Analysis #6: My Memory is Great – I Can’t Remember the Last Time I Forgot Something.

Oh boy, last analysis of the summer semester everyone. May I say it has been an absolute pleasure everyone, and yes I am aware that there is still a final project, but I have never done a blog before and this was like crazy cool so let me have my gushy moment. *Wipes tears away in Oscar-worthy moment*

Any-who, let’s talk memory ya’ll. This is fitting considering I have a story for this. I work with children and not a week ago a took one of my kids out to a diner for lunch. Then I saw this guy there who I remembered I met my freshman year in college. Considering I’m a senior now I knew he had graduated. He came up to me and we chatted for a bit. I remembered he was a political science major (insert throwing up emoji) but didn’t want to be a politician but a person behind the scenes, he loved stardew valley and ate every Wednesday at Jasmine.

Now with all this information, you think I would remember something basic, you know like his god damn name? But no, I do not. And that’s the thing about my memory, I can remember the slightest, tiniest details about someone and their face but heaven forbid I remember a birthday, name, or location (Left and right are my arch nemesiss’).

And that’s the funny thing about memory, it’s different for all of us. My significant other can look in a location and know what direction they’re facing, like ok showing off much, while I can remember unquantifiable about of quotes, plot lines, and snippets from the books I have read over the years. Yet we see in our media this week that memory gets a bit more complicated when we jump into metaphysically gifted people vs. those who have abnormal psychology.

Now professor, you have me pulling out my old abnormal psychology notes for your class, that is how you know this shit is getting real. But from a psych major, I’ll give you a quick synopsis of Alzheimer’s. There are three chromosome genetic mutations that we have identified that cause this disease but this only accounts for around 5% of cases. People who are more intelligent and have higher education, and who are more socially, mentally, and physically active throughout the years are less likely to get this disease. And it is not, I repeat not a normal part of aging.

Now we see with poor Marjorie, her Alzheimers actually could be linked heavily with the traumatic passing of her son. New studies have found that those who are already predisposed to the disease are more likely to have it occur if an exceedingly emotionally traumatic event occurs. But Marjorie seems to want to doll up the past. She asks Walter prime to make the movie he proposed to her with not My Best Friends Wedding (Which was HORRIBLE do not recommend, do not watch, it was the beginning of the end for rom-coms) but instead Casa-Blanca an exceedingly exceptional movie if I do say so myself. This altering of her past and even the conversation Tess has later on with Jon stating the memory is not a filing cabinet but a photocopy of a photocopy, getting blurrier and blurrier each and every time shows the fickle nature in which we live our lives.

We live day to day mostly discarding what we did because it was uneventful and meaningless in the grand scheme of it all but maybe we hold onto vague memories of what we wore or what we were doing that year. But Marjorie is physically going back and rewriting her past to make it dreamier, to make it fluffier and sweeter, not getting proposed to after a terrible B-movie but a sweet and romantic movie that has gone down in history as the romantic movie. This rewiring of her memories makes her feel more in control of what she is forgetting. If she is making the rules then whose to say that she’s not in charge? This is just how fickle memory is, a bit too much plaque builds up on the brain and soon people forget all they held dear for their entire lives. And soon the photocopy of a photocopy ends up in the shredder and it doesn’t even matter what movie your husband proposed to you afterward, because you eventually forget you have a husband and everything you hold dear.

Well, that was depressing, but what’s new? Now we go from a failing memory onto a memory so pristine you would think it was a machine, oh wait it is. Data’s question of humanity and consciousness comes into play in this episode, and whether or not he has one is not up to me, ( I think so, he may just act differently because he has an extreme case of Asperger’s with possibly a mild apathy disorder, but like I’m not a psychologist so take that with a grain, or mountain, of salt).

Data’s humanity is proven when he can conjure up emotions from the sight of the metals, the book the captain gave him, and the woman he slept with. These emotions and memories are what convinced the judge that he was allowed to make his own decisions, that he was alive and not just property, and that he was sentient. This distinction that memory gives us, this sentimentality that memory gives us is what sets us apart from all the other creatures on this planet. We keep ticket stubs from movies we watched when we were 14 because we thought it was the best night of our life at that point. We bring useless shells and sand from far-off places just to have it collect dust on shelves to remind us of trips we half remember from years long past. We are sentimental creatures who love to keep and reminisce. And this one little distinction is what makes us human, is what sets our memory, one of want and not convenience, different from all other creatures on earth.

Memory is strange, yet sentimental in nature. We look back on memories fondly, even if they are slightly tinted and duller than when we looked back previously, there is always this fondness felt by the person. And whether your mind is made of metal and is literally connected to the internet and can search anything at any time, or is fading away into nothingness, memory is the only thing we carry on with us that helps keep us pushing forward.

A sappy and sad note to end on I am aware but I wish to thank you all for reading my long (long, long, long…….long) ass posts each week/multiple times a week (idk schedule was wacky yo) but regardless, I appreciate it so much and I wish you nothing but A’s and no mental break downs this upcoming semester, good luck and stay sane everyone! 🙂