography, often of a life that is no more extraordinary or mundane than yours or mine. I am fascinated by the idea of book and I am rabid to read this.
posted by DarlingBri at 3:36 PM on April 30, 2016
Somewhat like stumbling on the Vivian Maier trove...
posted by jim in austin at 3:36 PM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by jim in austin at 3:36 PM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
Thanks, OP! This story has filled me with joy.
posted by Bella Donna at 3:39 PM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Bella Donna at 3:39 PM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
Sometime in the late fifties, my grandfather found a handwritten diary and address book that belonged to woman who lived mainly in San Francisco, in a dump in Martinez CA. It had been a family treasure since. This woman chronicles an amazing life back in the twenties that may or may not have included drug and liquor running in to the Bay Area. I have thought off and on of editing and typing it in to my computer. You never know...
posted by njohnson23 at 3:48 PM on April 30, 2016 [12 favorites]
posted by njohnson23 at 3:48 PM on April 30, 2016 [12 favorites]
How wonderful - I kept expecting some drab and dreary tragedy to overshadow things, and instead it's delightful.
posted by rmd1023 at 3:56 PM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by rmd1023 at 3:56 PM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
Could we possibly have an exchange about a deeply interesting biography with a fascinating background without fetishising the culture it comes from? It's weird and gross.
Can we not try to passive-aggressively control other people's behaviour with sniffy barbed remarks because the irony of that, in a comment complaining about the fetishisation of Britishness, is weapons-grade.
posted by Sebmojo at 4:32 PM on April 30, 2016 [40 favorites]
Can we not try to passive-aggressively control other people's behaviour with sniffy barbed remarks because the irony of that, in a comment complaining about the fetishisation of Britishness, is weapons-grade.
posted by Sebmojo at 4:32 PM on April 30, 2016 [40 favorites]
Not to spoil the story but WOW, that is a LOT of writing.
I've kept a journal/diary for a few years now but I'm sure nobody will ever want to read it, probably not even me. I've never gone back to older entries. I'm not even recording actual details of my life for the most part, rather it's just a long series of "Here's what I've been thinking about lately" sort of stuff. It seems to help quiet my mind and that's probably why I keep it up.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 4:41 PM on April 30, 2016
I've kept a journal/diary for a few years now but I'm sure nobody will ever want to read it, probably not even me. I've never gone back to older entries. I'm not even recording actual details of my life for the most part, rather it's just a long series of "Here's what I've been thinking about lately" sort of stuff. It seems to help quiet my mind and that's probably why I keep it up.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 4:41 PM on April 30, 2016
Masters wrote one of my favorite biographies, Stuart: A Life Backwards. It's also about a regular person, albeit one who spent a fair amount of time in prison.
posted by that's candlepin at 5:33 PM on April 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by that's candlepin at 5:33 PM on April 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
I can't help but wish her a better biographer -- but maybe I'm especially sensitive about the kind of person whose curiosity turns "erotic" after finding out that his subject has experienced menarche. I'm charmed by Laura's well-chronicled life; I'm less charmed by the initially grudging and then mildly gross interest of the author.
posted by babelfish at 5:39 PM on April 30, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by babelfish at 5:39 PM on April 30, 2016 [9 favorites]
I am hypersensitive to British fetishization and yeah, this thread really really isn't it.
posted by BungaDunga at 8:10 PM on April 30, 2016
posted by BungaDunga at 8:10 PM on April 30, 2016
Can't possibly click through, because books do not ever scatter 'exultantly', and I don't think they break like chocolate either.
posted by wilful at 8:44 PM on April 30, 2016
posted by wilful at 8:44 PM on April 30, 2016
I can't help but wish her a better biographer -- but maybe I'm especially sensitive about the kind of person whose curiosity turns "erotic" after finding out that his subject has experienced menarche. I'm charmed by Laura's well-chronicled life; I'm less charmed by the initially grudging and then mildly gross interest of the author.
I had this reaction as well, and would have liked to hear that, as well as becoming "a friend," that she was sharing in any income generated by sale of the book. And I might prefer to read an edited edition of some of her diaries over his biography. I am glad she approved the biography.
He estimates that she has written 40 million words, making her the "most prolific" diarist in history. That made me wonder, so I popped into a file I have that contains about 800 of what you might call diary entries that I have written over the past 15 years, from when I was 35 to now, when I am 50. Estimating their average length, they add up to between 3.2 million and 4 million words. I have probably 40 or 50 notebooks and journals from the years when I was still writing on paper, as well as prior journals on the computer in different formats and styles. I don't know if I've been more prolific the past 15 years, or less. But it's a heck of a lot of words, and, although I am a fairly organized person, just finding all of it would be a project. "What's the point of writing it all down if nobody ever reads it," indeed. I dream that maybe someday one of my kids will care enough, but it's an absolutely overwhelming amount of stuff. I have probably labored for naught. sigh
posted by not that girl at 8:49 PM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
I had this reaction as well, and would have liked to hear that, as well as becoming "a friend," that she was sharing in any income generated by sale of the book. And I might prefer to read an edited edition of some of her diaries over his biography. I am glad she approved the biography.
He estimates that she has written 40 million words, making her the "most prolific" diarist in history. That made me wonder, so I popped into a file I have that contains about 800 of what you might call diary entries that I have written over the past 15 years, from when I was 35 to now, when I am 50. Estimating their average length, they add up to between 3.2 million and 4 million words. I have probably 40 or 50 notebooks and journals from the years when I was still writing on paper, as well as prior journals on the computer in different formats and styles. I don't know if I've been more prolific the past 15 years, or less. But it's a heck of a lot of words, and, although I am a fairly organized person, just finding all of it would be a project. "What's the point of writing it all down if nobody ever reads it," indeed. I dream that maybe someday one of my kids will care enough, but it's an absolutely overwhelming amount of stuff. I have probably labored for naught. sigh
posted by not that girl at 8:49 PM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
I dream that maybe someday one of my kids will care enough, but it's an absolutely overwhelming amount of stuff. I have probably labored for naught.
Well, you never know. Your kids may not care but perhaps their descendants will. Or, perhaps, some future historian. Maybe you've captured the only surviving record of something of keen interest hundreds of years from now. You really, really, never know.
However, my advice is to consider the writing itself to be the reward. As I mentioned above, I think it's a good habit in that it calms and clears the mind.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 9:06 PM on April 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
Well, you never know. Your kids may not care but perhaps their descendants will. Or, perhaps, some future historian. Maybe you've captured the only surviving record of something of keen interest hundreds of years from now. You really, really, never know.
However, my advice is to consider the writing itself to be the reward. As I mentioned above, I think it's a good habit in that it calms and clears the mind.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 9:06 PM on April 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
It's bit disheartening that Masters' name doesn't get instant recognition. A Life Backwards is a masterpiece of compassion. There isn't a better biographer alive.
posted by smugly rowan at 3:49 AM on May 1, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by smugly rowan at 3:49 AM on May 1, 2016 [3 favorites]
I've kept diaries since I was 11 (I'll be 50 this year). I'm not sure I'd want my kids to read them, especially the earlier years (anger! Hatred! Lust! Sex!) but I don't want to ever discard them, either. Even though I've cut back on my writing - and some years I've only used date books because what was going on was too painful to write about - I still feel these are the chapters that make up my life.
I own a diary from 1914 from a woman who lived in or near West Chester, PA, USA. With the exception of one day, she filled each page with information: deaths, funerals, birthdays, how many chickens/ducks she seemingly sold to a business. There's even a hanging mentioned. I found her life fascinating, while I completely expect that she found it very boring, tiring even.
Also, while attending an estate sale, we purchased a cedar chest that was filled with hundreds of love letters between a couple who eventually married and raised a family. They lived in Philadelphia; he graduated from Harvard Law School in the mid 1930s. She spent summers at the Jersey Shore, penning as many as four letters a day to him. Surprisingly, they aren't all letters of longing and love. She spends a fair amount of time whining to him...after reading the first couple of years, I'm surprised he ever actually married her! What's sad is that no one in their family considered these letters to be important enough to save. That is what is heartbreaking about things like this that get tossed aside. I am looking forward to this book; I hope I can get my hands on it.
posted by annieb at 9:56 AM on May 1, 2016 [6 favorites]
I own a diary from 1914 from a woman who lived in or near West Chester, PA, USA. With the exception of one day, she filled each page with information: deaths, funerals, birthdays, how many chickens/ducks she seemingly sold to a business. There's even a hanging mentioned. I found her life fascinating, while I completely expect that she found it very boring, tiring even.
Also, while attending an estate sale, we purchased a cedar chest that was filled with hundreds of love letters between a couple who eventually married and raised a family. They lived in Philadelphia; he graduated from Harvard Law School in the mid 1930s. She spent summers at the Jersey Shore, penning as many as four letters a day to him. Surprisingly, they aren't all letters of longing and love. She spends a fair amount of time whining to him...after reading the first couple of years, I'm surprised he ever actually married her! What's sad is that no one in their family considered these letters to be important enough to save. That is what is heartbreaking about things like this that get tossed aside. I am looking forward to this book; I hope I can get my hands on it.
posted by annieb at 9:56 AM on May 1, 2016 [6 favorites]
Can't possibly click through, because books do not ever scatter 'exultantly', and I don't think they break like chocolate either.
Oh weird. I can picture exactly how the books would be scattered exultantly or how a rotten one might break like chocolate. Anyway, if you're not joking, you're missing out. Good read!
posted by limeonaire at 10:38 AM on May 1, 2016 [8 favorites]
Oh weird. I can picture exactly how the books would be scattered exultantly or how a rotten one might break like chocolate. Anyway, if you're not joking, you're missing out. Good read!
posted by limeonaire at 10:38 AM on May 1, 2016 [8 favorites]
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A jot or two of self-parody never harmed a soul, one notes to oneself.
posted by mwhybark at 2:20 PM on April 30, 2016 [3 favorites]