Is it a Diary? Is it a Blog? No...its a very unwitty title. Why a blog is not a Diary.

 

A Diary is not the same as a Blog.

I was once told (frequently, with every essay, as it happens) that to captivate an audience you must start with something ‘snappy’ and ‘radical’. Well there – I have said it. And that is about as radical as it gets in the world of Diary theory; get into the diaries themselves, and, well, that’s another matter…

There is a serious point to this though. If I and others really want to set up a Diary Archive, we must know what it is we seek to ‘save’, else we could end up hoarding everything, including that note your housemate left on the fridge politely asking where her baked beans had gone, with a smiley face J of course.

So it seems logical to do this by discarding and I want to start with blogs.

Blogs and diaries certainly overlap; they are written (usually) by one person, they detail the thoughts an opinions of that one person, they can contain information about ones lives and timetables and frequently (quite sadly) it is usually only the blog or diary keeper who really cares for the majority of the contents.

There are, however, some fundamental differences.

1. Though both detail thoughts and opinions, it is quite reasonable to assert that these are written with different intentions. A blog is publicly available. The author therefore is writing with an awareness, often a vague hope, that others will be interested in what they have to say and will want to carry on reading it. This is less the case with Diaries. Primarily diaries are for private use, be they to vent about that unsavoury character that is your best friend, or to document the visitors to the train station and when they died (yes, Irving did find one such diary). Thus content is subject to far fewer social boundaries and is therefore, it is reasonable to assert, more representative of the life and thoughts of the author[1].

2. Similarly though the blogger may have no readers they are writing with intent; an intent to wow the digital world. Diarists, on the other hand, generally write with the intent to channel frustration or plan their meeting schedule, which has somewhat less of a wow factor. What I am getting at, is that bloggers put on an internet persona. It is like an elongated FaceBook status – just showing the most interesting, fresh and fun parts of the personality. Thus whilst they do have a huge part to play in recording the moods of their time it is certainly not the same part as a Diary.

I guess what it all comes down to is audience. Blogs are public whilst Diaries are private. There will inevitably be some overlap; I certainly used to ‘hope Mummy does read this and feels bad’ and some blogs might go unread. But I think that if a book were primarily for an audience it would be a book, and were a blog primarily for private use then it would either be a failure or a very fancy diary.

These views are, however on a blog so are available for people to comment on. If you would all just save my blog from the fancy diary status it is currently earning…

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[1] Yes, sometimes diaries may be read by others, people may even want them to be. But this is not the norm as with a blog.

First Post- how very exciting

I’ve avoided the temptation to title this with some ‘first time’ style innuendo so feel I have started well.  

I could have perhaps done a little better; as a historian I am well practiced in the idea of research before writing. So naturally I have begun this blog having skim-read about 2 blogs ever.

Safe to say then, I am a little unsure of  where to start.  I have therefore decided to follow the advice of someone who spoils a good pair of curtains to make some dodgy looking dresses and culottes – to start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.

Late 2009 , in my room preparing for another dissertation library slog. Radio 4, with its laid back air and classless appeal, makes natural motivational listening. I tune in to a feature to hear someone energetically explaining his mission to save diaries for their uniqueness as a historical resource, for the intimate life details they contain.

I was inspired. He’d hit on everything I love about history - the human stories that make it so realistic, that allow you to imagine what life was actually like, not think in abstract political theories or of monarchs with bafflingly similar names (I mean who thought it was a good idea to have 6 King Georges? And 4 of them consecutively? Seriously?). Realism makes history just amazingly, hugely, interesting.

I jumped on my computer and let my inner stalker take the win -  googled the radio show, found Irving Finkel was my guy then googled his name and found he worked at the British Museum and contacted him on his work email. Thank goodness for modern lack of privacy is all I can say.

I messaged saying I had heard the show and thought it was amazing and great and I'd love to be involved. A few days later my house mate was startled from her Helicopter Heroes trance by an excitable 'ohmygoodnessIrvingemailedbackandwantstotalkaboutDiariesI'mgonnagoemailhimbacknow.'

Since  then I’ve been hounding Irving with emails asking for updates and making my own contributions as and when I can, one of which is this blog.
Others I will catch up on at a later date.

So thats the story. Not of Balamorey (my own wit amazes me). But of how I got to be involved with ‘that diary thing’- otherwise known as the effort to save a hugely important and unique historical resource from the recycle bin in order to inform and inspire later generations.

There’s alot more to say, but I want people to actually continue to read this blog, so for now, I shall leave you be.