It’s worth mentioning that this is my edit. Of the roughly eight million words handwritten or typed into my diary since September 5, 1977, I’m including only a small fraction. An entirely different book from the same source material could make me appear nothing but evil, selfish, generous, or even, dare I say, sensitive. On any given day I am all these things and more: stupid, cheerful, misanthropic, cruel, narrow-minded, open, petty—the list goes on and on…It wasn’t easy revisiting what are now 156 volumes of my diary.
I broke the job up—a month or two per day—but after reading about me, I’d have to spend the rest of the day being me. I don’t know that I’ve ever done anything quite so exhausting.
~ David Sedaris, in his Introduction to his new book “Theft by Finding: Diaries (1977-2002)” (Little, Brown and Company, May 30, 2017)
Notes:
- Photo of David Sedaris from The Odyssey
- Related Posts: It’s been a long day
Love his work
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He’s brilliant.
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Me, too, funny as hell and always trenchant…
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Raye said it first in an earlier comment about your magic. How do you do it? Trenchant? Never even heard of the word. Does it capture him, BOOM.
I had to look it up.
Definition of trenchant
1
: keen, sharp
2
: vigorously effective and articulate a trenchant analysis; also : caustic trenchant remarks
3
a : sharply perceptive : penetrating a trenchant view of current conditions
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I wade around in word pools all day…things stick. 😉
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Things stick. Right. Got it.
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Trenchant…Lori’s perfect definitive
wordsmithing.
Moi?
Way cool…
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Oh, I can SO relate to this post! I was a radio interviewer for 9 years, and have lately been contemplating resurrecting my show Alternative Currents. But listening to myself, oh! Gosh. I provide podcast links to those programs on my website, fine. It’s FINE with me if you listen to them, carry on, godspeed and all that. But to listen to myself – to attune to the Me that is preserved there in excruciating detail – exhausting, indeed! Whew! !!
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I can relate to that. I never had a podcast, but on any given day, ESPECIALLY a good one, sometimes I’m not sure how I can stand myself. Thats why I hate weathermen. They seem to be the deepest reflection of myself.
Aaaaghh!
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LAUGHING. SO GOOD. I TOTALLY GET IT.
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Laughing, so get it. I would love to be a radio interviewer if I only had some skills (a voice, better listening skills, a higher intellect, etc, etc).
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You likely would do just fine! 🙂
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Big fan of David Sedaris!
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i love his hilarious honesty )
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Me too!
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Ooo. Nice.
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As a journaler, and someone who started crafting a book out of that ME-ness, I can relate to the exhaustion, and overload. It was so freeing to cart those journals to the dumpster instead.
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I’ve never “Journalled”. Too much like a beast regurgitating its cud.
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