Memory

Smith and Watson wrote that “Memory is the source, authenticator, and destabilizer of autobiographical acts…remembering involves a reinterpretation of the past in the present” (RA 22). Daniel Schacter claimed that “memories are records of how we have experienced events, not replicas of the events themselves…we construct our autobiographies from fragments of experience that change over time” (RA 22). With the ability to look back in hindsight one’s perceptions of an event could drastically transform the meaning of a memory or generate a whole new revelation about that event. In the tool kit Smith and Watson ask the reader to consider “what acts of remembering are emphasized? What triggers remembering in general, and particular memories?...does the narrator call attention to things forgotten? (RA 245). It is important to keep these kinds of question close to the mind when trying to interpret someone’s else’s memories, especially if there is a pattern of emplotment of certain memories pertaining to a single event or significant other. Try to find the two most profound memories that a narrator discusses in an autobiography. Then analyze why and how the narrator writes about these two memories; what makes the memory stand out, is there an epiphany that is revealed later in the text that addresses this memory, has this memory transformed the narrator’s worldview?

In Smith and Watson’s Tool Kit they also ask the reader to think about “what means of accessing memory are incorporated in the text?” (RA 243). They provided examples such as family albums, photos, objects, family stories, and so forth as sources for remembering. Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir Fun Home combines all of these para-textually via actually sketching out her past memories and juxtaposing these images with her self-life writing. Bechdel’s memories are recounted through the narrating ‘I’ as she looks back with hindsight into her past; the images she sees in the rear-view memory mirror are then revamped, supplemented, and brought to life via the illustrated ‘I’ and her artistic renditions of her past experiences. Our classmate, Whit discussed the illustrated ‘I’ when he wrote “the unique narrated ‘I’ that the comic style allows is the visual “I,” or like Smith & Watson say in Reading Autobiography, the “version of the self.”  This “version” of the self is what Bechdel processes through her memory and puts down in the comic character playing out her past” (Slagsvol, CW). The aesthetic methodology in Fun Home is not the only peculiar way that Bechdel approaches memory. Her graphic memoir strays very far from your typical chronological styled autobiographies by taking the reader on a leap-frog-like approach to various stages of her life. Professor Vander Zee stressed the significance of the back and forth temporality in Fun Home when he wrote “As she moves back and forth across these layers she weaves a rich tapestry of memory that gains complexity as different layers and textures come into play” (Vander Zee CW). Her memoir takes the reader from childhood, to the emergence of her lesbian sexuality, and beyond. When she learns of her deceased father’s homosexuality her entire world is rattled, especially her memories of her dad. The symbolic and unexplained allusions to her father in the beginning of the text carry new weight with this revelation. Bechdel has the narrating ‘I’ dive head over heels into a series of memories in an effort to re-examine her life. Her re-interpretation of certain memories from various points in her life, when juxtaposed with the various forms of artifice in her drawings, augment to the opaqueness of her identity, memory, and experience, or more presiciely what the reader really remembers, or takes away from the narrator’s version of the self. However, that’s the thing about memory; you take different things away from particular memories at when revisiting them at various stages of your life.

Personal Take:

When I was a growing up my father’s favorite movie of all time was Bruce Brown’s The Endless Summer II. My brothers and I had watched that movie with my dad several hundred times. I would fall asleep and wake up with it own. At one point I am pretty sure I had every single line memorized. Pat and ‘Wingnut’, the stars of the film became idolized in our minds. My dad taught us how to surf, and we became infatuated with the ocean and catching waves. When my brothers and I watched Endless Summer we were thinking about surfing and remembering waves we had recently caught until we were burnt out on the movie and had much rather just go surfing instead. However, my dad never got tired of that movie, and he would watch it on repeat dozing in and out of sleep. The premise of the movie is an endless summer, a trip around the world to exotic destinations where the waves were always rolling in. Looking back, I wondered if all those times my dad had watched that film were really his subconscious desire to just pack up and leave. You know…just throw your stuff in a bag and go live the spontaneous adventure filled lives you had always wanted to, that is before the wife and kids. When my parents separated I often recollected on the memories of watching that movie a hundred times with my dad. I remembered thinking at the time that my dad wanted us to watch that film with him over and over again so that when he did eventually leave we would understand that he was off to explore the world and catch the never ending wave like Pat and ‘Wingnut’ in Endless Summer II. However, my memory of this film does not produce the same interpretation as an adult. My dad loved us, and still does; that movie contained no symbolic message that explains why he and my mom got a divorce. People grow apart, and that’s that. The film Endless Summer II connotes a number of different memories associated with my life, and this film has often made me think about how memory changes. Memories are constantly in flux. They are susceptible to being altered, blurred, or completely transformed. 

-Joe Fleming