There is an entirely uncommon and not entirely known tradition aimed at the publication of notebooks. Notebooks are understood as a collection of notes, opinion notes from writers, philosophers, and even ordinary citizens who may have had an exceptional experience—because they survived a particular historical moment, say, a tragedy. that they trust throughout their lives or at a particular time. They are not diary and neither is the work itself. In the case of a writer, they are nothing more than snapshots of what may or may not have been a novel in the end. Or thoughts that take no other form than annotation. These are actually small visits to the creator’s brain.
Arthur Conan Doyle mentioned such publications in the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. That’s because Holmes, an avid reader and a keen collector of annotated treasures, often sought an explanation for what happened in the notebooks that belonged to the victim or someone related to the case – the crime. Specifically, in The Adventure of the Veiled Tenant—Holmes’ adventures always have the wittiest titles: The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb, The Adventure of the Lone Biker, and That of the Man Who Walks on All Fours—Homes He In one of these notebooks, ordinary books—literally, common places. book – finds newspaper reports about an old murder that helped him solve the case.
scariest novel
Mark Z. Danielewski is building an episode of the frightening Alpha Decay/Pale Fire—it’s arguably the scariest novel ever written: it can’t be read without looking back—with something similar. It’s an ordinary book, because the main character’s consciousness is split between reading an old manuscript and his inexplicable home – endless inside, ordinary outside.
Virginia Woolf talks about these notebooks in one of the essays in Hours in a Library (Seix Barral); almost like her confessions as an irrepressible reader. He says of them “we all have notebooks around us, most of them blank pages,” and we write all kinds of things in them. For example, “we write the names of major authors sorted by their value; or we copy great paragraphs from the classics; or we make a list of books we want to read; or, more interestingly, one of the ones we read earlier». Did these notebooks, in your case, contain your ideas for stories and novels? Certainly. As much as his letters and diaries do, only in a decidedly more concise version. None of them have been published, and perhaps never will – perhaps they are not even preserved. Actually, not much has been published. The most famous of these is that of HP Lovecraft. Simply called The Ordinary Book and translated as Cuaderno de ideas, this book has just been published in Spain by Periférica.
Flying Annotations
One of the records reads, “Something is taken from someone in the dark in an old, desolate and most avoided place.” “The presence of an invisible creature is felt, or footprints are seen on the top of a mountain or some other inaccessible height,” says another. In some, point out what inspired them. A text from Hawthorne’s Encyclopedia Britannica. When it comes to something called “Trophonius’ cave,” here’s an article from the Classic Dictionary and the Atlantic, who knows what time it is. That means peeking into the flowing mind of the author of The Call of Cthulhu for a while. Because the curious thing about these commentaries is that they did not go beyond possible exits, as they were in most cases. And in this way they have remained intact over time.
This peculiar literary work was published after Lovecraft’s death. Published by his best friend and guardian, Robert H. Barlow. In fact, he founded a small publishing house called The Futile Press to do just that. Lovecraft’s intention for this book to exist is clear. He signs the meager preface. He presents this as a summary of “noted ideas, images, and quotes for possible future use in mystery fiction.” The initiate in the terrible work of Providence will immediately recognize him. You will even recognize his friendly and scary voice. And perhaps he will explore ideas, wondering what they would look like if they were turned into stories. The way something like this gets its job done is this: It brings back the working mind.