Story-A-Day/April 10
Losing Memory
You ask me about Edith Wharton.
Well, the name is very familiar.
Well, the name is very familiar.
**
That's it! I used to see this as a poem in her father's voice (Davis's dad was an American Literature scholar, and suffered from Alzheimer's in his old age)--
Which I'm sure it is, but it's also about something I'm sure even frightfully young people like you all, and certainly middle aged people like me, can identify with--the sudden gap or blank created by a name.
There has been, actually, serious psychological research on what is sometimes called "tip of the tongue" phenomena--the inverse of the problem in "Losing Memory," when a name escapes you. Here is the philosopher/psychologist (and Henry James's brother) William James:
"Suppose we try to recall a forgotten name. The state of our consciousness is peculiar. There is a gap therein; but no mere gap. It is a gap that is intensely active...If wrong names are proposed to us, this singularly definite gap acts immediately so as to negate them. They do not fit into its mold. And the gap of one word does not feel like the gap of another, all empty of content as both might seem necessarily to be when described as gaps."
I love miniature stories like this, because every word must carry a great deal of meaning. Even in only these few short lines, readers can comprehend a full story, even if that story varies from reader to reader. The fact that every verb is in the present tense even though the story is about memory is an interesting dichotomy that portrays, at least to me, the frustration of having a loved one with dementia. That’s actually one of the reasons I like Davis’ writing: they are all specific enough to be interesting and personal, but also highly relatable.
ReplyDeleteI did a quick google search on Edith Wharton, as, I’m ashamed to say, that name does not ring a bell for me. I found out that Wharton was a prominent American novelist and short story author in the early twentieth century who is often remembered for her realistic character portrayals. She’s also the first female Pulitzer Prize in Literature winner. I think she is an interesting choice for Davis’ short story, since she’s the only character actually named. To me, this choice adds the theme of legacy in the story.
Hello all!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cece that miniature stories are not only entertaining, but can ultimately be more meaningful, as their message is not clouded by a surplus of words or any verbosity. Upon a first glance, the address of the reader in “You ask me about Edith Wharton” (379), immediately piqued my interest with its conversational tone. The next line, “Well, the name is very familiar,” caused my mind to race, as Davis does not continue the story or explain why she feels connected with Wharton. As soon as I saw that Edith Wharton was referenced in "Losing Memory," I was drawn in, as Ethan Frome is one of my favorite books of all time. Furthermore, I share Wharton's fascination with beautiful architecture, and I believe that The Mount is one of the most enchanting homes that I have ever seen. Evidently, I entered the reading of this story with a very favorable bias! Invoking such a prolific author is an interesting choice because it enables Davis to inextricably link this vignette to the loss of mental acuity Wharton portrays in her work. There are likely few things more difficult and agonizing than witnessing the cognitive decline of a loved one to neurodegenerative disease like Alzheimer's. As Dan mentions, the "tip of the tongue phenomenon," or retrieval blocking, is haunting to younger individuals, as we feel entirely powerless. The inability to access our own memories and ruminate on our past causes us immense displeasure, as the past firmly roots us in the present and provides direction for the future. Losing our sense of time and place is incredibly disorienting, a disorientation that Wharton reflects upon in her work. As we read in "A Letter to a Funeral Parlor," Davis shared a common love of language with her father, even if the "ways in which we loved him were complicated" (380). In the same way, Wharton had an incredibly convoluted relationship with her mother, Lucretia Jones, whom she describes as "indolent, spendthrift, censorious, disapproving, superficial, icy, dry and ironic" in her memoir. As a result, the maternal characters that appear in Wharton's stories often are manifest themselves as versions of her mother and depict details of discord within families. It also made me wonder if Davis related to Wharton's frequent depictions of unhappy marriages, and the fall-outs associated with the dissolution of these unions, as Davis herself has been divorced. Sometimes the shortest works leave us with the most questions, but simultaneously can be quite illuminating.
Happy weekend, everyone! :)