Henry James on notes

 Patricia Hampl quotes, more than once, Henry James on note-taking:

If one was to undertake to tell tales and report the truth on the human scene, it could but be because notes had been from the cradle the ineluctable consequence of one’s greatest inner energy … to take them was as natural as to look, to think, to feel, to recognize, to remember.

 

What I like: That James thought about note-taking. I think some concepts — consciousness, for example — are so vast we mortals tend to lose our way. The business of note-taking, on the other hand, is a common activity, something we all do. I think paying attention to the practices of ordinary people can tell us more about the way we think than treatises on consciousness.

What I don’t like: his way of putting it. I’d have said, “Note-taking is natural.” But I’m not Henry James.

I think he’s right about this: If you’re not taking notes and keeping a notebook, you’re going to have a hard time telling tales and reporting the truth on the human scene.

• Source: Patricia Hampl, The Art of the Wasted Day; New York: Viking, 2018, p. 46.