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Re: Memento

On Wed, 19 Sep 2001, bigLight wrote:
> "History goes blind and in darkness;
> neither ses nor is seen, nor is
> known except as a carrion
> marked by unintelligible wounds . . .

What a perfect quote for the _Memento_ thread.  :)

> . . . dragging its dead body, living,
> yet to be born . . .

And this is like that line in the short story about how none of us is
really one person, but "a chain gang of idiots".

   http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2001/001323_mfr_memento_5.html

   [ snip ]

   Here's the truth: People, even regular people, are never just any one
   person with one set of attributes. It's not that simple. We're all at
   the mercy of the limbic system, clouds of electricity drifting through
   the brain. Every man is broken into twenty-four-hour fractions, and
   then again within those twenty-four hours. It's a daily pantomime, one
   man yielding control to the next: a backstage crowded with old hacks
   clamoring for their turn in the spotlight. Every week, every day. The
   angry man hands the baton over to the sulking man, and in turn to the
   sex addict, the introvert, the conversationalist. Every man is a mob, a
   chain gang of idiots.

   This is the tragedy of life. Because for a few minutes of every day,
   every man becomes a genius. Moments of clarity, insight, whatever you
   want to call them. The clouds part, the planets get in a neat little
   line, and everything becomes obvious. I should quit smoking, maybe, or
   here's how I could make a fast million, or such and such is the key to
   eternal happiness. That's the miserable truth. For a few moments, the
   secrets of the universe are opened to us. Life is a cheap parlor trick.

   But then the genius, the savant, has to hand over the controls to the
   next guy down the pike, most likely the guy who just wants to eat
   potato chips, and insight and brilliance and salvation are all
   entrusted to a moron or a hedonist or a narcoleptic.

   [ snip ]

> . . . it moves heavily
> to its glories. It tramples
> the little towns, forgets their names."
>
> -Wendell Berry, "The Design of the House: Ideal and Hard Time"

Interesting, interesting.  :)

--- Peter T. Chattaway --------------------------- peter at chattaway_com ---
 "I detected one misprint, but to torture you I will not tell you where."
      Winston Churchill to T.E. Lawrence, re Seven Pillars of Wisdom

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