Nota Bene, Part I

by Theodore Dalrymple (September 2016)

When I was young, which is now a long time ago, I was much impressed by the character of Trigorin, the writer in Chekhov’s play, The Seagull. Trigorin always carried a little notebook with him to jot down snatches of conversation he overheard that the he might use, or to record any ideas that he might have.  more>>>

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4 Responses

  1. In one of his books John Lukacs says: one can make a reasonable case that there is more justice in the world today than there was a hundred years ago, but only a vile idiot would maintain that there is more truth in the world than there was a hundred years ago.  And: truth is a more fundamental human need than justice.

  2. Dr Dalrymple, I too have many notebooks I could add to your Library of Unused Notebooks. I find it particularly hard to resist yet another elegant Moleskine….

    But I have a solution, of sorts. I've taken to noting down snatches of this and that in the Notes App on my iPhone. Since this is with me all the time it's no problem. One of my categories is: "places to visit". The weekend papers, in particular, are full of sorties of wonderful visit-worthy places. 

    love your elegant writing, and have done so for years. As an Aussie (but living in Hong Kong) I also enjoyed the YouTubes of your visit to Oz, and on Q&A. 

  3. "In my case, I was inconvenienced hardly at all, since I was not in a hurry and the delay was not long: still, one likes to feel inconvenienced, as it gives one a nice warm glow of having been wronged…"

    Hilarious.  Spot on true, too!  That's one of the funniest sentences I've read in a while. 

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