I woke, sure I should be getting ready to go and make a speech, but I couldn’t remember where and about what. Then I woke a bit more and realised that I wasn’t doing anything of the sort – I was meeting a man to discuss the whole question of memory and how to hang on to it.
Memory: each age and culture has views about what it’s good for and how to improve it. At the moment learning things “by rote” is despised. But in certain cultures in the past the lads who carried messages from place to place weren’t allowed to learn to read lest it impair their capacity to memorise important information.
Nowadays certain forms of memory are certainly rated better than others: us oldies are not admired for being able to recite dozens of poems because we could perfectly well look anything up on the net. The trouble is we can’t remember how to use the bloody thing.
Yet memorised poetry has its uses. I have got through the pain of three undrugged hospital procedures by reciting poetry in my head. I’m not saying My Last Duchess or Ozymandias are as effective as a proper painkiller, but there will never be enough instructions, maps, recipes and directions – online or off – for practical memory not to be needed.
I know of at least two hopeful clinical trials working on memory: let’s hope they’ll shed more light on the issue.
What do you think? Have your say below
