Wow... I am gobsmacked, both by your post and by the various responses to your post. I was never a huge Doors fan... didn't hate them either. I did read a book about Jim Morrison in my early twenties (ten years after his death) that caused me to have a huge post-mortem crush on him for a while... but who *didn't* I have a crush on in my early twenties? It's interesting to me how disparate the reaction to JM and the Doors is here... even someone who says it's the "wrong subject for your essays". Good God! What could ever be a "wrong subject"?
To back-track a little... I saw your newsletter in my inbox this morning, but saved it for later because I've *loved* every one of your posts and I didn't want to rush through it. This fact, along with my own recent post about my own Journal Project, is showing me that notebooks & journals are fertile ground for further exploration on my part. I mean, I always knew my journals were an important part of my life, but I never imagined anyone else giving a shit a about them. Seeing that picture of Jim Morrison's notebooks gave me a jolt: I too have used those "Compositions" notebooks! I'm not comparing myself to Jim Morrison... or am I? As you mentioned, these notebooks were only meant for JM's eyes. There's some garbage in there... and there's some greatness. He could have gone completely unknown and unnoted, but he didn't... he ended up having an influence on American culture. But he was just a regular person... like me.
WHAT AM I TRYING TO SAY? I'm not sure! Maybe the bottom line is that I'm just happy to see that other people are as fascinated by notebooks/note-taking/personal exploration in writing/idiosyncratic ways of taking note of the world as I am. I will never tire of seeing other people's notebooks, and no subject could ever be "wrong".
You went out with a bang Jillian for 2023. I think this captured the runaway train of Jim Morrison very well. He was certainly a troubled and creative soul. His tendency to medicate, viewed through the lens of today is easier to understood. The era was one of experimentation. What is more amazing, at least to me, is that what we know now and are finally studying is the role that certain drugs, including psychedelics has beccome a much more "sensible" choice for many. Because they were different, and hence dangerous, we've spent 60 years avoiding the study of all sorts of drugs and the manner of how they work. Progress is always slow. I am amazed by the who's who of people who now experiment with many different drugs as a creative pathway in our brains.
Many of us will continue as absolutists. Our brains are biochemical and the range of one person to the next makes it likely that especailly. I would imagine that for many, psychedelics are helpful to creativity. Lack of easy access probably sends lots of people to alcohol.
Ticking off the possibilities: a perfect summation of why we write. Titling his journals? Genius! And varying prose and poetry formats? This mashup girl loves that, of course.
Dec 21, 2022·edited Dec 21, 2022Liked by Jillian Hess
Found this really interesting Jillian--so sad that Morrison struggled with addiction. Such a creative talent. The teacher/artist in me loves seeing all the notebook covers you share. Brings back memories! Wishing you a beautiful and restful holiday season! Looking forward to your posts in the New Year! xx
“To be fair, Nietzsche wasn’t talking about heroin.” LOL
What a great post Jillian. I was a huge Jim Morrison fan when I was 13. The Doors was the first album I ever bought. Well, cassette tape. And I always thought of it as a phase I outgrew. But your post made me think of him more kindly. Looking at his notebooks, his handwriting, made me realize, oddly, that he was a real person, with real feelings , experiencing an actual, real life.
Congratulations on your great 2023 Ms. Hess I am so looking forward to what you do next year!
It really touched my heart to see his handwriting. I was never a big Doors fan, but always felt tenderness toward Morrison. Perhaps because I was married to a musician w/ a drinking for over a decade who was also brilliant and poetic. So often, it's those with the most tender, vulnerable hearts who struggle. Lovely piece. (Oh, also: I emailed you last week but not sure if it made it's way to you). Happy holidays!
Terrific post! I was really interested about Morrison's reaction to having burned his notebooks... and then his revised view that this had been a positive move. I'm wondering how I would feel if I ever got rid of any of mine? I'm very quick to react, and have thrown away or destroyed all manner of things - and have mostly (always?) regretted my hot-headedness. I can imagine throwing notebooks away in frustration... and then being devastated. But would I then harness the disposal of my notebooks as a force for creative good? Interesting!
Thank you for another great read, Jillian, and have a super festive break!
Jillian, this is a perfect example of the wrong subject for your essays. The content of the notes makes this a sort of anti-tribute. I wish I had not seen the notes. It is a record of stunted growth. Wasted potential maybe but we'll never know. But damn he had the recipe for collecting a dedicated following. I had a Biafran roommate in the late seventies. He knew all of the Doors' songs by heart. He spent the school year reading my collection of existential literature and listening to the Doors. He knew I barely stomached them so he played his tapes when I was out. Once I entered the room just as he was lip-syncing "this is the end, my friend" and when he saw me he shouted it out to me. I saw him there in his bed with Crime and Punishment open in his hand, and I yelled back "shut up!" He laughed and told me: "this is the truth. He is telling the truth." He, for one, believed that there was something profound in the Door's lyrics.
I remember exactly where I was when I heard of Morrison's death. An odd thing that maybe signals I treasured his work more than I thought. Good post as usual, Jillian.
Another great post, Jillian. I love The Doors and was in 7th grade when I watched that performance on Ed Sullivan in 1967, making me a lifelong fan of the music. Jim Morrison was always a talented mess, but he sounded like nobody else. In Joan Didion’s ‘The White Album’ there’s a great piece about waiting around for hours at a Doors recording studio session for Morrison to finally show up, if you haven’t already read it, I think you’d appreciate it.
I love learning more about the people you profile in this Substack. I often regret all the writing I threw out over the years but then... maybe it is a good thing. We can’t hang on to the past. Yet seeing these entries in notebooks is a wonderful insight into the mind.
Fabulous!!! What an enjoyment to read about Morrison's wonderfully haphazard and sloppy notes and how he mined lines for his lyrics. Thank you for this beautiful glimpse.
Wow... I am gobsmacked, both by your post and by the various responses to your post. I was never a huge Doors fan... didn't hate them either. I did read a book about Jim Morrison in my early twenties (ten years after his death) that caused me to have a huge post-mortem crush on him for a while... but who *didn't* I have a crush on in my early twenties? It's interesting to me how disparate the reaction to JM and the Doors is here... even someone who says it's the "wrong subject for your essays". Good God! What could ever be a "wrong subject"?
To back-track a little... I saw your newsletter in my inbox this morning, but saved it for later because I've *loved* every one of your posts and I didn't want to rush through it. This fact, along with my own recent post about my own Journal Project, is showing me that notebooks & journals are fertile ground for further exploration on my part. I mean, I always knew my journals were an important part of my life, but I never imagined anyone else giving a shit a about them. Seeing that picture of Jim Morrison's notebooks gave me a jolt: I too have used those "Compositions" notebooks! I'm not comparing myself to Jim Morrison... or am I? As you mentioned, these notebooks were only meant for JM's eyes. There's some garbage in there... and there's some greatness. He could have gone completely unknown and unnoted, but he didn't... he ended up having an influence on American culture. But he was just a regular person... like me.
WHAT AM I TRYING TO SAY? I'm not sure! Maybe the bottom line is that I'm just happy to see that other people are as fascinated by notebooks/note-taking/personal exploration in writing/idiosyncratic ways of taking note of the world as I am. I will never tire of seeing other people's notebooks, and no subject could ever be "wrong".
You went out with a bang Jillian for 2023. I think this captured the runaway train of Jim Morrison very well. He was certainly a troubled and creative soul. His tendency to medicate, viewed through the lens of today is easier to understood. The era was one of experimentation. What is more amazing, at least to me, is that what we know now and are finally studying is the role that certain drugs, including psychedelics has beccome a much more "sensible" choice for many. Because they were different, and hence dangerous, we've spent 60 years avoiding the study of all sorts of drugs and the manner of how they work. Progress is always slow. I am amazed by the who's who of people who now experiment with many different drugs as a creative pathway in our brains.
Many of us will continue as absolutists. Our brains are biochemical and the range of one person to the next makes it likely that especailly. I would imagine that for many, psychedelics are helpful to creativity. Lack of easy access probably sends lots of people to alcohol.
Ticking off the possibilities: a perfect summation of why we write. Titling his journals? Genius! And varying prose and poetry formats? This mashup girl loves that, of course.
Enjoy your time off. Peace out ✌🏽
His burning those notebooks is a horror--at least for the historian in me! Imagine some of the marginalia in those...Another winner from NOTED!
Found this really interesting Jillian--so sad that Morrison struggled with addiction. Such a creative talent. The teacher/artist in me loves seeing all the notebook covers you share. Brings back memories! Wishing you a beautiful and restful holiday season! Looking forward to your posts in the New Year! xx
“To be fair, Nietzsche wasn’t talking about heroin.” LOL
What a great post Jillian. I was a huge Jim Morrison fan when I was 13. The Doors was the first album I ever bought. Well, cassette tape. And I always thought of it as a phase I outgrew. But your post made me think of him more kindly. Looking at his notebooks, his handwriting, made me realize, oddly, that he was a real person, with real feelings , experiencing an actual, real life.
Congratulations on your great 2023 Ms. Hess I am so looking forward to what you do next year!
It really touched my heart to see his handwriting. I was never a big Doors fan, but always felt tenderness toward Morrison. Perhaps because I was married to a musician w/ a drinking for over a decade who was also brilliant and poetic. So often, it's those with the most tender, vulnerable hearts who struggle. Lovely piece. (Oh, also: I emailed you last week but not sure if it made it's way to you). Happy holidays!
Another great one. Have you considered a post about John Lennon's notes?
A well written, thoroughly researched, insightful exploration. I loved seeing the actual notes.
I'm pretty new to Substack and looking forward to reading more of your work. I love the idea of mini bite-sized biographies!
Terrific post! I was really interested about Morrison's reaction to having burned his notebooks... and then his revised view that this had been a positive move. I'm wondering how I would feel if I ever got rid of any of mine? I'm very quick to react, and have thrown away or destroyed all manner of things - and have mostly (always?) regretted my hot-headedness. I can imagine throwing notebooks away in frustration... and then being devastated. But would I then harness the disposal of my notebooks as a force for creative good? Interesting!
Thank you for another great read, Jillian, and have a super festive break!
Jillian, this is a perfect example of the wrong subject for your essays. The content of the notes makes this a sort of anti-tribute. I wish I had not seen the notes. It is a record of stunted growth. Wasted potential maybe but we'll never know. But damn he had the recipe for collecting a dedicated following. I had a Biafran roommate in the late seventies. He knew all of the Doors' songs by heart. He spent the school year reading my collection of existential literature and listening to the Doors. He knew I barely stomached them so he played his tapes when I was out. Once I entered the room just as he was lip-syncing "this is the end, my friend" and when he saw me he shouted it out to me. I saw him there in his bed with Crime and Punishment open in his hand, and I yelled back "shut up!" He laughed and told me: "this is the truth. He is telling the truth." He, for one, believed that there was something profound in the Door's lyrics.
I remember exactly where I was when I heard of Morrison's death. An odd thing that maybe signals I treasured his work more than I thought. Good post as usual, Jillian.
Another great post, Jillian. I love The Doors and was in 7th grade when I watched that performance on Ed Sullivan in 1967, making me a lifelong fan of the music. Jim Morrison was always a talented mess, but he sounded like nobody else. In Joan Didion’s ‘The White Album’ there’s a great piece about waiting around for hours at a Doors recording studio session for Morrison to finally show up, if you haven’t already read it, I think you’d appreciate it.
So fascinating that the name came from the William Blake poem - I always assumed it was from Huxley’s “The Doors of Perception”!
I love learning more about the people you profile in this Substack. I often regret all the writing I threw out over the years but then... maybe it is a good thing. We can’t hang on to the past. Yet seeing these entries in notebooks is a wonderful insight into the mind.
Fabulous!!! What an enjoyment to read about Morrison's wonderfully haphazard and sloppy notes and how he mined lines for his lyrics. Thank you for this beautiful glimpse.