The Notebook

...as in Walt Whitman's notebook. Not the romantic novel by Nicholas Sparks (which was adapted to film in 2004, starring Ryan Gosling and other less famous people).

Any-who...

As I scrolled through Whitman's notebook, the first thing that I realized was his style of writing. It is primarily written in cursive, a writing style that I personally associate with a person who is trying to get his/her thoughts down as fast as possible. To me, Whitman comes off as someone who has a lot to say and wants to lock down his thoughts on paper before they disappear. The fact that there are many crossed out statements and words supports the idea that Whitman didn't spend much time on the phrasing of his ideas. I noticed copious instances of exclamation and question marks following statements, indicating that Whitman tried to incorporate some emotion into his drafts. I also notice that Whitman had an affinity for caricatures and portraits (of himself) and other small sketches. Perhaps these allowed Whitman to express himself when he could not find the words to do so.

As I originally viewed Whitman's musings, I did not realize how they connected to his imaginary dialogue with Abraham Lincoln. There were areas where Whitman was attempting to decide on a title for his work. One potential title was "Lessons for a President Elect". I thought this was particularly interesting. I would have thought Whitman would call his work "Lessons from a President Elect", but Whitman's use of the word for implies that Whitman himself is trying to teach Lincoln something. I would have assumed that it would be the other way around. This hints to me that Whitman believes himself to be very intelligent, and that a man such as Lincoln would be able to learn a thing or two from him.