9.14.10

 Video

In Memento by Christopher Nolan, the main character Leonard survived an accident that severely impaired his memory. He has short-term memory loss, and every time he falls asleep he has to relearn what he knows. The last this he remembers is his wife dying. He has tattooed himself with phrases such as “John G. raped and murdered my wife,” and “Find him and kill him.”  Leonard’s concept of time is different from everyone else’s because he doesn’t know that time has even passed when he first wakes up.  Every time he awakens he has to relearn what his motive is, which is to find and kill John G. One quote that I thought was thought provoking was when Leonard said, “How can I heal without time?” Leonard has no sense of time passing even though it has, and he has to realize everyday that his wife is gone. This movie reminds me of 50 First Dates in that Lucy suffered an accident and is now experiencing short-term memory loss.  She, too, must relearn everything about her life that has changed since the accident.  In Memento, Leonard talks about a man named Sammy who had short-term memory loss so bad that he would forget things within 15 minutes.  This reminded me of a story that my mom used to tell me about her grandmother.  I was a toddler and my mom and I were visiting Grandma Sabatini at the nursing home.  Grandma Sabatini asked my mom if she was working, and when she said yes, grandma asked what my mom does with me during the day.  My mom told her that she takes me to daycare.  Grandma said, ”Huh…Do you work?” and it went on like this for about 20 minutes.  I find it weird that old people’s memories can be as bad as people who have suffered an accident.  It would be so frustrating to have to start over every time you fall asleep, and especially every 15 minutes. 

Reading

In the second chapter of “What is Time?” by J.G. Whitrow, we learned about different philosophers’ theories of time. The French psychologist Guyau argued that time is not a, “prior condition, but a consequence.” (Page 16) If this were true, then time would not be something affiliated with the present, but instead is something that happens because we do things. I disagreed with this theory when I first read it.  Time goes on if we do nothing, of course, but I then thought that maybe time going on is a consequence for doing nothing.  A man named Herbert Spencer

Questions

On page 18 in the excerpt from Robert Hooke, he capitalized words such as quantity, organ, and memory.  I would like to know the significance in capitalizing the words.

At the bottom of page 18, Hooke also argues that we “can no more remember without the organ of memory than see without the organ of sight." I’m wondering if Hooke means that memory and sight are actual organs, because they aren’t body parts. If so, I don’t agree that they are organs but I’m wondering what memory is if it’s not an organ in the brain? Would one identify memory as simply a place in the brain or is it something different to everyone? I can point to your head and say, “This is where my memory is.” But I first mean my brain, and within my brain lies my memory. Is that actually where our memories are?

Research

I’d like to know more about what makes people’s first memories so significant that it is what they first remember.  People’s earliest memories normally happen before they start to consistently remember, which for most is at the age of five.  It is not known whether first memories correlate with one’s reminiscence function or defensive style.  Studies have shown that older people’s recollections of their early memories are happier, and are used to decrease boredom, maintain intimacy, and even prepare for death.  So, one’s first memory may not be significant because of the memory itself, but because it is needed as a defense mechanism in the brain against the negative thoughts one acquires as they age.

http://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=paq.025.0228a - excerpt from textbook

http://gerontologist.oxfordjournals.org/content/37/5/581.full.pdf - study on memories

see my comment on Amy's blog to understand these pictures.