As I have admitted in previous newsletters, I have a bad memory, which limits me in any number of ways, both practically and intellectually. I am not speaking in this newsletter of personal memory, whose roots, through our desires and fears, lie deep in the unconscious, but rather of exactly of the opposite: memory of information, of the surface data of experience. There is a saying, “God is in the details,” and if that is true it would definitely explain my lack of divine visitation. The saying is sometimes attributed to Flaubert, but another candidate, interestingly, is the art historian Aby Warburg, founder of the famed Warburg Institute, of which more later. However, there is also a proverbial saying, “The devil is in the details,” so perhaps I should be careful what I wish for. Nonetheless, I have often longed for the kind of naturally good memory that so many of my friends possess. My former wife Stacey can sometimes remember the names of students that I taught years ago when I have forgotten them myself, even though she has never met them. A previous relationship, Margo, also a teacher, memorized the names of her students in a single night, where it takes me two to three weeks, and even then I am usually still hovering over one or two. My friend Dennis can tell you the name of the bass player on a psychedelic rock album from 1967 by a band that only made one album.
February 10, 2023
February 10, 2023
February 10, 2023
As I have admitted in previous newsletters, I have a bad memory, which limits me in any number of ways, both practically and intellectually. I am not speaking in this newsletter of personal memory, whose roots, through our desires and fears, lie deep in the unconscious, but rather of exactly of the opposite: memory of information, of the surface data of experience. There is a saying, “God is in the details,” and if that is true it would definitely explain my lack of divine visitation. The saying is sometimes attributed to Flaubert, but another candidate, interestingly, is the art historian Aby Warburg, founder of the famed Warburg Institute, of which more later. However, there is also a proverbial saying, “The devil is in the details,” so perhaps I should be careful what I wish for. Nonetheless, I have often longed for the kind of naturally good memory that so many of my friends possess. My former wife Stacey can sometimes remember the names of students that I taught years ago when I have forgotten them myself, even though she has never met them. A previous relationship, Margo, also a teacher, memorized the names of her students in a single night, where it takes me two to three weeks, and even then I am usually still hovering over one or two. My friend Dennis can tell you the name of the bass player on a psychedelic rock album from 1967 by a band that only made one album.