“So, yes, writing is my first love and there’s nothing better than really good literature – but art has one advantage in that it provides an active space, a space of becoming-active. You can actually do the thing rather than just represent it. Not if you’re a painter, of course – but in process-based art you can, and that’s a really powerful thing.”

Tom McCarthy, interviewed at http://www.readysteadybook.com/Article.aspx?page=tommccarthy

Visit to the bookstore yesterday made me buy Latour’s Reassembling the Social — http://www.ensmp.fr/~latour/livres/XII_tdmANT.html. Sort of outline of Actor Network Theory (ANT), a term that Latour is now happy to use. Sociology as tracing associations. I read the introductory chapter sitting on the beach of Zandvoort, of all places, early evening, trying to forget the blazing hot sun.

Also read Samuel Vriezen long poem ‘Gewrichten’ (‘joints’) that’s published in this month’s Yang, http://www.yangtijdschrift.be/.. First it seems as if the poem is just loose sentences and bits of sentences, but reading through them, pausing after each line (and each line is clearly a unit), a rhythm develops. Also some lines are repeated. (Samuel is a composer as well & I have been so lucky to be part/performer of his composition Motet; one of his pieces that deals with the rhythm of syntax — that is syntax of language). In the centre of the poem the lines that follow each other do sometimes form sentences together, or at least, can be read as sentences. If I counted right the poem consists of 496 lines, knowing a bit how he composes, and knowing a bit about his taste in poetry, I’m tempted to work out the algorithm, the schema, the form, that has generated this particular joining of words. But I could ask Samuel of course… Needless to say: this is the type of poetry that I love. Art made of language. Not anekdotes put in poetic phrases. (Excuse my wobbly English).

Samuel blogs — in Dutch — at http://blogger.xs4all.nl/sqv/

“In Human Life: Illustrated in My Individual Experience as a Child, a Youth, and a Man (1845), one of his published writings in which diary entries were frequently excerpted, Wright confessed that “writing a journal does me good. I can let off my indignation at the wrongs I see and hear. I am far happier when I write a little every day. I take more note too, of passing events, and see more of what is going on around me. I live less in the past and future, and more in the present, when I journalize . . . It saves me from many dark hours to write down what I see and hear and feel daily. My soul would turn in upon and consume itself, if I did not thus let it out into my journal.”

Right, this time it’s the quote as it appears in W. Caleb McDaniels article at http://www.common-place.org/vol-05/no-04/mcdaniel/index.shtml.

Also copy-pasted this bit — as it connects changes in technology to changes in reading & writing behavior; in the 19th century USA:

“Yet by 1850, this scarcity of print had given way to a bewildering abundance—a rapid growth no less impressive in its own time than the exponential proliferation of blogs in the last few years. Newspapers began to crop up not just in major urban areas but in smaller towns, and as print became more abundant, it was also diffused more widely and rapidly, thanks to a transportation revolution fueled by steam, railroads, and internal improvements like roads, canals, and an expanding postal service. These changes were, of course, not unique to the United States, but even foreign travelers to the young nation were awed by its burgeoning print culture.”

Ann Blair, “Note-Taking as an Art of Transmission” in Critical Inquiry 31, pp. 85-107 (2004).

Of course that’s online, but it’s behind one of those academic fences that one only can pass if one pays a small amount. (How I hate that…). Luckily the Critical Inquiry is available at the Jan van Eyck library.

“The blog provides a means of processing and selecting from an overwhelming abundance of written matter, and of publishing that record, with commentary, for anyone who cares to read it. In some cases, these “readings” become influential in themselves, and multiple readers engage in conversations across blogs. But treating blogging first as a reading practice, and second as its own genre of writing, political or otherwise, is useful in forming a more complete picture of this new/old phenomenon.”

“Perhaps, instead, blogging is the literate person’s new outlet for an old need. In Wright’s [a 19th century diary-writer] words, it is the need “to see more of what is going on around me.” And in print cultures where there is more to see, it takes reading, writing, and association in order to see more.”

Caleb McDaniel at:
http://www.futureofthebook.org/2005/08/the_blog_as_a_record_of_readin.html

(I refered that article in the earlier post on commonplace books. Now I finally read it).

Zomers, hier en daar een wolkje en al (te) warm als ik om kwart voor negen wegrijd. Leuk tochtje om de benen te laten herstellen. Volg voorbij Hermee de grote roze pijlen en vind daardoor een erg mooi glooiend landbouwwweggetje naar Glons.

Kanne – Eben – Halembaye – Froidmont – Houtain St Simeon – Heure L’ Romaine – Grand Aaz – Petit Aaz – Hermee – Fexhe – Glons – Paifve – Wihogne – Xhendremael – Othee – (pik de fietsknooppunten op) – Sluizen – Glons – Bassenge – Wonck – Eben – Kanne

Prachtig zomerweer. Opnieuw om 7 uur opgestaan, om kwart over 8 weggereden. Ik denk dat Huy te ver zal zijn, zeker omdat het warm zal zijn. Ik rij eerst netjes via de fietsknooppuntenroute tot Herstappe (en vraag me af hoe ik er gisteren in slaagde zo volledig verkeerd te rijden — deze route is bijna perfect), volg dan de Jeker tot in Geer, mijn omkeerpunt. Daarna hou ik een zuidelijke koers aan, maar ga meest richting westen dan gepland, zet Huy al uit mijn hoofd als ik, net voor 12 uur, met 68 kilometer op de teller ‘Huy 12’ zie staan. Toch naar Huy. Per ongeluk kom ik op de vierbaansweg terecht, en die volg ik tot in het dal. (Het is allemaal in dalende lijn, en het is rustig, maar het is altijd een vreemd gevoel om op de racefiets op een weg te rijden die weliswaar niet als autoweg is geklasseerd, maar er verder in alles op lijkt). (Natuurlijk had ik de ‘Route Jolie’ moeten volgen). In Huy rij ik de lekker steile St. Leonard op en vraag me af of dat nou de Muur van Hoei is (in mijn wielrenherinnering lopen de Muur van Geraardsbergen, de Citadel van Namen en de Muur van Hoei door elkaar). Ik daal die ook weer af — genoeg kilometers op de teller en ik wil niet helemaal door het dal terug. Via de prachtige klim door het bos van Tihange, de steile klim van Stockay en Les Cahottes terug naar bekend terrein. Het laatste uur is er een beetje teveel aan (warm). In Kanne kijk ik de laatste touretappe en lees vervolgens Frances Wheen’s boekje over Das Kapital (leuk, helder en formuleert kort de actuele aantrekkingskracht en het actuele belang van Marx, wel veel herhaling van de biografie, en een veel te kort boekje voor de prijs), en hoofdstuk 1 van zowel Gissing’s New Grub Street (vermakelijk, erg goed gedaan realisme) als Huxley’s Brave New World (wat stroef…). Wat een zondag maakt van 158 kilometer en evenzoveel boekbladzijden.

Kanne – Eben – Wonck – Bassenge – Boirs – Glons – Rutten – Herstappe – van Eben t/m Herstappe via de knooppunten – Lauw – Otrange – Oreye – Granville – Bergilers – Malpa – Oleye – Waremme – Grande Axhe – Hollonge sur Geer – Geer – Ligney – Tourinne – Les Waleffes – Vaux et Borset – Chapon Seraing – grote weg op – Ampsin – Huy – St. Leonard v.v. – Huy – Tihange – Bois de Tihange – Rawsa – Ombret – Pont de Hermalle – Stockay – Tincelle – Awirs – Les Cahottes – Lexhy – Roloux – Fexhe le Haut Clocher – Fooz – Villers L’Eveque – Xhendremael – Juprelle – Slins – Houtain st. Simeon – Bassenge – Wonck – Eben – Kanne

Om zeven uur opgestaan, om acht uur weggereden. Weersverwachting: warm, benauwd, in de loop van de middag bewolkt en een kans op buien en onweer. Plan: rondje naar Les Cahottes, wellicht wat verder (met in het achterhoofd de hoop dat het weer het zal toelaten om tot bij Huy te rijden. Weinig kans). Om half negen is het bewolkt. Om tien uur begint het te regenen. Ik ben dan juist Les Cahottes opgereden. In de richting van Huy zit het dicht en onweert het licht. Ik besluit dan maar richting noorden te rijden. Vanaf tien uur rij ik vrijwel onafgebroken in de buien, soms hoost het behoorlijk (op weg naar Donceel), soms zijn het sputters. Geen zon te zien. Het is niet koud. Eigenlijk is het heel lekker, die regen. (Al ben ik blij dat ik wel mn regenjack heb meegenomen). Als ik tegen drie uur Kanne binnenrijdt, is toch zon glorieus doorgebroken. (Het heeft daar een uurtje geregend). Het is onmiddellijk warm en benauwd. Om vier uur kan ik me niet voorstellen dat ik diezelfde dag meer dan vier uur in de regen heb gereden.

Omdat ik vanaf Limont geen duidelijk plan heb over een te volgen route, stap ik erg vaak (te vaak) af om op de kaart te kijken, rij verkeerd, keer om, soms volg ik de op de weg geschilderde pijlen (vooral fw en jjc), afgewisseld met de ‘fietsrouteknooppuntborden’. Dat pakt soms goed uit, soms rij ik rare ‘lusjes’.

Kanne – Eben – Wonck – Bassenge – Houtain St Simeon – Fexhe – Juprelle – Xhendremael – Hougnol – Fooz – Foroux-Goreux – Velroux – Lexhy – Awirs – Les Cahottes – Lexhy – Haneffe – Donceel – Limont – Remicourt – Granville – Oreye – Horpmaal – Gutschoven – Voort – Borgloon – Kerniel – Groot Loon – Heks – Vechmaal – Lauw – Herstappe – Rutten – (langs de Heksenbeek, mooi) – Diets-Heur – Nerem – Mal – (fietspad door het natuurgebied = verkeerde richting) – Mal – Sluizen – Glons – Boirs – Roclenge – Bassenge – Wonck – Eben – Kanne

Lately I’ve been doing a tiny bit of research in the use of commonplace books. There is a close resemblance between the function of commonplace books (in for instance the Seventeenth century) and how some people use blogs. Some bloggers see, or call their blogs commonplace books. It’s a pretty well-known comparision, but I never really explored it until now.

Here’s some quick info, with links, and links to some pictures:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonplace_book
http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/compb.htm
http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/46800

Here’s a danish blog that uses ‘commonplace book’ as a category — seems to have nice quotations… http://www.bookish.dk/index.php?cat=23. And a blog that calls itself a commonpace book: http://www.constantreader.org/v2/commonplace.html.

Some more relevant stuff:
http://www.futureofthebook.org/2005/08/the_blog_as_a_record_of_readin.html
http://cut-and-paste.de/
http://www.diyplanner.com/

There’s much more, but my dear reader, you can google as well as me.

In Making Things Public Anke te Heesen has a very nice short article about notebooks. I copied quite a few paragraphs from it; waht follows here is a digest of her article. I love the way she sees the notebook as a paper machine, as a technology that is an actor in how we write, store and process thoughts.

“The notebook as a paper-machine consists of the function noting and storing notes. ‘To note’ means first and foremost ‘to write down’, from the Latin notare, with the connotations sign, mark and writing, or from noscere, which means ‘to get to know’. ‘Note’, from notitia refers to this, namely, ‘to be known’. (…) Therefore apart from the actual act of wrigin, noting also describes a particular kind of perception: taking notice of something. Etymologically, here writing and taking notice are contained in one procedure, which at the same time implies habitual forming of a person and results in a praxis with paper that requires certain gestures, performed acts, rituals and tools.” p. 584

“From the sixteenth century on, bits of knowledge have been noted down in books with blank pages, stored in special boxes or placed in pigeonholes or compartments on bookshelves. In that era, the notes and small pieces of paper were the smallest material text-units of intellectual work. Organized note-taking was understood as a writing technique that could be learned, and it was one of the essential skills in the learned world.” p. 585

“Already in 1605, Francis Bacon recommends in Advancement of Learning the use of ‘commonplace books for entering the fruits of reading, quotations and references: ‘I hold that the diligence, and pains in collecting common Places, is of great use in certainty and studying.'” p. 586

“The philosopher John Locke, who influenced entire generations of English gentlemen with his instructions of how to make commonplace books, rendered the procedure methodical. In one of his texts, published in 1706, he described how to keep such a notebook. The ‘Memory is the treaurey or Storehouse,’ he said, but one must provide memory with an orderly basis. ‘It would be just for all the World as serviceable as a great deal of Household Stuff, when if we wanted any particular Thing we could not tell were to find it.’ This organization begins with reading. One should first read a book but not write anything in the notebook. ‘The places we design to extract from are to be marked on a piece of Paper, that we may do it after we have read the Book out.’ So after putting in all the bookmarks, one should read the book a second time and decide what is relevant enough to be written down in the notebook. ‘I take a White Paper Book and what Size I think fit. I divide the two first pages, which face another, by parallel lines,’ and make an index. In so doing, one froms one’s own keywords. A commonplace book thus refers a quotation noted down to its original context (its origin, the book) and, a the same time, is a stock to draw on for the memory, the speech to be given or the text to be written.” p. 586

“Entire generations of intellectuals and young gentlemen were educated to practice this technique. The notebook was a technique in service of discipline.” p. 587

“Notebooks were a place for collecting things, a technique for discipline, chronological recording and evidence. Such a book with its blank or gradually filling pages was a paper-machine which took in what one fed it but at the same time directed the entries.” p. 588

“From the beginning, this paper technology adhered to certain rules: The entries had to be written in a straight line , and no blots or spots should mar the paper. A margin, which in the earliest years was often signalized by a fold in the paper, provided space for notes and commentaries and played a significant role in administrative forms of writing (files).” p. 588

Anke te Heesen, ‘The Notebook, A Paper Technology’, in Latour & Weibel (eds.) Making Things Public. Atmospheres of Democracy, ZKM / MIT, Cambridge Ma, 2005, p. 582-589

So now on my desk:
John Locke, A New Method of a Common-Place Book: http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/HTML.php?recordID=0326.
Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/adv1.htm.

9.30 – 12.00. Zon en warm, opnieuw, geen regen, geen onweer, wel iets minder benauwd, 30 graden. Heerlijk gereden. Nu het koren geel op de heuvels staat is het gebied boven Luik prachtig. En eindelijk tot in het centrum van Tongeren gereden. Kanne – Eben – Wonck – Bassenge – Houtain St. Simeon – Slins – Villers St. Simeon – Juprelle – Xhendremael – Othee – Hamal – Tongeren – Sluizen – Elst – Val-Meer – Zussen – Kanne.