Commonplace Book
Introduction by Sophia
In a Rhetoric class we took together, our teacher required us each to purchase a small notebook to keep ideas, quotes, and inspiration for future writing projects. Naturally, that notebook was quickly pushed to the back of my locker where it stayed for the rest of the year. Reflecting back now, however, I realize that I have always kept little commonplace books around me: sticky notes in my locker, annotations in my books, random quotes in my notes app on my phone, and more. I am not uninspired. The tricky part for me has always been taking the time out of my bustling day to put the little moments of inspiration in one intentional place. I hope that as we keep this digital commonplace book throughout our trip, we can share the things that inspire and interest us with you, and save them for ourselves in the future.
Truth is mysterious, elusive, always to be conquered. Liberty is dangerous, as hard to live with as it is elating.
By definition he [a writer] cannot put himself today in the service of those who make history; he is at the service of those who suffer it.
The Untersberg kept leading me higher and higher as though it wanted me to go right through the clouds with it.
Whatever our personal weaknesses may be, the nobility of our [writers’] craft will always be rooted in two commitments, difficult to maintain: the refusal to lie about what one knows and the resistance to oppression.
“It is not difficult to avoid death, gentlemen; it is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death. Slow and elderly as I am, I have been caught by the slower pursuer, whereas my accusers, being clever and sharp, have been caught by the quicker, wickedness. I leave you now, condemned to death by you, but they are condemned by truth to wickedness and injustice”
Even if some natural material is involved, such as stone or wood, when I use it, it bears very distinctive signs that it has, for example, been carved from the earth by man or that trees have been cut, for instance. It is about human invention.
Till Shiva stops dancing
The similarity of all these disciplines-sculpture, drawing, painting, writing-lies in the fact that an artist uses a material as an extension of himself and begins a dialog with the material to discover and create something new: poetry. Some make new discoveries, others may find what they’ve been looking for.
I learned English from Cartoon Network.
Everyone speaks the same language under the water.
I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great.