Journal #15 Freebie!

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Journal #14 Witty Whitman

Whitman's Notebook

1. Upon looking at Whitman's notebook I noticed that his handwriting is crazy illegible! When I first look at it I think I can read it, but when I actually try I just can't! I can't tell if the writing is being scratched through or not and I can only make out half of each word. He is also really good at drawing. Most of the time when I think of a writer's journal I think of just pages and pages of unedited writing. I just think that every word that they spit out is just perfect. But, in his work I see that a lot of it has been revised and reworked. I notice the free-spiritedness by how he takes moments to just doodle in his pages. It really makes me connect with him because I've written random excerpts in notebooks and then just start spurting out drawings. 



Taken from the article "Birthday from the Vault," by Kevin Murphy
http://www.mhpbooks.com/from-the-archives-walt-whitman/

2. Touching back on the free-spirited aspect of of Whitman, I was really surprised about the part mentioning Abraham Lincoln. It doesn't really surprise me that Whitman was infatuated with Lincoln because Lincoln did believe in issues of equality such as abolishing slavery. Another aspect that emphasized his free-spiritedness was the random scribbles of words found throughout his journal. The fact that he does this really does make me think that he was very spontaneous and kind of reminds me of a mad scientist. Whitman also speaks a lot about freedom, natural elements such as water, wind, clouds, death to reflect his emotions. In addition Whitman also spoke a lot about time and the idea of death. In this I can see that he really challenges society buy talking about things that in a manner that appears ready to face anything. I later learned that Whitman wasn't actually responsible for those drawings, but rather someone else was. This was another thing that surprised me because if I had a journal, I wouldn't want anyone to see it much less write it in. I think this is another example of Whitman's openness with the world.