Something that has really bothered me since watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is the idea that anybody would ever consider erasing their memories. I can understand that maybe the notion of forgetting certain embarrassing moments in life could, perhaps momentarily, seem appealing, but I can’t fathom how somebody would actually erase parts of their life if given the chance.
Assuming you’re not completely absentminded, everything in life triggers a memory. Looking at a telephone triggers memories of conversations. Maybe scotch tape sends you back to arts and crafts projects in kindergarten. Everything in the world has the ability to trigger a flashback, even if the two things are completely unrelated. Want proof? That’s why it’s so easy to space out in school. So my first point is that it’s ridiculous to think that deleting targeted memories will erase them for good, because just about anything could trigger them back. And those memories may be linked to something else! Let’s say you and your girlfriend went to an oxygen bar on a date. If you deleted that memory, would you also delete the memory of breathing? It wouldn’t work any other way because simply breathing could conjure up those memories. So do you die? The whole idea is ludicrous!
Furthermore, unless you’re a completely irrational person, people usually learn from their past experiences to determine how they act in the future. So in that sense, erasing memories is like stopping forward progress. Everything about your past, both the good and the bad, make up who you are in the present and who you will be in the future. This isn’t my opinion, this is just life. So no matter how painful parts of your life may be, it is likely that those very parts you wish you could forget are some of the most important things that have happened in your life. If you don’t learn from your past mistakes, then you’re all the more likely to repeat them in the future. Erasing memories basically ensures this.
Assuming you’re not completely absentminded, everything in life triggers a memory. Looking at a telephone triggers memories of conversations. Maybe scotch tape sends you back to arts and crafts projects in kindergarten. Everything in the world has the ability to trigger a flashback, even if the two things are completely unrelated. Want proof? That’s why it’s so easy to space out in school. So my first point is that it’s ridiculous to think that deleting targeted memories will erase them for good, because just about anything could trigger them back. And those memories may be linked to something else! Let’s say you and your girlfriend went to an oxygen bar on a date. If you deleted that memory, would you also delete the memory of breathing? It wouldn’t work any other way because simply breathing could conjure up those memories. So do you die? The whole idea is ludicrous!
Furthermore, unless you’re a completely irrational person, people usually learn from their past experiences to determine how they act in the future. So in that sense, erasing memories is like stopping forward progress. Everything about your past, both the good and the bad, make up who you are in the present and who you will be in the future. This isn’t my opinion, this is just life. So no matter how painful parts of your life may be, it is likely that those very parts you wish you could forget are some of the most important things that have happened in your life. If you don’t learn from your past mistakes, then you’re all the more likely to repeat them in the future. Erasing memories basically ensures this.
3 comments:
That was deep...good insight on the effects of erasing of one's memory. I also think that erasing your memory is only hurting yourself more, like you said "stopping forward progress". If people want to erase themselves and what makes them who they are, I say let them do it it's their own life, but personally I would never consider this procedure.
I agree with basically everything you said except the oxygen-bar part. I think you exagerate that everything causes a flashback. If you went on a date to an oxygen bar, then had the memory erased, you wouldn't remember going to the oxygen bar. You breathed before the event, you breathed after the event, and breathing is usually just a subconcious, basic action. If your rational was correct, then anyone who had their memory erased wouldn't breathe since they probably breathed in the erased memory.
Ya, erasing your memories would cause you to repeat your mistakes.
Interesting picture...
I think you made perfect points about memory. They define who you are, and are undiniably important and precious.
One suggestion for this post though, is to add more about the actall movie. Why you liked/disliked it, and the charicters.
Still, you made great points about premice of the sstory (memorries) but didn't really advance beyond it.
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