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Joined: Jan 2002
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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



#125340 03/18/04 03:13 PM
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The Invention of Memory by Israel Rosenfeld.
The Art of Memory by Francis Yates.
And tangentially: The Wake of Imagination by Richard Kearney.


#125341 03/18/04 04:14 PM
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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.



#125342 03/18/04 05:17 PM
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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.




#125343 03/18/04 05:37 PM
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Not to seem an ingrate -- I am keeping an eye on this thread and compiling a list. Thanks all.


#125344 03/19/04 03:13 PM
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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.


#125345 03/19/04 04:35 PM
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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."


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