I am looking for works on memory: poems, plays, short stories, novels, philosophical essays, theology, mysticism. I'm particularly interested in the relationship of memory to self or sense of self, and also in questions of time and memory, that is, works that question the assumption of the objectivity of time and which thematize this question through a meditation, of any sort, on memory.

This request could give rise to an unmanageably long reading list (although it might not). So I'm just looking for favorites. And preferably, though not necessarily, of reasonable length.

Thanks.

(A note on 'thematize.' Sorry, it was popular in grad school. I couldn't help myself. )

you must include as an illustration, Salvador Dali's painting, "persistance of Memory"

i am sure every one here knows--or at least remembers it!

Wow! That's a challenge to think about. Helen oft makes a good start, as she has here.

I don't *think this is the kind of thing you're looking for, but its sentimentality is appealing and perhaps belongs to a particular period, like the contemporaneous sentimental Victorian painters.

Pierrette in Memory
By William Griffith
1876-1936
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pierrette has gone, but it was not
Exactly that she died,
So much as vanished and forgot
To tell where she would hide.

To keep a sudden rendezvous,
It came into her mind
That she was late. What could she do
But leave distress behind?

Afraid of being in disgrace,
And hurrying to dress,
She heard there was another place
In need of loveliness.

She went so softly and so soon,
She hardly made a stir;
But going took the stars and moon
And sun away with her

Proust's Remembrance of Things Past (or In Search of Lost Time, depending on the publisher) fits your theme nicely, but I would hesitate to call its length reasonable. My edition consists of seven volumes, and I've only managed to get through one and a half in the several years I've owned it. I find Proust to be rather like cheesecake-- very good, but very dense and rich. I can't consume too much at one time.

very good, but very dense and rich.

And of questionable nutritional value?

Good to see your smiling post, Alicia! Welcome back.

Yes, I'm onto Proust. I found two volumes of a new translation (actually seven new translations, since seven translators were involved) at the Strand yesterday. So far, I love reading him -- it literally feels good.

Insel, you have go to read An Anthropologist on Mars. It was suggested to me by Wow if I remember correctly. It includes several case studies on folks with neurological traumas, and memory issues are discussed often.

It is extremely interesting (thanks Wow for the suggestion).

PS if you run a search, using the word anthropologist, you are likey to find a thread with a URL to an exerpt from the book (by Oliver Sacks--you could google his namd too, and find it)

not too long ago(last 6 months?)

An Anthropologist on Mars. It was suggested to me by Wow if I remember correctly.
Oh my goodness to heavens! Never so erudite I.
But thank you, thank you, thank you, for elevating my status among the literati. However mistaken, I'll take it! ;)

It's been a long time since I read it, but Plato's Meno is about memory. The argument (which seems silly) is that learning is a process whereby we remember. The unexpected conclusion of this line of reasoning is the immortality of the soul.

k

The Invention of Memory by Israel Rosenfeld.
The Art of Memory by Francis Yates.
And tangentially: The Wake of Imagination by Richard Kearney.

oh yes,, another book, The Botony of Desire--(Michael Pollen) -- he select 4 plants chosen for specific desirable characteristics; marejuana was chose for its effects--which are mostly on memory-- when high on grass, everything seems new again. common place things are found newly facinating, etc.

our brain is wired to expect a certain set of asumptions, (daytime is charactized by it being light.. water is wet, heated thing are hot--we don't have to think about them. and we don't! but with grass, those prewired--well prewired be cause we programmed them in so long ago, they are not assumptions we are born with, but learned at an early age!- assumptions get tossed. everything is new and interesting --we taste again vanilla, as if for the for the first --since the first taste was so long ago, its forget, and just an idea of what vanilla tastes like is left. but tasted new, fresh, we are amazed by the complex, rich, flower flavor and aroma. (and Pollen goes on for pages, and pages.. and about the effects of alcohol, and some other drugs, but mostly about grass)
it has some wonderful ideas about memory.

Ah voila, well it was you dear of Troy, who suggested the book.

I really do thank you. It is excellent. I have to admit that I am reading it with a dictionary beside me since there are many words which I do not know at all. It doesn't seem like a book written for the general public but it's well worth the read.

Not to seem an ingrate -- I am keeping an eye on this thread and compiling a list. Thanks all.

You didn't mention movies specifically but I feel compelled to mention Memento which is about a guy who has no short-term memory - so the whole story is told backwards. It's quite a good movie.

memento

Yes, I liked it very much. It's one of the few films I've seen with unusual narrative structures that aren't add-ons, but intrinsic to the telling.

By way of clarrification, I am looking to develop something along less jarring lines -- in narrative style, more along the lines of Bergman's "Persona."