on 'the sterility of diaries and memoirs...' (the long good friday)

'the sterility of diaries and memoirs comes from a mania for bookkeeping.' 

- gustaw herling, 7th may 1973, maisons-lafitte.  

horsemouth can't tell you how delighted he was to find this quote (it shows that he has the soul of a bookkeeper). he could hardly sleep such was his excitement to get up this morning and type it in for you. 

horsemouth is now up early enough for the sun to have that gorgeous golden glow. 

gustaw discusses diaries (and collections of franz kafka's letters to felice bauer(or to milena jesenka). he tries to explain why he does not like cesare pavese's diary il mestiere di vivere (the business of life) 

'in general I do not like diaries that are too personal. they almost always force the author to play the game in such a way that the future reader gradually, step by step, gets the upper hand. does this make me look all right? and this?... there is a part of man, as it should be, which no one, except for god, has the right to enter. paradoxically a good diary, or in any case one that is worth reading, is one in which the author only rarely pokes his antennae out of the shell- and then draws back at once...' 

in august 1950 pavese had committed suicide. herling finds this gesture stronger and better composed even than his diary. 

'... I assign diaries special status on the periphery of literature... this is not the case with pavese. his diary is literary in the most dangerous sense of the word: in the sense that he is bound to his 'persona', which is put on public view, and his life is dominated by literature...' 

horsemouth (the pseudonym) tries not to tell you too much about himself in his diary. his is a super-hero identity, a fake 'persona', half animal half human (and therefore magical).  diana athill wants 'honesty' from diaries and journals 'or what's the point'.  horsemouth is not very honest. he tries to let you now what is going on with him (while only providing ephemeral detail). 

he hopes that his very dishonesty is entertaining and instructive. 

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it is the long good friday - both the british gangster film featuring the IRA and the long peace of the good friday agreement now a moveable feast worked into the fabric of the year, delayed to a weekend, bookended (in england) by bank holidays.

the good friday agreement is (of course) a diplomatic bodge, a deferring  of all the important foundational questions. some tories and some unionists (indeed some republicans) would like to rip it up on that basis but the peace beats the war. this abrogation of sovereignty is already agreed to, it is baked in, it cannot be rescinded it can only be frustrated. 

anyway none of it is strictly horsemouth's business (so he will now shut up). 

the herling goes well. horsemouth also did a little background reading on marxist attitudes to the 1871 commune (er. they're for it). later today some more music.