In Kawabata’s "Yumiura," the woman who remembered a love affair that apparently never happened reflected on the gift of memory. "Memories are something we should be grateful for, don’t you think?" she asked the bemused novelist. "No matter what circumstances people end up in, they’re still able to remember things from the past -- I think it must be a blessing bestowed on us by the gods." She offered this high praise even though the memory system she celebrated led her unknowingly down a path of delusion. The path through this book is in some ways analogous: we will need to immerse ourselves in the dark sides of memory before we can fully appreciate this "blessing bestowed by the gods."
"The Seven Sins of Memory" by Daniel L.Schacter
ReplyDeleteThe Seven Sins of Memory
{How the Mind Forgets and Remembers}
1. The Sin of Transience
2. The Sin of Absent-mindedness
3. The Sin of Blocking
4. The Sin of Misattribution
5. The Sin of Suggestibility
6. The Sin of Bias
7. The Sin of Persistence