tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2239062544101975016.post6766832330055228490..comments2024-03-18T20:11:19.504-07:00Comments on Sacnoth's Scriptorium: I Remember the Memory WarsJohn D. Rateliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12324926298336489295noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2239062544101975016.post-59894918119510115422016-11-23T22:16:23.311-08:002016-11-23T22:16:23.311-08:00The idea of memories changing over time lies at th...The idea of memories changing over time lies at the root of Verlyn Flieger's short story "THE GREEN HILL COUNTRY" in which several hobbits tell each other garbled versions of the events of The War of the Ring a century or more before. It's funny and heartbreaking by turns. Highly recommended.<br /><br />--John R. John D. Rateliffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12324926298336489295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2239062544101975016.post-61291401074256766102016-11-19T13:21:16.130-08:002016-11-19T13:21:16.130-08:00An interesting topic with, certainly, much importa...An interesting topic with, certainly, much importance for Inklings studies, not only on the biographical side, but also because memory itself is a theme in Tolkien's fantasy (cf. Rivendell, the Ents, so much more; the wanderer's memories in "The Sea-Bell") and, as I recall, in Lewis's That Hideous Strength -- for both Mark and Jane, remembering is an important component in their extrication from their respective predicaments- -- also in The Silver Chair, with the children's and Puddleglum's memories of the surface of the world when they have sojourned in the Underworld. To name a few!<br /><br />Not sure memory is an important theme in Charles Williams's writings, though.<br /><br />Dale NelsonWurmbrandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17345523517796356674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2239062544101975016.post-11450621555775365242016-11-18T09:07:49.873-08:002016-11-18T09:07:49.873-08:00Early on in the book "The Birth of Christiani...Early on in the book "The Birth of Christianity" (starting on p.62, Google books tells me) John Dominic Crossan discusses some of the more recent studies on memory, and how our brains can change our recollection of events over time, especially when the memory involved a traumatic event. He recounts that in 1986 after the Challenger explosion, around 100 students at Emory University were asked to fill out questionnaires less than 24 hours after the event, asking what they were doing (and where) when they heard the news about the explosion. The answers were then sealed. Two and a half years later, around half of the students who had filled out the original questionnaire were asked to to do it again. What they found was that in a high percentage of cases the recollections at the later date were quite different (in regard to place, time, activity, etc.) than what was first reported immediately after the event. That wasn't too surprising, but what was interesting was that when the students were asked to assess their confidence level that their later memory was correct, there was no correlation between confidence level and the actual accuracy of the memory. Those whose memories were widely divergent from the original questionnaire had a high degree of confidence that the later memory was accurate. When many of the students were shown what they had originally written, they continued to insist that the later memory was the correct one.Ed Piercehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16660513977428598030noreply@blogger.com