The End of Remembering

The End of Remembering

The author of The End of Remembering seeks to outline the negative effect that the advancement in human civilization has had on people’s ability to memorize. He takes the reader through a historical timeline of how memory was conceived and valued at the dawn of modern civilization. However, the human innate ability to memorize has waned over the centuries. The rapid advancement in technology is partly to blame as it has offered a solution to the memory challenge. Today, people do not see the need to stretch their ability to remember to the limit—computers and other electronic gadgets can accomplish the task for them.

Throughout the article, the author highlights the importance of regaining the ability to remember. He fails to consider the fact that the scholars of ancient civilization (for example the Greek philosophers) were motivated to memorize as a necessity. They lacked better solutions with regards to the recall of information. In fact, some notable scholars struggled in their effort to keep up with storage of large bits of information. The ancient philosophers had to devise ingenious ways to lessen the burden of memorizing. 

A memory palace was one of the best solutions to their memory problems. It involved the commitment to imprint the memories in the subconscious through the creation of multiple pathways to connect the neural systems. The technique lessened the burden of information recall. However, had a better solution been available (like the information storage and retrieval technologies available today) the likelihood of abandonment of the ancient memory techniques would be higher.   Therefore, the author is not justified in his claim that people in the modern time have lost vital ancient memory skills. As a matter of fact, the ancient skills have been improvised using the modern technology for efficiency and convenience.

The Ordinary Devoted Mother

The Ordinary Devoted Mother is about a daughter with a complicated lifestyle attributed to the dysfunctional family. The cartoonist intended to reflect on the life in a modern family and the struggles of family members to fit into a society that is evolving rapidly. Alison Bechdel links several side-stories in one carton plot. His intention is to offer an insight into a life of a lesbian lady in her post-menopausal age.  

The lady is faced with life fears, with most of them emanating from the broken family structure. It is clear that she was affected by her father’s double life as a bisexual. She intends to capture her parents’ life history in a memoir as a means to pre-empt the dark secrets of the family. This way, she feels relieved of the burden of fear and a sense of guilt. In fact, she intends to justify her plight through the memoirs.

The cartoonist recreates a story that the majority of readers can identify with.  It is true that most people live in fear of making bold controversial moves in life. Also, the cartoonist depicts a strong bond that exists between a mother and her child. The relationship is evident through the daughter’s search for refuge and advice from her mother.  The maternal relationship is so strong that the mother doubles up as a friend in need. However, the daughter’s 10-year therapeutic session indicates her constant search for identity.

The cartoonist dares to focus on a sensitive topic that is mostly averted by most authors. He has remarkable skills in incorporating the deterioration in family values in the cartoons. However, the uses of multiple stories in the cartoon plot can confuse the reader, hence distorting the message.