The
Essay I read for this blog post, A Ragged
Pen, by Patrick Friesen, was quite interesting. Though at first I had to
re-read a few lines, eventually I was sucked in so deep I couldn’t believe it
was over when it was, or maybe that’s just how I remember it. You see, since I’ve
read the article, I’m questioning all of my memories and past experiences, as
this essay challenged me to do. Did I make that story about that party up? Was
it someone else’s story that I now see myself in? Or was it mine all along, but
different in reality? And is reality real when thinking backwards? The essay
can really turn you around, and make you question everything. For instance, I
have to keep reading the same lines over and over to make sure I’m not changing
them, causing them to fall victim to a faulty memory.
One
concept he continually goes back to is that of longing. He quotes Basho’s haiku,
that goes “Even in Kyoto/ hearing a cuckoos cry/ I long for Kyoto,” saying that
we are longing, not for the memory, but something other, something outside the
memory. As I see it, he means that we are constantly wanting for something that
doesn’t, and never existed, except in our mind. For example, we all know the
story about the fisherman and his grand tale of how he caught a magnificent fish
that gets bigger every time he tells it. To the fisherman, the story is always
true, and always how he remembers it, but somehow it always changes to seem
more amazing than before. As Friesen says, “Memory is a trick to remind us that
something may have been there, or perhaps not. Memory is not something you can
trust.”
Friesen
also talks about a study of how we lose the memory of our first three years of
life, but of how he can remember sounds of riding in a sled and the crunching
of feet around him. It makes me strain to remember my childhood, but I can’t
remember anything of my first three years. Maybe there is a grand conspiracy out
there to eliminate the first few years of our life; maybe our brains assume
that nothing useful comes from that time. All I know is that I only have
memories from the viewpoint of a video camera, but maybe that is enough. Maybe
it is just easier to record our memories so we have them forever. I recently
got engaged and my brother took photos of the entire thing so now I have
pictures to show when I tell the story, but who knows if the story will change.
Maybe it is already something that never happened, but did, somehow.
This really makes you think! I remember thinking after your presentation in class; what memories have I interpreted differently in my head based on what others have told me and what I actually remember. This is such an interesting and attention grabbing concept and I think Scott did very well to identity and explain the main concepts based on his own experiences and direct quotations from the author. It's a very interesting that Scott brought up the point that we interpret memories differently after we read them. It makes me think that when I read stories, poetry, textmessages and/ or even study that I add connotation or assume things that aren't even there. I think I will double and triple read things now based on this post.
ReplyDeleteThanks Scott!
Just a small edit, the name of the article was 'Memory River' and it was from a collection of Essays titled 'A Ragged Pen'.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of this article is really interesting to think about. I love that you mention the idea of only having old home videos to remember certain areas of your childhood. It makes me think of instances where I've been watching home videos of my own and thought, "Yeah, I remember that." Thinking about it now I can establish that I probably don't remember these events but, like you say, memory is able to trick us. Definitely makes me want to look more into this concept. Well done.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of crazy to think that we never 'remember' anything from the first 3 years of our life, but, from many psychological views and shit, it's the stuff from the early years of our life that sort of make a lasting impact in our lives. We may not have any concrete memories, but information and thangs must be stored in our brains somewhere subconsciously.
ReplyDeleteBrains/minds are weird.
Your presentation was one of my favourites because it really got me thinking of memories, and how we so often implant false moments that associated with memories or how we wish to remember something. My earliest memory was when I was 3 years old in Newfoundland visiting my grandparents. All I remember was blowing bubbles on their balcony and seeing a dog run on a sidewalk below the apartment.
ReplyDelete