{"id":17153,"date":"2024-11-12T10:08:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T15:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=17153"},"modified":"2024-11-12T10:34:32","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T15:34:32","slug":"episode-612-roland-allen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-612-roland-allen","title":{"rendered":"Episode 612 – Roland Allen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show 612:
\nRoland Allen<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/virtualmemories\/Episode_612_-_Roland_Allen.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

“Once I started looking into their history, I was surprised at how important notebooks had been in corners of history.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>With THE NOTEBOOK: A History of Thinking on Paper<\/a> (Biblioasis), Roland Allen<\/a> explores how the proliferation of paper & binding changed culture, business, and maybe the nature of human consciousness. We talk about how keeping a diary got him obsessed-ish with notebooks, how he found a narrative and protagonists as he delved into the history of notebooks, and what it means to see the notebook as a piece of technology or hardware. We get into their influence on art and the Renaissance (and the theory that sketchbooks allowed artists to move toward realism), how diaries created a new, private persona distinct from the public self, how he discovered a new reading for a line of Hamlet<\/em><\/a>, and how digital options never manage to replace the paper notebook. We also discuss how Moleskine came to dominate the notebook market and how Bruce Chatwin’s The Songlines<\/a> jumpstarted their craze, how Roland learned to switch off the “this isn’t interesting” filter in his own diaries, how writing this book made him a better notebooker, the way Dutch album amicorum (friendship books) served as a social media precursor, how our notebooks can outlive us (and his posthumous plans for his diaries), and a lot more. Give it a listen!<\/a> And go read THE NOTEBOOK<\/a>!<\/p>\n

“Putting yourself down on the page is a skill you can learn, and get better at with practice. My diaries have gotten more interesting over the years and more satisfying to write.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n