Week 7: Memory

Again, I'm just really overwhelmed by this novel, Tristram Shandy.  As I attempted to think about this novel in terms of memory, I kept coming back to the idea that the narrator sounds as if he's offering the reader a sort of stream of consciousness.  Even though we talked of the different styles of narrating, it still feels like more of a stream than any real change.  As the narrator thinks, the way his consciousness is aware of past, present, people, reader, self, environment, etc. changes.  Part of what the narrator says is his reasoning for putting all this detail down is that he wishes to chronical his life. The reader just happens to get this life in awkward excerpts from past conversations, future stories of past events, and impressions/thoughts of the writer currently.  This is confusing, but makes a little more sense in light of the Carruthers reading we did.  


"process of recollection whose goals is to invent and compose in the present - not to reproduce a record of past events"
"good memory...is the ability to move [material] about instantly, directly, and securely"

These two quotes made me think of Shandy's stated goal of setting down his life as perhaps a construction of his life as he experiences/sees it now.  That is, his life story is being composed in the present, which might be why it is harder to follow in a linear chain.  Also, the second quote might add to that too.  Maybe Shandy is trying to show the reader how good his memory is by jumping around to a lot of different things.  He hasn't just 'memorized' his life in a superficial way, but actually has learned his life.  

Lastly, "a memory image...can also cause us to remember 'what is not present'" (Aristotle, as quoted in Carruthers).  This made me think about how Shandy might continually be distracted.  If pictures aren't the only things which can distract, but any visual image can do so as well, then the actual words on the page, or whatever may be going on around the writer may distract him or make him think of something else he want's to be sure to get down for the reader.  That doesn't make it any less confusing, but perhaps more understandable?