In Philip K. Dick's story, "The Frozen Journey", a man is awakened during a ten year journey, only to find he cannot do anything but swim in his own subdued memories. Now this would be torture to me. When I look back on things, I always end up nitpicking every little detail, and constantly reliving the parts I messed up. Combine that with an attention span that's practically nonexistent, and it would make one hell of a time for me.
Back to the nitpicking thing though. I feel like that's something that everybody does to some extent. We have such a desire to fix the things that we did wrong, that we end up trying to make amends somehow through constantly replaying it in our heads. I think the amount we end up doing this gives some insight into our psyche. It shows how much even extremely small mistakes can bother us. I also think it can show how much we care about people. You'll probably end up remembering saying something stupid to a crush in 8th grade more clearly than saying something dumb to a stranger a few days ago.
I think that no matter how much we care about things that happen in the past though, we'd all end up corrupting our memories in some way
I think that is a good point. Humans fixate on what they did wrong. I feel like embarrassment and guilt are such extreme emotions and so they stick in your brain a lot. Also events like that usually make you feel lesser of yourself and plant a seed of doubt which is not good and is portrayed in the reading esp when the house is crumbling down and stuff.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of like when we're trying to go to sleep and all of a sudden your brain decides to remind you of every single embarrassing thing you've ever done. It's nerve wracking, and it feels like you're a prisoner in your own mind because only you are experiencing this and are being forced to deal with it. This is probably how Kemmings felt.
ReplyDeleteI really agree with this idea, like I know for sure I have memories like that and I can't imagine being the main character living it over and over again. I think it's possible that the main characters reaction to having this happen was actually less dramatic and distraught than a lot of our reactions would be, or at least equal. I can't see anybody going through that for 10 years and not being crazy.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree. It's possible to train yourself to say, "whatever, I can't change it now, I should move on" but most people (me included) have a hard time with that. It's ironic that we should worry so much about mistakes because we are born to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes, we're not born knowing how to be perfect members of society.
ReplyDeleteThis happened to me a couple of days ago in the APUSH oil simulation. My group would have won easily if we had chosen to go with the trust but we didn't and I was beating myself up about it for a couple of days. Then I realized that my APUSH grade was fine anyway and it wasn't like I could change it now .
ReplyDeleteI once kicked a teacher in the stomach by accident and I occasionally feel the cringe and embarrassment. What I'm trying to say is that I understand where our character is coming from. I just believe he should get over it and learn from the mistakes instead of letting them dictate his life.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think we amplify things so much?
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