Earlier this year I wrote about Anthony Madrid’s piece in the Paris Review, SIX BOOKS WE COULD AND SHOULD ALL WRITE. I thought I would come back to it and describe the xis?? gad, the six books one can and should write. On One Typed Page we are all participating in one or more of the suggested books. Certainly we are writing a book about ourselves. Whether we like that idea or not, there is a lot of people writing about themselves here. But for now, I will talk about a specific book he recommends. A Book to Burn.
This concept, A Book to Burn, comes from Li Ziu Li. Ziu Li was a late Ming philosopher and gadfly. He wrote this book “thinking to enclose therein all his completely unacceptable views.” He named it “A Book to Burn” “implying that if you were caught with it, you would be executed.” He was caught with it, he was not executed for his heretical ideas because he commuted suicide first.
If you have, like I do, things that you do not want anyone to read, under any circumstance to read it, put it in your book to burn. In truth I do not write it down for others to find. Or I do not leave the writings around. I burn it, or put it in someplace, like a garbage bin, I put it in my mind and the do what I can to forget it. I do not want people to know about my thoughts. Never. Not at all. Not a bit of it.
Now you may have ideas that just need to be written to exorcise them from your psyche. Or perhaps they are not, to you, all that bad. But you do need to put them into some form. Typewriting is a fine place for them. Certainly much better than into a computer where some bit is stored somewhere. So type it, keep it someplace secure. And, dare I say, burn your book before someone reads it.
I will be back to this topic. For the record, the six books are:
* a book about oneself
* a book about others
* an anthology of favorites
* a book about words
* a book of lists
* a book to burn
Coming soon, or perhaps later, some commentary about these books.
Yes, I do have them on my computer.
— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm/48
Hi Michael! I love this advice. This is why I have been bringing my pens back and journaling by hand — in addition to Ont Typed Page. I have kept a written journal since I was 20 — so I have an archive of journals in our basement – in air plastic containers. Which would stack up to Austin Kleon’s archive. But, since I have started One Type Page — that has been my journal energy. I know realize I need to get back to basis with a pen. And by the way, I have type that I love to burn letters periodically — it makes way for forgiveness. – Cat