Perhaps, as Borges concludes in his story, “It is forgetting, not remembering, that is the essence of what makes us human. To make sense of the world we must filter it. To think,” Borgese writes, “is to forget.”

I am currently enjoying Joshua Foer’s book Moonwalking with Einstein. It is a book about memory, specifically the fascinating history of memory and how our memories actually function. In the book Foer recounts his story of how he ended up in the US Memory Championships and introduces readers to all the fascinatingly outrageous characters and “mental athletes” he meets along the way. Moonwalking with Einstein, at first perusal, may come to be categorized by some as a self help book, but Foer’s fun, didactic story telling makes this book far more enjoyable then any self help book I’ve ever read.

In the above passage Foer is referencing the Spanish fantasy short story Funes the Memorious, written by Jorge Luis Borges. The story is about a person who remembers everything he sees, hears or learns and cannot forget anything, thus he is not able to discern what is meaningful or what is meaningless. Quite a conundrum I’d say.

Drawing above by Eric Shaw, Brooklyn, NY

Tags:Eric ShawforgettingJorge Luis BorgesJoshua FoerknowledgememoryMoonwalking with Einsteinrememberingscience