Memory’s a funny old stick, isn’t it? There are the obvious impediments to it, of course - copious amounts of alcohol generally leave me with a sliding scale of memory from “slight fuzziness” to “how the hell did I get home…. and where is this anyway?” - but it’s the more ordinary stuff that seems to be vague, nebulous and without a set of standardised operating rules. I can’t remember what I had for breakfast yesterday (being a creature, it was probably the same thing as the day before) but I remember sitting in a pub garden with a mate and drinking champagne with a selection of random builders we met that day (seemingly in contravention of the whole alcohol/memory dynamic). It’s clear what’s going on there - breakfast is everyday routine and your brain tunes it out while champagne with builders is distinctive enough to mark it self out (unless you’re a builder with a champagne habit, in which case, into Column A).
It’s my usual nerdy knowledge that comes and goes. Books, for example, and a prime one at that. I read quite a lot - I probably get through quite a few books a year (at least 8 or 9 while on holiday for two weeks) but my memory for them is atrocious. I know that I’ve read them and I’ll retain some basic key elements of the plot but there are many books which I have re-read and, barring a sort of vaguely familiar feeling, it’s almost as if I’m reading them for the first time. Case in point - I’ve currently read The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter again and had no idea how it was going to end, couldn’t remember in the slightest.
I’m quite happy with this - means that I can read books again and enjoy them almost as much as first time round. Sometimes with a series as well, I won't remember the details and can enjoy a rewatch but that’s rarer. When it comes to films and television, I tend to remember much more in terms of the details. Presumably that would be because two of the senses are involved (sight and, yes, you guessed it, sound) but also because the sheer amount of information you’re taking in with a book isn’t comparable to the amount you get from the screen.
Has it decreased with age? I would say yes. I used to be one of those people who would always remember faces and names. The other day, I passed someone that I’d worked with intermittently a few years back and could not for the life of me remember his name. Not a clue. It came back to me eventually but that was after repeatedly seeing over a period of about four weeks. Also, I’m pretty sure that there’s an inversion proportion of decrease in memory versus increase in sight problems / unwanted hair in unwanted places / body creaks.
I did have a point to all of this when I started writing… but I’ve forgotten what it was. Hey, come on, like there was any other way I was going to end this one. I mean, really.
No comments:
Post a Comment