A Point Of View: JG Ballard and the alchemy of memory

[Pete Askew]

A interesting editorial partly about one of my favourite authors and also about a subject that interests me intensely - memory and the 'invention' of events.

BBC News - A Point Of View: JG Ballard and the alchemy of memory

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Yes, very interesting.

"But the magic doesn't really work, and if we persist in the struggle to keep our memories at bay we may come to resemble the stone statues in the garden, transfixed and petrified by the past.:

"We have a picture of ourselves as acting meaningfully only because we can reconstruct our lives as a succession of events linked in recollection."

Physicists tell us that not 1% of our bodies was the 'us' we knew in our childhood, or even 20 years ago. And of the physical present, 99.9999999% of it is empty space, with the vast majority of it being different species, feeding off it while living and dying in great colonies. Where is the 'me' in all of this? Trapped in memories? Recollections? We are what we remember? And is what we remember an illusion?

Have a nice day

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Based on Rob's reaction alone, I'm going to sit down with an adult beverage and read this in full!