Chekhov’s Mistess

Mol-a-skeen-a

Obsession is a word that I can’t seem to help using all the time. I recently wrote about my obsession with reference books, I’ve written about my obsession with reading, including the story about how I used to read while driving (that is, until the incident) and my wife can tell you all about my obsessions with whatever project I’m working on.

Now most everyone is obsessive to some extent, but some of us more than others. That’s why it’s nice to have your condition validated once in a while by those who share your obsessions, and that’s where my friend Mitch comes in.

We met in a coffee shop (an Upper West Side Cosi, to be nearly exact) talking about Macs and soon found, among other commonalities, our mutual dependence on notebooks.

Not just any notebook of course, but Moleskine (pronounced “Mol-a-skeen-a”) notebooks.

Moleskines provoke obsession. They are well made – although I’ve managed to destroy a few through hard use – they are functional – and, according to the company that markets them – they are legendary.

Although the 200 year old notebook claims Vincent Van Gogh and Ernest Hemingway among it’s users, the Italian company that resurrected the design, Modo and Modo, hangs its hat most prominently on Bruce Chatwin, the author of In Patagonia and The Songlines…

“who used to buy his moleskines at an old Paris stationery shop in Rue de l’Ancienne Comédie where he would always stock up before embarking on one of his journeys.

Over the years he had developed a veritable ritual. Before using them he would in fact number the pages, writing on the inside his name and at least two addresses across the world, and a message promising a reward for anyone finding and returning the notebook in case of it being lost.”

The note-book of André Breton (1916), kept in the library of Paul Eluard, with the ex libris drawn by Max Ernst.

The truth is, I find the way the company advertises these names a bit off-putting – don’t they know that we American individualists don’t like doing something (at least overtly) that Hemingway or anyone else did? What’s more, if you couldn’t smell these claims as a marketing gimmick, the BBC points out that “The consumer should bear in mind that Modo and Modo’s claims are based on the Moleskine’s original design, and not the Modo and Modo product.”

But famous or not, I love the notebooks. I currently use five: Two that I carry around stuffed in my pockets along with a pencil (mechanical, 0.7mm), one of which I use solely for ideas, the other for just about anything that comes up, addresses, phone numbers… Then I have three others: One I call OPW, for “other people’s words” where I write down quotes and such. In fact, most every quote I’ve ever used writing on this site originally came from my notebooks. I have another that I use as a journal to take notes on things that I read or other extended thoughts, although I don’t use it as much as I used to because my weblog has been an outlet for that energy.

I use yet another Moleskine for writing poetry or the beginnings of ill-fated short stories. I use one more notebook – not a Moleskine, it’s another brand I was devoted to – for writing general notes as I do my work.

It’s amazing how important these books come over time as a legacy of thoughts and events, or even just passwords long forgotten or notes on the project you were working on the day before your son was born.

I guess that is why the notebook itself becomes so important. Certainly a cheap spiral bound notebook would do just for writing, but I save my old notebooks. They sit stacked up just like so many of the books I have laying around; some go unnoticed, but are a part of me as much as any photograph.

 

As I said before, my friend Mitch is a Moleskine fan, and his (main notebook, because he too uses several) is stuffed with papers so fatly that I’m afraid to touch it for fear of upsetting its delicate balance.

Now, on the web there’s a place for every obsession, so I wasn’t surprised when Mitch told me he found a blog dedicated to these nuggets of brain-dumping. Moleskinerie is a “blog dedicated to the proposition that not all notebooks are created equal. Its impeccable provenance notwithstanding this site will talk more about the places and adventures, life’s little dramas and other forgettable events that otherwise would have been lost were it not scrawled between the pages of these little black books.”

I’m glad to have read that statement of purpose because I might have dismissed the site as weird had I not. The site does revolve around the notebooks, it even has a photo-blog devoted to them, but they have a variety of contributors from around the world, or at least posts from around the world, namely Japan and Portugal on the currently main page and that seems to make it true to its purpose.

Most interestingly, Moleskinerie has started the The Wandering Moleskine Project, in which “Several notebooks will be sent on their way from various points around the world, and scans of pages will be posted as they are filled.”

This project looks as though it’s pretty new, so it’s not too late if you want to contribute. I always enjoy the way people try to connect around the world – it’s kind of a traveler mentality, in this case brought together by a 200 year old notebook design. As the Modo and Modo site says, the Moleskine is “A witness to contemporary nomadism, it can once again pass from one pocket to another to continue the adventure. The sequel still waits to be written and its blank pages are ready to tell the story.”

Read widely, think well, and write often.

comments

Bud,

This is probably both trivial and tangentially off-topic, but I used to love using the narrow-ruled notebooks; they don’t exist any more and my stock is depleted. Now I use college-rule, but I write small and miss the range I used to get on a page.

I guess I have two questions. 1-in your notebook wanderings, do you know where to procure such a thing as a narrow-ruled spiral, and 2-how narrowly are these moleskine notebooks ruled (the website is unspecific)?

Very interesting post, btw.

    – Stuart Greenhouse (10/21  at  08:50 PM)

Thanks Stuart - The Moleskine’s have 1/4 inch (.6cm) rules, both for the pocket size and larger one. My little thin notebook, which is one of the two that I carry around, has graph lines and they are smaller, at 1/2 cm.

As far as other notebooks, and I have gone through quite a few, I have to confess that I am an anti-spiralite. Those wires just get in the way of my fat hands.

Regards,

Bud

    – Bud Parr (CM) (10/21  at  09:47 PM)

Hi Bud, loved reading your note on moleskinerie.  Love what you had to say.  How is it that this little notebook can connect so many of us, just from some paper, lacker band and bookmark.  Who cares, I love em!

Cheers

Lise :^)

    – Lise (10/24  at  12:05 AM)

It’s totally appropriate that while you were posting this, I was off in Paris working on Chapter 6 on my novel in my Moleskine (one of four presently active notebooks) ...

Great post!

    – TEV (10/31  at  05:38 PM)

i ringraziamenti germogliano, io amano il mio moleskine ora

la vostra sorella

    – Sheri (11/05  at  01:25 AM)

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About this Post

• Posted by: Bud Parr
• Date: October 21, 2004
• Filed Under:
  Song of Myself: Diary

• Comments:5
• Links to this Post: Technorati

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