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Commentary
I don’t have the energy right now for yet another essay on the frustrations stemming from my leaky memory. But here are some bullet points. Is there a pattern?
- One or another of my very good friends will occasionally astound me by quoting something I said to them twenty or thirty years ago
- Of the 400+ poems that I have published on this website, I could quote only one or two from memory; generally, I forget my poems within 5 minutes of writing them
- I tend to remember names of people and flowers
- I tend not to learn or remember things unless I think they’re true
- I remember ideas, not their specific formulation
- Sometimes I’m glad that I forget things that aren’t necessarily true; I suspect some people consider anything they remember ipso facto true
How about you? I’d love to hear your bullet points!
(background image by Andreas Lischka on Pixabay)
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Something peculiar I’ve noticed about memory lapses is that it’s far easier to supply the name of something in someone else’s story (as they’re telling and forgetting) than when I’m doing the narrative’s heavy lifting myself. If I’m the one keeping track of all the moving parts in a story, maintaining a structure despite the occasional interruption or clarification, it’s quite a juggle — eleven tennis balls and an audience of golden retrievers.
David, I think I recognize a bit of that in myself. But back to your problems…. The characters and plot of your soon-to-be published sci-fi novel must have been a challenge to keep straight! Or is writing significantly easier for you than verbal story-telling?