- Elizabeth Wallace
- Takoma Park, MD
- United States
Producer/Owner, Giraffe 'n' Ant Productions aka StarryTelling
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"Do the agents of our imagination shape who we really are?"
How much of our imagination shapes our memory. Our past is Not remembered by the self at the time something happened, but the self who does the remembering, interpreting, setting in stone. Who sculpts a memory to fit what? a self we want to fit into our future story?
Michael M 30+
This is a fascinating question to think about. Abani's talk was excellent. It seems to me though that it might be the other way around in most cases. Our memories, what Abani called our stories, probably have more impact on our imagination. I have a vivid memory I have of early childhood, lying on my back in our field with high grass around me, an dlooking at the sky and feeling somewhat alone. I have no memory at all of why or what led up to that moment. I would say that moment has more to do with my imagination than vice versa. My imagination, takes that story, and makes it into something. Yes, It is me now remembering that, but to flesh out the story in my imagination requires me to remember it. It is not my imagination creating the memory. It exists in my mind anyway.
When we speak of cultural stories, it is very similar. The old cultural story I have of "The Battle of the Alamo" during Texas' War of Independence from Mexico, is now so strongly filtered by having lived in Mexico for 20 years. My memory of the story and its impact on a Davy Crocket fan child of the 50's is re-interpreted drastically by my new memories of Mexico, and their interpretation of the event.
The self of the future, we may be trying to sculpt, well who knows. Of course we remember selectively and imagine selectively. But I prefer to think that that particular story remains unwritten.
Wenceslao Bunge
I think the agents of imagination do not have nothing to do with your memories. If you focus and start remembering you will be sure of what things you really perceive at that moment which you are remembering and what things you doubt about and may be product of current imagination or speculation.
colin mackenzie