As Linda Richman would say, I'll give you a topic:
"What we, or at any rate what I , refer to confidently as memory--meaning a moment, a scene, a fact that has been subjected to a fixative and thereby rescued from oblivion--is really a form of storytelling that goes on continually in the mind and often changes with the telling. Too many emotional interests are involved for life ever to be wholly acceptable, and possibly it is the work of the storyteller to rearrange things so that they conform to this end. In any case, in talking about the past we lie with every breath we draw." (p. 27)
Discuss.
(Afterwards feel free to discuss one of Linda's actual topics? The Mormon Tabernacle Choir was neither Mormon nor a tabernacle nor a choir. Discuss.)
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir was very much two out of those three things... Linda was listening to too much Streisand, I think.
ReplyDeleteOK, sorry, sorry. On to the book...
THIS is the theme I was talking about . . . I love the notion of this, that we simply can't trust our memory or our recollection. Over time we become convinced we are only rewinding the truth, but there's so much more that comes into play.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't so much a "lie", a deliberate misstatement . . . but more how the initial truth becomes shaped. It's our circumstances and the people who are part of our lives.
I remember John F. Kennedy, Jr. talking about this once. He knew he couldn't rely on his memories of his father because they were just too intertwined with the things he'd read, the pictures the world shared with him.
I learned this late in life, I think. It was my recollection of being taught how to ride a bicycle. I mentioned it to my father once - his remarks made me sit up and take notice. That recollection I had . . . it was skewed.
I loved seeing this come up a few times in the book. It's a fascinating topic to me. This might explain why I once read a 1400 page novel written specifically to prove that point.
Yes, it's me again...
ReplyDeleteIsn't this why we have the "law of witnesses"?
(Sorry - I have the Book of Mormon on the brain right now.)
I think Patti's point that the lie isn't deliberate is right on. It just happens. I love how Maxwell compares our memory to storytelling - sometimes when I'm relating some experience from my childhood, the entire time I'm thinking in my head, "Did this really happen or am I completely making this up?" The memory of our past can have this dream-like quality and sometimes it's hard to distinguish what really happened from what we've heard from other people or just seen in pictures.
ReplyDeleteAnd has it ever happened to you where you are saying something like "Remember when I twisted my ankle jumping out of the swing at so-and-so's house?" and your sister says, "No, that happened to me!" and they have proof. Sometimes things get quite mixed up. Or maybe we are too codependent for words and take on each other's experiences.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, some people's memory skills are just better than other people's. But I will keep in the mind the "lie" when I claim that now. :)
Oh, I think that's so interesting about taking on each others experiences. And kind of freaky that our minds do such a good job convincing us!
ReplyDeleteAnd... I think the "lie" thing is so compelling, too. I mean, I agree that it's not usually intentional... but I think the narrator is daring us to challenge his credibility and reliability. "Lie" is a pretty strong word. And when he describes Cletus as "not very different from an imaginary playmate" (p. 31), for a moment there he really had me wondering. And then the whole thing with the yearbook. You start to freak yourself out... Was Cletus even there? Is there any possibility that this is all, dare I say it, a lie?
(I mean, I guess I don't really think so. But what was that all about?)
(Also, do you like how I'm just making you guys do all the thinking? This book club is freaking awesome!)
Others needs an apostrophe. Then it would be other's.
ReplyDeleteOK. Good. Now I can sleep better.
Case in point: at my brother Lance's wedding dinner, my mom said she "NEVER had to discipline Lance as a child". And went on to say that even though that sounds ridiculous and untrue, that's what she remembers. Of course it's what she remembers! Lance was overall a mild-mannered and obedient child ... but is she trying to tell me that as a child he never tried to unplug the vacuum or unroll all the toilet paper or write with markers on the wall?? I'm glad her overall "memory" is positive but I'm not convinced it's 100% accurate. I'm sure I'll have the same warped memories someday :)
ReplyDeleteRight, I am sure I have warped memories already! But Melissa, I do believe Cletus was real. I am haunted by little things like his moment in the hall with Cletus, also. Defining moments, I call them. Things that happened when I was probably six, and I spend the rest of my life hoping I never do something that way again.
ReplyDeleteThere is this picture of my siblings, my cousins and I on this huge rock in my old backyard in St. George, UT. I moved to Cali. when I was three and I have ABSOULTLY NO memory of anything in St. George except for that rock. I remember climbing on and playing on that rock.
ReplyDeleteDid I create a memory because of the picture OR did the picture cause a memory to resurface…?
That happens to me all the time. All my three year old "memories" have a picture connected to them. ;)
ReplyDelete