Favorite journal entry/excerpt

Just curious to know which part or parts of E/D's journals/writings is the most telling or favorite excerpts to all the members out there and why? They left quite an interesting array of writings in their wake, and while it seems clear Eric is writing to an audience of sorts, I often wonder if Dylan had really wanted (or even thought about) his "thoughtzos" being scrutinized after his suicidal rampage.

I think Dylan and Eric really wanted that the people read their journals and study them because they could finally show what they were thinking and wanted to say. Personally, I really like what I think is one the poems that Dylan wrote in his journal and that say:

Ignorance is bliss
Happiness is ambition
Desolation is knowledge
Pain is acceptance
Despair is anger
Denial is helpless
Martyrism is hope for others
Advantages taken are causes of martyrism
Revenge is sorrow
Death is a reprieve
Life is a punishment
Others’ achievements are tormentations
People are alike
I am different

And from Eric's journal, my favorite excerpt is what he wrote 04/21/98:

"Society may not realize what is happening but I have; you go to school, to get used to studying
and learning how your “supposed to” so that drains or filters out a little bit of human nature.
But that’s after your parents taught you what’s right and wrong even though you may think
differently, you still must follow the rules. After school you are expected to get a job or go
to college. To have more of your human nature blown out your ass. Society tries to make
everyone act the same by burying all human nature and instincts. That’s what schools, laws,
jobs, and parents do. If they realize it or not. And them, the few who stick to their natural
instincts are casted out as psychos or lunatics or strangers or just plain different. crazy,
strange, weird, wild, these words are not bad or degrading. If humans were let to live how
we would naturally, it would be chaos and anarchy and the human race wouldn’t probably
last that long, but hey guess what, that’s how it’s supposed to be!!!!! Societies and government
are only created to have order and calmness, which is exactly the opposite of pure human
nature. Take away all your laws and morals and just see what you can do if the governments
in our own little so called self-created “civilized world” and get rid of all those damn [or
Darwin?] instincts everyone has!! Bullshit. I’m too tired to write anymore tonight, so until
next time, fuck you all"

I specially like those two excerpts from their journals because there they show what they were really feeling about what surrounded and about themselves them and they show their ideologies in a way that I really like.

Many beautiful passages in Dylan's diary. Less nostalgic beauty in Eric's, but more fury. (Can fury be beautiful? Arghh...)

This is my favorite in Dylan's. Remember he is at the time of that entry, 16 years old (April 15th, 1997):

''Existence is a great hall, life is one of the rooms, death is passing through the doors and the ever-existent compulsion of everything is the curiosity to keep moving down the hall, through the doors, exploring rooms down this never-ending hall. Questions make answers, answers conceive questions, and at long last he is content.''

JayJay wrote:

Many beautiful passages in Dylan's diary. Less nostalgic beauty in Eric's, but more fury. (Can fury be beautiful? Arghh...)

This is my favorite in Dylan's. Remember he is at the time of that entry, 16 years old (April 15th, 1997):

''Existence is a great hall, life is one of the rooms, death is passing through the doors and the ever-existent compulsion of everything is the curiosity to keep moving down the hall, through the doors, exploring rooms down this never-ending hall. Questions make answers, answers conceive questions, and at long last he is content.''

Don't get me wrong, Dylan's young age did show a bit throughout his journal, but at the same time he was very articulate and definitely showed how active his mind truly was.

fatlittleparasite wrote:

JayJay wrote:

Many beautiful passages in Dylan's diary. Less nostalgic beauty in Eric's, but more fury. (Can fury be beautiful? Arghh...)

This is my favorite in Dylan's. Remember he is at the time of that entry, 16 years old (April 15th, 1997):

''Existence is a great hall, life is one of the rooms, death is passing through the doors and the ever-existent compulsion of everything is the curiosity to keep moving down the hall, through the doors, exploring rooms down this never-ending hall. Questions make answers, answers conceive questions, and at long last he is content.''

Don't get me wrong, Dylan's young age did show a bit throughout his journal, but at the same time he was very articulate and definitely showed how active his mind truly was.

Yes, indeed you're right, his age shows throughout even if he has these brilliant thoughts.

You can see how tragic everything seems to him and the extremity of his thinking, like when he writes: ''I lost my zippo and some money, I wanna kill myself!''.


As for Eric's diary, I'm going to say that my favorite passage is the sexual fantasy part starting with the words ''You know what, maybe I just need to get laid.'' It's just raw and so honest and full of furious energy. Sort of desperate too. And it comes out of nowhere because he's talking about something else and then he just starts with his fantasies.

Also, the very last two sentences of his diary: ''I hate you people for leaving me out of so many fun things. And no don’t fucking say “well that’s your fault” because it isn’t, you people had my phone number, and I asked and all, but no. no no no don’t let the weird looking Eric KID come along, ooh fucking nooo.'', is in my opinion at the core of what he was feeling as the shooting drew near.

That last entry is written in block letters while the rest is in cursive. It's all of Eric, settled down a bit. It's full of sadness and upset at rejection. Very telling, maybe closer to his true feelings beyond all the philosophical posturing and terrifying anger in the rest of his diary. It's like the Pachelbel's canon of hate playing since the beginning has finally died down to a murmur, his anger turned back into disappointment in others and himself. He's finally back to Eric when it was all Reb, Reb, Reb throughout.

My favorite journal entry of Eric's is the part when he describes his weekend and how much fun he had with his friends because he sounded like a typical teenager and doing typical teenager activities. And also because he sounded happy and in a upbeat mood which was refreshing to read because it was not his typical angry, hateful, I want to be a badass self.

I absolutely love Eric's You Know What I Hate list. I find his rants to be very witty and humorous. My favorite one is his hatred towards animal cruelty because I am completely against animal cruelty. But most importantly it showed the more human and sympathetic side to Eric which we don't get to see much of.

My favorite written school assignment Eric wrote was the story about Betsey. I laughed the whole way through and I don't think that's the type of girl he would go for.