Alec Guinness writes My Name Escapes Me - The Diary of a Retiring Actor - in purpose of documentation of his performance to commit his story to the public record. In the diary, Alec Guinness, at 82, shows his wishes to spend his declining years as, "a retiring actor"; he has not done with acting; he is still performing; yet retiring. This time his performance is committed to words in the commissioned diary. I see a diary as documentation of one's life, especially when it is to be shown to public. By definition, a document is a "formal paper bearing important or official information". In the same sense, Alec Guinness's diary is a document of his "act" of writing as Paul Matthew Pierre called. In addition, the facts that it is commissioned and is admissionable to us, the public, that he is a public figure; and that it is commemorating his people suggest Guinness's intentions for his stories and his performances, in the diary to be for the public record.

Writing is another way of acting for Alec Guinness. His desire to perform is reluctantly replaced by writing. Alec Guinness wishes to act again: "...if I am to retired, I am in inclined to assume a pain

ed expression and deny it.... I doubt if any part, however small, would tempt me". *P 10* He openly shows his regrets toward his retirement forced by his senescent body: "I think the T.V unit has finished with me ...it came home to me, almost savagely, that age has withered memory, alertness had taken ...what talent was there." *p 41*: "...my granny will be thrilled."*p 41* Also in the quotation, "...almost unrecognizable in the film. I like the 'almost', " we see that he still wants to be remained as a public figure. His love for acting and plays are all-transparent in the book. He consistently refers back to the plays he has done and read. He often expresses strong opinions about the plays and the acting business: "... but I can't help feeling an actor should be made of sterner stuff.... Than their ill report while you live". *p 19* Something like this quotation is not in character for him because he has been very conscious of making statements about other social issues. When he does make them, he does so indirectly that they could be interpreted in several different ways. These all imply that this old man desperately wants to act once more. Moreover, he finds another way to remain in the acting business and in the public eye: "The difficulty is the chore of learning (I used to be reasonably reliable and fairly quick, and diminishing physical vitality, both of which would choke any creativity effort. So I am happy to scribble instead". As we are reading his scribbles, we are seeing the other part of him; the inner Alec Guinness. He again impersonates and creates a new character as he writes. What he writes is about what he does and what he does identifies who he is. His actions are committed to his words.

Also his writing is performance in a sense that he is presenting himself in the book. He seems to be very conscious of expressing his opinions and views on sensitive issues like gender, class system, and racial matters as though he's overly awared of his audience. He was consciou

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Approximate Word count = 1347
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)