The concept of interleaved nooks and “how we would approach books if we were meant to write in them” is a wonderful take away from this article. Marginalia and notation have a long history and I’m all for it! I am notorious for keeping multiple journals, sketchbooks and grimoire simultaneously and apply absolutely no system to them. Years intersect with each other and often I write in them upside down and back to front. Time folds and weaves around itself. Dates are often the only organizing feature! Being less furtive and more systemic in my obsessive note taking is my new goal!
On interleaving: I’ve started writing on the right side of my notebooks only. That leaves space on the left side for later thoughts when I revisit my notes or come up with related information/thoughts that I want to add, as well as for “tags”, which I plan to index eventually.
You've interleaved your own notebooks! I love it. You've made me realize that my own process is a kind of interleaving too. I write quotes on the right-hand page and then my own personal thoughts on the left-hand page.
In a world that feels so chaotic, it was calming to read about bringing order out of a curious intellect and for the sake of understand the wonders of the natural world.
You and your Substack were mentioned in the book The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen. I am so glad I discovered his book and now your Substack! At times, I felt I was the only one who appreciated and utilized notebooks and art journals to process my life. Through The Notebook and now your Substack, I've learned I am not alone in how I operate and that my interests and actions are not rare. I've been interleaving forever. lol Thank you for sharing and going into depth here about Carl Linnaeus's notes - fascinating!!
Studying biology, I was taught the mnemonic device“kitchen police often forms good soldiers” which was supposed to remind us of kingdom, phylum, order, family, genus, species. but your description collapses order and family into class. Thoughts?
Funny--I learned a similar mnemonic device too (but had completely forgotten about it until your note). Thanks for catching my mistake--I forgot to include order and family!
I was just reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, which is set in Japan in the late 1700s, and a character named Dr. Marinus was supposed to have been a student of Linnaeus'.
Oh, I love this! What a beautiful mind he had! And I really appreciate your notes on his notes. In particular: "Even a quotation represents our particular selection taken from a larger body of work." And "How, I wonder, would we approach books if we were expected to write in them?"
I used notecards in nursing school to help me study for my test. I would summarize and put the answer on the other side. The stacks of cards for 1 test would be so tall. While cleaning out a filing cabinet recently, I found a lot of my notes and many study notecards. It was like a time capsule. A lot went in the trash. I have a stack I want to sit and go through. I enjoy seeing how I took notes years ago. Enjoyed your story.
I love your prompt of what we might do if we were expected to write in books. I absolutely never do marginalia - it has always felt a bit sacrilegious - but I've recently purchased a trove of books for my newly-begun Masters degree and I'm actually getting excited at the prospect of highlighting passages, marking the pages, adding my own thoughts, and generally treating them like study aids rather than sacred books.
Oh, Rhiannon! The marginalia I wrote while working towards my Ph.D. is my favorite! I find it so useful--even now. So I hope you write all over your books ;)
The idea of interleaving- even the word itself is awesome. You’ve just given me ideas for my diary/calendar. I’ve done it for my art notes but not the daily diary. Also, as a teenager, I always rewrote my school notebooks as a way of studying for end of year tests.
The first to grow a banana in Europe 🍌 !! I wonder if he planted any of the specimens he collected… I had never heard of him so learned a lot here, thanks Jillian 🍃
I'm so glad, Sabrina. Since I've studied the 19th century, I thought Linnaeus was well-known. But, as I worked on this post I asked family and friends if they'd heard of him and most hadn't. Anyway, I'm glad to have introduced you!
I read a bunch of biographies for this post and none of them mentioned it. Although, that doesn't mean that he wasn't neurodivergent. I suspect it's a touchy thing to speculate on diagnoses for historical figures in print. Of course, that's why I love comments. It's a safer place to speculate.
Yes. Linnaeus was neurodivergent. Simon Baron Cohen wrote about Linnaeus in his book "How Autism Drives Human Invention." He compares one subject with “remarkable talents” to “being a modern-day Linnaeus. [] Admired for his detailed, hierarchical classification of animals and plants, Linnaeus was a hyper-systemizer, meaning that he systemized unstoppably, compared to most of us.”
The concept of interleaved nooks and “how we would approach books if we were meant to write in them” is a wonderful take away from this article. Marginalia and notation have a long history and I’m all for it! I am notorious for keeping multiple journals, sketchbooks and grimoire simultaneously and apply absolutely no system to them. Years intersect with each other and often I write in them upside down and back to front. Time folds and weaves around itself. Dates are often the only organizing feature! Being less furtive and more systemic in my obsessive note taking is my new goal!
Oooo--you keep a grimoire?! What does that mean for you? Also, I love how "time folds and weaves around itself" in our notebooks.
On interleaving: I’ve started writing on the right side of my notebooks only. That leaves space on the left side for later thoughts when I revisit my notes or come up with related information/thoughts that I want to add, as well as for “tags”, which I plan to index eventually.
You've interleaved your own notebooks! I love it. You've made me realize that my own process is a kind of interleaving too. I write quotes on the right-hand page and then my own personal thoughts on the left-hand page.
In a world that feels so chaotic, it was calming to read about bringing order out of a curious intellect and for the sake of understand the wonders of the natural world.
Calm order sounds very nice right now.
You and your Substack were mentioned in the book The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen. I am so glad I discovered his book and now your Substack! At times, I felt I was the only one who appreciated and utilized notebooks and art journals to process my life. Through The Notebook and now your Substack, I've learned I am not alone in how I operate and that my interests and actions are not rare. I've been interleaving forever. lol Thank you for sharing and going into depth here about Carl Linnaeus's notes - fascinating!!
Yes! I used to think I was the only person obsessed with notebooks. And then I started Noted and learned there are quite a lot of us!
Studying biology, I was taught the mnemonic device“kitchen police often forms good soldiers” which was supposed to remind us of kingdom, phylum, order, family, genus, species. but your description collapses order and family into class. Thoughts?
Funny--I learned a similar mnemonic device too (but had completely forgotten about it until your note). Thanks for catching my mistake--I forgot to include order and family!
Terrific communication; thanks.
Thanks, Bret!
I was just reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, which is set in Japan in the late 1700s, and a character named Dr. Marinus was supposed to have been a student of Linnaeus'.
What synchronicity!
Oh, I love this! What a beautiful mind he had! And I really appreciate your notes on his notes. In particular: "Even a quotation represents our particular selection taken from a larger body of work." And "How, I wonder, would we approach books if we were expected to write in them?"
Thanks so much Jane. I can see why that resonated with you being the marginalian that you are!
Indeed!
I used notecards in nursing school to help me study for my test. I would summarize and put the answer on the other side. The stacks of cards for 1 test would be so tall. While cleaning out a filing cabinet recently, I found a lot of my notes and many study notecards. It was like a time capsule. A lot went in the trash. I have a stack I want to sit and go through. I enjoy seeing how I took notes years ago. Enjoyed your story.
I always feel like going through my notes is like sifting through a time-capsule too.
Great Post, thanks for empowering us to draw in our notebooks and write in the printed books!
Indeed!
Thanks you for sharing the Lapland drawing. I especially loved the sun he drew!
I know! I loved it too.
I love your prompt of what we might do if we were expected to write in books. I absolutely never do marginalia - it has always felt a bit sacrilegious - but I've recently purchased a trove of books for my newly-begun Masters degree and I'm actually getting excited at the prospect of highlighting passages, marking the pages, adding my own thoughts, and generally treating them like study aids rather than sacred books.
Oh, Rhiannon! The marginalia I wrote while working towards my Ph.D. is my favorite! I find it so useful--even now. So I hope you write all over your books ;)
The idea of interleaving- even the word itself is awesome. You’ve just given me ideas for my diary/calendar. I’ve done it for my art notes but not the daily diary. Also, as a teenager, I always rewrote my school notebooks as a way of studying for end of year tests.
Rewriting notebooks is probably the most enduring study-technique I know of.
The first to grow a banana in Europe 🍌 !! I wonder if he planted any of the specimens he collected… I had never heard of him so learned a lot here, thanks Jillian 🍃
I'm so glad, Sabrina. Since I've studied the 19th century, I thought Linnaeus was well-known. But, as I worked on this post I asked family and friends if they'd heard of him and most hadn't. Anyway, I'm glad to have introduced you!
Does anyone know if Linnaeus was neurodivergent?
I read a bunch of biographies for this post and none of them mentioned it. Although, that doesn't mean that he wasn't neurodivergent. I suspect it's a touchy thing to speculate on diagnoses for historical figures in print. Of course, that's why I love comments. It's a safer place to speculate.
Yes. Linnaeus was neurodivergent. Simon Baron Cohen wrote about Linnaeus in his book "How Autism Drives Human Invention." He compares one subject with “remarkable talents” to “being a modern-day Linnaeus. [] Admired for his detailed, hierarchical classification of animals and plants, Linnaeus was a hyper-systemizer, meaning that he systemized unstoppably, compared to most of us.”
Fantastic!!!
Thanks, Trish!