So here I am, another late Friday/early Saturday morning at the office, writing another paper. I’m really excited about a book I’m reading right now and I’m using it for a paper I’m currently working on. It is called Remembering by Edward Casey. It’s a philosophy book but I think it’s pretty accessible if you’re interested. He introduces the history of memory and remembering in the introduction and writes about how for the Greeks it was almost a divine act. I bet most of you know who Zeus is, the father of the gods, but you probably don’t know that his wife was Mnemosyne, (which means memory). Casey goes on to address how memory and remembering has lost its prestige not only in our contemporary education system but in our society. It’s something we’ve relegated to computers, yet the human remembering and the computer version are different. I’m writing my paper on remembering as an ethical act, or as Casey puts it, “a way of getting (and staying) in touch with a past that would otherwise be consigned to oblivion; a fateful fending off of forgetfulness (Casey, 12). It’s a topic I’ve been interested in for some time now, and I made a good effort to read this book…
Bergson’s Matter and Memory, but it uses very opaque language. I’ll give it a go again this spring. One of the reasons I’m so fascinated with memory, aside from the fact that I’ve noticed that mine is starting to fade, is how often it is mentioned in the scriptures…Old/New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants…it’s an integral part of how we are to worship and approach God the Father and His Son. Give your scriptures a whirl and see how important it is. And if you want to read an incredible study on memory, I recommend Casey’s book. Unfortunately it’s $34.
2 comments:
Hey Ben,
Remembering looks like a cool book to read. Actually I do know that Mnemosyne was the wife of Zeus, Greek Mythology was one of my favorite classes in high school. Do you know that Mnemosyne was first Zeus's aunt? However he fell in love with her anyway, married her and they had nine children on nine consecutive nights who became the nine Muses.
I am also reading a book about memory, "Ten Days to a Sharper Memory." I saw a presentation for a workshop on how to use the "mental file folder system" to have almost total recall. So I've been checking out memory books as I don't want to pay $600 to learn that system. This is the first of my research. I'd rather read "how to" books rather than a study on memory.
One of these days, when you have the time, I will swap memory books with you and you can learn how to improve you memory. Hmmmm...might want to do that while you are still in school, could help.
Love you, Mommo
As if you didn't have enough to do.... you might find some interesting perspectives by journalling and then reading some of your thought 1, 2 5, or even 10 years later.
I was rummaging recently and came across a piece of my mission journal.... man! I remembered some of the details differently, but the bulk was right... what surprized me were my expressions of the feelings I was having at the time..... man! As it turns out, the sterile memory is not the important part. the more valuable part is what we experienced in that moment. How we handled things and what we learned from the experience...... Whew! ain't I just the chatty one!
Good stuff, Ben.... keep it up!
-Daddo
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