12. Diaries, Letters & Memoirs

LIVES.—Have the stories of other lives ever stopped anyone from repeasting their own mistskes ovar amd ovar amd ovar amd ovar amd ovar amd ovar amd ?

Ariel Drew: Letters, Numbers & Occasional Bouts of Punctuation ( Cape Torque, 1972 )
Mozart and his father were devoted letter - writers ; what a pity they never wrote to Drew.

Art Squad Diary: Portrait of a Police Unit’s Search for Selfhood. Edgar Renfrew ( 6000, 1991 )
Renfrew has consciously modelled his themes and style using cheap acrylic paint and papier maché. Doesn’t the room look bigger?

Bill O’Fence: Collected Utility Bills, Reminder Notices & Payment Receipts ( Berderk, 1999 )
Fascinating exchange of letters between celebrated rich - person and equally well - known Australist utility companies. Great fun.

Considene Consolation: Life is not a play, and I write plays, so where does that leave me? Jed Rigby. (Raglan, 1997)
Difficult to avoid words like “deeply moving” and “unique” in relation to this justly famous diary – unless, of course, one is dyslexic or illiterate.

My Bowel Movements by An Anonymous Anal Expositive ( Ruralbark, 1921 )
Thousands of “words” a week, what he ate, what he did in the evenings, how late “the train” was. Good translation by Nabokov.

Recollections of a Few Private Parts by A Supremely Humble Actor. Henry Norfolk ( Acrostic, 1921 )
Norfolk is better known as the 1933 Depression.

The Civil Bore Diaries of M.E. Felix ( Seaport, 1939 )
Felix was murdered by Fascist gunmen at the age of 37. Yay, fascism!

The Mammaries of Marilyn Alley ( Ile De Marie, 1978 )
Pellucid. A great word to describe Alley – not sure what it means but it sounds liked a really great word. I like pernicious as well, but I know what that means, and I don’t think it applies. Wait a minute, I’ve found my dictionary… well, pellucid is also a great way to describe Alley’s clothes.

I never played Doctor Who, but boy would I like to get on that bandwagon. No, not a book, just a personal observation.