March digest
TAJ/ IRC_2026-01: read, written, watched, listened and loved this month
I’m back with another monthly digest. March has been really busy and I’m surprised I still made some time to watch one film every week, read multiple articles and post every Sunday here on Substack. In this post, you’ll find all the links to my articles and media I’ve collected during the third month of the year.
<finding aid>
This section is a guide to all the posts I published this month.
1.03 - A reflection about writing in shorthand and typing on a keyword, how the way we write changes the way we think:
8.03 - A double “review” of my February reads: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and Archive Fever by Jacques Derrida. Both the books talk about memory and its destruction:
15.03 - My spring resolutions for a slower, routine based life:
22.03 - Some reflections on the aesthetics of fragility and the desire to preserve ephemera
<clippings>
In this section are collected the articles I’ve read this month and the videos I’ve watched.
Books and screens: "Your inability to focus isn’t a moral failing. It’s a design problem. You’re trying to think in environments built to prevent thinking."
musings on the making of a contemporary classic: "Maybe that’s the distinction between an ephemeral hit and a classic: re-readability."
Let It Linger: Ritualized Note-Taking To Take Your Attention Back: "Creating rituals means baking in opportunities for repetition."
Gifted: A haunting short story about a talentless girl with a gifted roommate (I'm trying to read more short stories lately).
The Blinkered Flâneur. Walking with Franz Hessel in 1920s Berlin: An analysis of Hessel’s book “Spazieren in Berlin” and the implications of being non-political as a writer.
The Beautiful and the Inconvenient: How conveniency sometimes destroys rituals and beauty.
the intimacy of understanding yourself (how I research): a guide to following your own curiosity.
IQ scores are falling but, no, we’re not growing more stupid: an essay discussing the problem with IQ tests and defining intelligence.
what can you gain from the journaling practices of anais nin, virginia woolf and joan didion?: a substack essay on how these three writers used journaling for different reasons (self-discovery, building a different narrative and practicing their craft).
In defense of being online, mickey galvin: why being offline is a privilege.
A Very Short History of Critical Thinking, Luc de Brabandere: an article on the history of debates, how to spot logical fallacies and how this applies to online spaces
<film>
This section is dedicated to the films I’ve watched this month.
The book thief (2013): the film adaptation of Zusak’s novel. Realistic and moving.
I’m thinking of ending things (2020): an absurd series of events and dialogues. It didn’t really speak to me, I found the conclusion a bit too banal for the density of the concepts presented in the film, but I haven’t read the book it’s inspired by.
Stalker (1979): I found this extremely thought provoking and its open final shows how you don’t need to give definitive answers to the audience to make a good film (in my opinion).
A woman under the influence (1979): I’ve watched this out of curiosity, because it’s quoted in another film I had watched this month and I’m so glad I did.
The spirit of the beehive (1973): After watching James Whale's "Frankenstein" and being told by her sister that the monster is still alive as a spirit, Ana searches for him in an abandoned barn. This was probably my favourite out of all the films I’ve watched in March.
<sound>
This is a collection of albums, music tracks and podcasts I’ve listened to this month.
I’ve been obsessed with this album since it came out. I love finding new music in the language I’m learning, because listening to songs over and over again is so helpful to learn pronunciation and new vocabulary. Each track narrates a piece of a story about an unbalanced relationship, which the author is reflecting back on after having found love again, acknowledging how she allowed the other person to cross her boundaries and disrespect her feelings.
That is all for today’s post. As you can see I’ve made some changes lately to the website and I think it turned out really pretty. I was wondering about posting some short content as well, since this is “The archivist journal”, I thought it would be fun to share some daily records, the way I write them in my diary (but edited for the internet, of course). Let me know what you think!
Thanks for reading,
𝒢. 𝒢.
Hello! I’m 𝒢. 𝒢., a 20-something year old master student in Italy and aspiring archivist. Here I archive my life through writing about the mundane and collecting pieces of media. This post falls under my “Intermediate Records” series, which includes media collections, writing guides and learning resources.
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ahhh, thank you for adding my essay here!
So inspiring🩷