Essay/Term paper: Notes to myself: facades

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Book Reports

Notes to Myself: Facades


Sometimes mankind has to ask the question "what is it that makes up the
actions and determines the type of interaction that we display when around
other people?' Notes to Myself is the contemporary world's way of questioning
the value of putting on facades. The novel also questions things we know as "
trivial' such as watching a cat sleep on our belly or staring at clouds in the
sky. The author used an interesting form for writing his collection, omitting
page numbers and leaving no indication as to what subject the reader should
expect to be encountering upon reading sections.
His views are interesting to say the least. Focusing on self meditation
and self reliance, he proceeds to describe human interaction and what he really
is thinking when exposed to different situations. For instance, he describes a
conversation with a young lady in which she wanted to "just be friends' while
he being "male' can do nothing about the fact that he may be sexually aroused
by her whether they were "just friends' or not. This type of unconventional
expression of human emotion is the color of all of the selections. The author
does not wish to conceal feeling nor put on different faces in different
situations but be himself and be happy being himself at all times.
Interesting stands on happiness are also expressed. Boredom is vaguely
related to happiness by the rationalization that one can be happy simply by
picking lint off of the floor. While his thoughts are genuine, one can almost
comprehend the randomness of human thought. There is a wrinkled cellophane
wrapper on my desk and it reflects my image just as water does. Randomness is
definitely one of this books strong points. (That random sentence beforehand
was a personal example of the wandering mind).
This is the type of book that you would not want to read between
commercials but one that warrants a good hour and a half (at least) of quiet
and thoughtful reading. This is not a book with a plot. There is only one
main character and that main character is the embodiment of the philosophy of "
me myself and I'. If you like books that exemplify the importance of the
individual, you will definitely like this attempt to show how mankind should be.
Or rather, it shows the true nature of human beings (selfishness).