Windows to the Mind: Reading Old Diaries (Hybrid)

‘Look after your diary and one day it will look after you.’ With these words, or words to the same effect, Mae West established for us the crucial distinction between the personal diaries of the rich and famous, which are usually written with an eye to publication, and those of everybody else, which are not. It is this latter shadowy category of diaries that interests the speaker, and in this illustrated lecture we will defend the great and underrated importance of diaries kept by private individuals, well out of the limelight, by those whose daily record-keeping normally has no agenda, and whose testimonies are therefore of a unique type of value.
We will investigate, flying-over, the function of diary-keeping in diary-keeping countries (principally the United Kingdom and the United States), and learn what people record in their diaries, with a view to demonstrating their very real importance among human records, and why unwanted diaries should be saved from perdition for the long term benefit of those to come after, who will be perplexed and curious about the past from which they have emerged, with only the misleading evidence of the flickering screen to guide them.

Dr. Irving Finkel, Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian Script, Languages, and Cultures in the Middle East Department of the British Museum, curates, reads, and translates cuneiform inscriptions on clay tablets from ancient Mesopotamia. The British Museum has the largest collection of tablets–130,000 pieces–of any museum. In addition to his research on cuneiform, Dr Finkel specializes in ancient Mesopotamian medicine and magic, and he is interested in the literature, religion, and the history of ideas in the Middle East. He is fascinated by the history of board games throughout the world, and especially the preservation of traditional board games in many non-Western societies.
Among the revelations he has divined are the original blueprints for Noah’s Ark and a rulebook to an ancient board game, “The Royal Game of Ur.”

This program is being offered both IN-PERSON and ONLINE. Please select how you will attend when registering. Recordings will be distributed to registered participants only, and will not be available for individual purchase.

**All times are CT. Please contact **onlinelearning@junghouston.org with any questions.

Please register early. Programs with four or fewer participants are subject to cancellation, 48 hours prior to their start.