Some of the best pages in The Pillow Book are lists. Things that make the heart beat faster; things that have lost their power; things that are near yet far. They read like notes, and they are finished work.1
1 The book was written at the Japanese imperial court around the year 1000. The lists sit among diary passages and short essays.
A list asks for a kind of attention that a paragraph does not. Each item has to stand alone, and the order does the arguing. Put two things side by side and the reader supplies the connection.
Trying it
I have started ending some weeks with a short list instead of an essay: five things noticed, no commentary. They are harder to write than they look. Most of the work is deciding what to leave out, which is also most of the work of an essay.
Notes and references
- Sei Shōnagon, The Pillow Book, written around 1000. Several modern English translations exist; the list titles above are paraphrased, not quoted.