Diaries

I am reading the very wonderful book: 'Annie Ray's diary: the extraordinary work of ordinary writing' by Jennifer Sinor. By coincidence it was recommended to me at just about the time that Irving Finkel of the British Museum came to the Literacy Research Discussion Group to discuss: 'What happens to diaries?'. Perhaps wrongly, I understood him to claim that there is little literature about psychological motivations to keep diaries and the practice in general - of course there is a great deal of scholarly attention to famous diaries. However Jennifer Sinor's literature review contributes greatly to the topic of everyday writing and then the diary she discusses - of her ancestor in the late nineteenth century - is indeed illuminated beautifully through her analysis.

In what might be regarded as a summary of some of her arguments on pp. 182-183 Jennifer Sinor suggests:

• Diaries are 'ordinary writing' par excellence and that ordinary writing is not literary. 'The limit of the literary, though, is also what makes ordinary writing so powerful and pervasive.'


• Ordinary writing is what is disregarded.


• Ordinary writing is 'not supposed to be here but it is.'

'That is what makes it an opportune site for contemplating the ways in which ordinary choices by ordinary writers at ordinary moments reveal the complex set of negotiations constantly undertaken by writers, by people living in the world.'

With the aid of Annie Ray's diary, JS expounds upon the diurnal rhythms of the diary and how to 'delight in dailiness, rhythm, and repetition. To read her text in terms of what she makes as a writer rather than what she lacks. The capacity of dailiness to shape the diurnal form is revealed even at the level of syntax and requires that I pay attention to aspects and qualities of texts I have been trained to ignore, despise, or delete.' (p. 57).

However, as much as I am enjoying her book, I am wondering whether the dramatic elements JS brings to the story of Annie Ray's diary - that would befit any novel - work slightly against her overall argument. I have to admit I enjoy the elements of suspense and revelations enormously though and find myself turning backwards and forwards through the book to try to piece together the very narrative thread - clearly the literary - that JS argued should not be the 'valued.'

The book will be in the LRC Literacy Resource Centre as soon as I can bear to put it there. I should really asap as I am dying to discuss the book with someone.

Julia

mapwork

I rely quite a lot on maps as I do not have a good sense of direction. I retreated from the library the other day because I could not find an office I had been to in there before - it wasn't marked on the maps because (I think!) although it is in the library it belongs to a different service. It can also be quite hard to find specific buildings on this campus unless you have a portable map. I find it very hard to imagine what use maps such as this one, just outside the library, might be. It gives a plan of building locations, each building being marked with a number. The number does not relate to any kind of available key; nor are the building numbers visible on the buildings themselves.

I think the reading and authoring of maps is a fascinating topic. There is such a need for a strong mutual striving towards shared understandings of symbols that in a way it is the archetypal 'literacy.' You don't always know what you can do with a map straight away until you arrive at a really good active understanding of it; I would be quite handicapped if the 'mini map' function was turned off in my 'virtual worlds' project for example, and yet I probably had no idea it was there let alone how to use it when I first went 'inworld.'

I think 'mapwork' would be a fantastic future theme for the Institute of Advanced Studies here at Lancaster. But I see the closing date has gone for 2009-10. I have time to think about it perhaps for the following year! I wonder what themes were submitted.

Julia