Satre and the Diary

The user of diaries have tapped into an idea Sartre mentions in Nausea. The idea of giving your life a narrative form by recounting the day from beginning to end gives the diarist the feeling that his life is an ‘adventure’. It is not ‘days tacked onto days’ but rather care is introduced by way of ritualistically putting the day to death. It is over. We can now miss it, and load those memories with emotions. The idea of death is uncovered and we look at it. We look at time that slipped by. Usually these moments are reserved for farewells or funerals. The diarist gets a gentle dose of authenticity daily.