/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.21652873]

Do you guys ever actually reread what you write in your diary? Not immediately obviously I mean after some time has passed. I never do it personally. I'm afraid to.

[Anonymous No.21652877]

>>21652873
I do it occasionally, not necessarily with my diaries but with my creative writing from years back, specifically projects that I’ve since abandoned. I did it recently and found the opposite of what I expected, my prose was better than I remembered while my ideas were worse.

[Anonymous No.21652953]

>>21652873
I do, and I realize that in since when I started (3 years ago) I still have the same problems and fail in the same ways, and that I already thought things that I may think now and think that they will be helpful to me. It's kinda depressing, I just would like to stop thinking because apparently it has no use to me

[Anonymous No.21654034]

>>21652873
Yeah but it’s usually gonna be a later time when I’ve forgotten about it and stumble upon it. It’s weird to do. You will completely forget all the mundane details you write about at the time. It’s pretty fun.

[Anonymous No.21654057]

>>21652873
I only write that which I desire to re-read. Notes, quotations, excerpts, etc.

[Voluntary Fool No.21655301]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91gT68xeDMM

[Anonymous No.21656950]

>>21652873
Stupid frogposter.

[Anonymous No.21657035]

I do it sometimes. One thing did surprise me when i first decided to reread writings of mine from years ago though: even in periods of my life which I remember very fondly now as good nostalgic times, i can still pick up diary writings from then on and notice the exact same thing this anon says >>21652953. I have to tell you, it's kind of a demoralizing experience to pick up your texts from some year X which, in your memory, was sort of a "golden age" of your life, and have your past and younger self be talking to you about how fucking bad and depressing everything is. It hits pretty hard to know that it was ALWAYS terrible, always, and it all still continues to be terrible even though nearly an entire decade has passed and you have become older and more mature. Your memory simply erased the unpleasant side of the past.

I guess this is just confirmation of what Schopenhauer said:
>By a process of contradiction, distance in space makes things look small, and therefore free from defect. This is why a landscape looks so much better in a contracting mirror or in a camera obscura, than it is in reality. The same effect is produced by distance in time. The scenes and events of long ago, and the persons who took part in them, wear a charming aspect to the eye of memory, which sees only the outlines and takes no note of disagreeable details.