On Diaries

I vaguely remember at some point during high school, on a trip to Israel, picking up a copy of Nahum Glazer's Franz Rosenzweig: His Life and Work which was on the shelf in the apartment that my family was renting. The book contains, among other things, some selections from Rosenzweig's journals. After finishing the book, I resolved that I would keep a journal of my own, in order to keep track of and organize my thoughts. Needless to say, this did not happen. I'm not terribly good at keeping resolutions. Nevertheless, Rosenzweig's journal entries made a big impression on me.

I bring this up now because over the past few years during which I've been reading weblogs, and over the year (nearly) which I've been blogging myself, I've been grappling with the issue of what makes a journal worth reading. A good many blogs are, essentially, personal diaries. The entire livejournal phenomenon doesn't pretend to be anything else, and cruising blogspot you'll find a good number of personal diaries as well. Some of these, such as the now sadly defunct Madpony, are quite fantastic. Many others are far less interesting. The question is, what makes one superior to another? Why did I find Franz Rosenzweig's, or for that matter Kristin Madpony's, journals so interesting while I find many others dull and irrelevant?

Part of the equation is, of course, writing ability. A person who writes well can make anything interesting. This is the appeal of Madpony. And as worthwhile as it is, it's also fairly superficial. But sometimes journal entries actually say something. A good example of this in the blogosphere is James Lileks' Daily Bleat. Lileks is a man who daily writes a journal entry which he publishes on the web. Some days it's better than others, but he gets to the heart of the domestic in a way that most people can't. His little stories about the time spent with his daughter around the house, or at Chucky Cheese's somehow feel relevant. I'm dancing around the real question here, because I'm having a hard time articulating exactly what it is I that find important in Lileks' writing. Obviously, like Madpony, the simple craft of the writing is very good (after all, it's what he makes his living on), but there is more to it than that.

Rosensweig's diary is essentially an intellectual one. While he does write about his life, he uses it as a jumping off point for his ideas. This makes sense, as he is a philosopher. So it's easy to understand the hook in his journal. His ideas make it interesting. But what makes Lileks interesting....? I don't know. It's an idea to explore. Really, this whole post functions more as a short explanation for why I may take a seminar on autobiography next year than anything else.