1.

How did keeping notebooks as a child and adolescent influence Joan Didion’s
style as a writer/journalist?
- As a child, you are generally more vulnerable and perceive real life through a sort of
fantasy world. The thoughts and feelings reflected in Didion’s notebook are unfiltered.
- Quotation from text “my keeping a notebook has never been about...”. To didion, the
purpose of a notebook is more to remember details that are important to her.
- Grew as a writer from being able to become accustomed to the concept of writing at an
early age in a rather informal way.
- The way Didion describes things now could be as a result of how she just wrote down
things she observed and jumped into her emotions when she wrote in a notebook.
2. What does Joan Didion mean by her statement that keeping a notebook is
“selfish” in nature?
- She states how she only records her thoughts and mentions the things that interest her.
People have an inclination to rewrite about things that pique their interest or draw their
attention in some way. She explicitly states both in the chapter and in the prologue that
she will write about things that she feels some sort of emotion for. She is naturally
gravitated towards pursuing subjects and events that she feels something about.
- Pg 197 “I imagine, in other words, that the notebook is about other people”
- On page 194, she states that she is basically negligent and only writes about things that
matter to her while on other days, she feels she has an obligation to genuinely report
everything that takes place. She wants to have a log of things and people she sees even
if they seem unimportant, she wants them to be important to her because they remind
her of a certain time or event.
3. Why did Joan Didion end up writing personas such as “On Keeping a Notebook”?
- Didion explains that keeping a notebook for herself is similar to the way she wrote some
of the essays in Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Text quotation page 194 “The point of
keeping a notebook…”
- Text quotation “How it felt to me:...” “I will simply open my notebook and there all be a
forgotten account…” Keeping a notebook is nostalgic for her

Emergency Question: Why does Didion use certain specific terms such as “CREPE DE
CHINE” or “SAUERKRAUT” so frequently?
- When authors repeat the same term over and over again, they’re trying to emphasize
something
- Observation: the term is used in different contexts with differing tones. Page 191-192
and 198, respectively
- Didion likes to list things or look at things that people tend to forget about. She wants to
remember them even if they are usually neglected.
- It’s not so much about the words themselves, but using specific words like that over and
over show how she chooses to pick out things that are seemingly random and mundane
but actually have some significance to her
The previous essays were more of narratives about other people but this essay had a more
personal perspective, hence the name “Personals”. This essay also really discussed the
meaning of keeping such a personal item and the deeper meaning of many other things while
as previous essays had an observational and a more surface level meaning since they were
about other people.

1. What elements of style can you identify in the essay? How is the style similar or
different from other essays?
Some of the elements of style that are present in this essay are: point of view, tone, and
vocabulary. This essay is from the first point of view and the tone is more emotional, the
vocabulary and word choice is very informal and understandable. The style of this essay is
different from other essays mainly because of the tone.

2. Did this essay motivate or inspire you to keep a notebook? Why?

After reading “On Keeping a Notebook”, Didion’s purpose about writing a notebook inspired me
to create prompts of things to remember or keep track of objects that people tend to ignore.
Didion didn’t treat journals as if it was her diary which made me realize she doesn’t like being
generic.

1. What elements of style did Joan Didion employ that convey her position on
keeping personals/writing things down?
*Basically, what clues are in her writing in this essay that shows how she feels about
writing things in a notebook?