ErinLaing.com

I’m reading American Pastoral by Philip Roth. This sentence stuck with me from early on in the novel:

And since we don’t just forget things because they don’t matter but also forget things because they matter too much – because each of us remembers and forgets in a pattern whose labyrinthine windings are an identification mark no less distinctive than a fingerprint…

Whenever I read a book I always have a pen close by so that I can underline or highlight passages/sentences that resonate with me. When I’m done, I transcribe the various phrases from the book onto a word document and keep a file of everything that made an impression on me. I do this for every book that I read. Doesn’t matter if it’s pulp fiction, non fiction, poetry, comics or magazine articles.

I find this kind of archiving to be extremely helpful when I’m looking for reference material. When I’m trying to write and looking for something to inspire or trigger an idea, emotion, reaction or motive.

I think the Roth passage is brilliant and will no doubt help me on a psychological level somewhere down the line. I also have reference folders for music, photography and movie stills. The latter two I use more for directing.

Listening to Incundus Homo (Bolivian Baroque), a piece I’d like to use for the feature I’m writing.