Commonplacing

I’ve started an experimental commonplace book, that is, I’m collecting quotes I like and sometimes commenting on them. Instead of the traditional notebook, however, I’ve got a tumblelog on Tumblr, an incredibly user-friendly platform. I’ve also chosen a template that forces me to keep the quotes and commentary short. I call this new site Commonplacing, and I mention it here because history keeps popping up in my choice of quotes.

Here’s one favorite from near the end of Brian Friel’s Translations:

. . . It is not the literal past, the ‘facts’ of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language.