FROM THE NOTEBOOKS OF
LIONEL TRILLING*
(1927)
It
has gone to only 1000 words, a very rough sketch of the
beginning of the 1st chapter. (There is no particular reason why it
should not be done in chapters: they are no more arbitrary than the
whole notion of a novel.) So far three persons have been introduced,
and as yet, Headland, the young man, is so different- or different
only in that he already is not so sloppy- from the usual "young man."
The trick is to be kept "tight," sensible, and unhysterical- in short, if
he is to be puzzled, he is also to be intelligent. He is to have humor
but no wit. Unfortunately (because, I suppose, it will be a "self-
portrait") he cannot be very interesting: that is, he will have no real
physical or emotional abnormality. Perhaps it might be well to give
him one soon, but I fear he will always be the least dramatic person
in the book, no matter what he does, because the most intellec-
tual- i.e. he will be seeing most. Probably he will have the dull truth
of David Copperfield rather than the active, real truth of Micawber.
Perhaps not.
Advice:
Do not be afraid of strangeness and "improbability."
Advice:
Do not be afraid of action. You can manage it. The destiny of
this y[ oung] m[ an] by p. 300 is to win freedom, of some sort, for the
book is to be a comedy.
(1928)
To become a friend to yourself! Emerson addressed himself as "dear"
in his Journals!
(1928)
Being a Jew is like walking in the wind or swimming: you are touched
at all points and conscious everywhere.
(1928)
I have spoken twice (to women) that educating a son I should
allow him no fairy tales and only a very few novels. This is to pre–
vent him from having 1. the sense of romantic solitude (if he is worth
anything he will develop a proper and useful solitude) which iden–
tification with the
hero
gives. 2. cant ideas of right and wrong, absurd
• Lionel Trilling
(1905-75)
contributed regularly to
Partisan Review
in the period
covered by these excerpts. His notebooks were not a conventional diary. They con–
tain comments on books, people and happenings in his life, records of certain im–
portant events, suggestions for stories and novels. These entries were sekcted by
Christopher Zinn, a graduate student of English at New York University.
