Patty Mayeux Blog

I recently read Friday, by Michel Tournier, translated from French by Norman Denny. It is a retelling of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, in part seen through the lens of Friday. It was a fun read, at times disastrous or shocking yet leaning to the philosophical. 

According to Tournier, Crusoe was desperate for a way to log his experience. He worked to build shelter and store supplies from the doomed ship of which he was the sole survivor, but it seemed that securing a way to write was of equal importance. He gathered water-logged books from the ship’s hold and set them in the sun to bleach.

Genius, I thought, but would it work? Searching brought me to understand that in the early 18^th century, books were printed on paper made of fermented cotton or linen rags and the ink was soot, turpentine and walnut oil. I’m not sure a modern-day book set in the sun would become bleached pages, ready for new scribblings. 

The human spirit is tenacious in solving such problems. The drive to create fosters ingenuity.

I take for granted the reams of blank paper, empty journals and theme books at my disposal, even my laptop. May we appreciate every tool at our disposal to create in our own way.