Tweeted diary
 Alberto
Moravia published 'The Lie' in 1966, written in the form of a diary,
maintained by Francesco Merighi, a journalist. The diary slowly grows
into a character in the novel. Merighi has to please the diary, and in a
way the diary becomes his conscience. He has to think twice about his
actions and decisions, wondering how the entries would come out in the
diary.
Moravia and 'The Lie' came to mind as my thoughts moved to the New
Year and the New Year Resolutions everyone makes at this time of the
year. For those who want to make a new resolution and aim to keep it, I
would like to make this suggestion; start keeping a diary. Not a private
diary, but one that could be made public.
We have the opportunity to maintain such a diary today using the
worldwide social networks like Twitter and Facebook. We can post every
word and deed as it happens, if we use the mobile phone, or during the
day when we are at the computer. Now there are several sites that offer
us the opportunity to read public tweets from any user, in the form of a
diary. Other microblogging platforms like "plurk" and "tumblr" can also
be used to keep our diary.
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Adolf Hitler
Alberto Moravia |
Even in a real diary truth could masquerade as a lie, or a lie could
masquerade as a truth, in the same manner as in 'The Lie'. Or it could
even change the life of the diarist. If the diary is meant to be made
public at a later date, then the diarist has to be extra careful in the
entries he makes.
Many people keep diaries. Not many of them expect their diaries to
get published, and sometimes have recorded incidents that they would not
have wished others to read about. Then there are also false diaries,
like the ones claimed to be of Hitler and Mussolini.
JRJ would not have expected the diaries he kept in 1929 would get
published posthumously about ninety years later. He has written about
the 'Honourable Society of Pushcannons', a group of four, who had
decided 'to eat together at least once a month'. He had even attached
restaurant bills, which showed they had not consumed alcohol. But a
cynic commented after reading P M Senaratne's JRJ biography, that
perhaps JRJ was making his future plans and omitted the liquor bills
from the diary! Keeping the diary could tempt us to exaggerate, to
boast, to twist the truth or record untruths, like when writing an
autobiography, if we thought the reader would not know we were lying. We
find this in many autobiographies written by famous people, where they
do not want to record unpleasant, humiliating incidents. That is why
Obama's 'Dreams from my Father', stands out as a story that could be
closer to the truth, because he wrote it long before he became famous,
long before he became President. Unless, like JRJ he too had his vision
and ambitions even then. If we could maintain a diary, be truthful with
what we record, and be ready to publish them, I believe we could make
our Mother Earth a very nice place to live in.
Our diary too could become our conscience. In a way it could be a
confession, when we realize what we may have said or done, or failed to
say or do, was wrong. Like Merighi in Moravia, then we would think twice
before we say or do something, wondering how it would come out in the
diary or on the Twitter post and how the readers would see it. And we
could receive an instant response from someone on the other side of the
world. Such comments could open our eyes, remind us or explain to us how
others would see our actions.
Moravia placed Merighi between two mirrors, but through our diary, we
would be facing one mirror, on which we can see our true self, but which
also lets our readers see us, because it happens to be a two-way mirror.
Let us try to imagine a politician's diary, where he has to record
that the promises he is making to his voters are empty words, or an
official who accepts a bribe had to write down how much he received and
why he received it. Imagine a doctor who neglected a dying patient in
the government hospital but rushed away to his private practice. Imagine
a man who is planning to commit a murder, or contracting a professional
to murder someone. Imagine a terrorist recording his plan for an attack
on a civilian target. Such an entry could make them realize their folly
and perhaps desist from such a dastardly act.
A public diary opens up so many possibilities.
May be it could help us to behave more decently towards others and
towards ourselves too. We could really become Peaceful and Useful.
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