I will have spent my life trying to understand the function of remembering, which is not the opposite of forgetting, but rather its lining. We do not remember. We rewrite memory much as history is rewritten. How can one remember thirst?
Interpretation
Memory is not simply a recollection of facts but a reconstruction shaped by our experiences and perceptions.
Chris Marker's quote explores the complex nature of memory and forgetting. It suggests that our memories are not static recordings, but rather fluid narratives that we reconstruct based on our current understanding and emotions. This idea emphasizes that remembering is intertwined with forgetting, as they both play a vital role in shaping our perception of the past. In essence, our memories are more like a rewritten history than a direct reflection of what has occurred.
In practice
In a discussion about how people's perceptions of the same event can differ, this quote highlights the subjective nature of memory.
Who said that time heals all wounds? It would be better to say that time heals everything - except wounds. With time, the hurt of separation loses its real limits. With time, the desired body will soon disappear, and if the desiring body has already ceased to exist for the other, then what remains is a wound, disembodied.
Nothing sorts out memories from ordinary moments. It is only later that they claim remembrance, when they show their scars.
LSD burst over the dreary domain of the constipated bourgeoisie like the angelic herald of a new psychedelic millennium. We have never been the same since, nor will we ever be, for LSD demonstrated, even to skeptics, that the mansions of heaven and gardens of paradise lie within each and all of us.
They are all beasts of burden in a sense, ' Thoreau once remarked of animals, 'made to carry some portion of our thoughts.' Animals are the old language of the imagination; one of the ten thousand tragedies of their disappearance would be a silencing of this speech.
If you could meet your grandkids as elderly citizens in the year 2100 … you would view them as being, basically, Greek gods… that's where we're headed.
The miser, starving his brother's body, starves also his own soul, and at death shall creep out of his great estate of injustice, poor and naked and miserable
Dwell in peace in the home of your own being, and the Messenger of Death will not be able to touch you.
Strange, that I came into the world with nothing, and now I am going away with this stupendous caravan of sin! Wherever I look, I see only God... I have sinned terribly, and I do not know what punishment awaits me.
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