Hugh Prather's Notes to Myself

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Recommended: Gender roles in 20th century literature

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

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