Mémoires d'Oubliettes

The facts of life are never just the facts of life. They are
all opened to interpretations, modification, adjustments 
or fantasies.  And sometimes it feels like they never even 
happened…  

We seem to exist in the world of “lost and found” and in a 
strange way I feel that it is just as good to be found as 
being lost or being remembered or forgotten.

We can never be sure…

But what about the ones, who were never lost or found,
never remembered or forgotten?

The question of memory and forgetting is the question of
being and not being.  

All our lives are ruled by what we remember and what we
forget.  But it is more complicated than that.  There are 
not only things we want to remember and things we want 
to forget, but often we want to influence the facts, which 
we want to forget or remember.  

What do we want to remember?

What do we want to forget?

How do we want to be remembered?

Or do we want to be forgotten?

What is memory?

How much time does it take to forget?

I remember, that when I was young, I wished to be 
remembered for something, that I have created and 
that would be worthwhile, something that would last, 
something which would make even the slightest con-
tribution to our quality of life.... 

In ancient Greece lived a man who was ready to commit 
just about anything, only to ensure that he and his 
name will be remembered  forever....

He understood that only a deed of extreme magnitude 
would ensure his eternal fame. He didn’t shy away from 
anything, even sacrilege. He decided to burn down the 
Temple of Artemis, which at that time was considered 
one of the “Seven wonders of the World”. He was 
captured, tried and sentenced. 

The verdict read that he will be tortured, executed and 
that his name must never be pronounced - he was 
condemned to be forgotten forever. Paradoxically the 
gravity of this sentence have guaranteed his immortality - 
he will be remembered forever. 

His name was Hérostratos.

	
	
Some other thoughts:

1) Herostratic Fame comes from Hérostratos which is
defined as “fame at any cost.”

2) Not even the Future is what it used to be!
(Jiří Kylián)

3) You are what you pretend to be, so be careful what
you pretend to be.
(Kurt Vonnegut)

4) We all have our time machines. Some take us back,
they're called memories. Some take us forward,
they're called dreams.
(Jeremy Irons)

5) A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory”

6) I forgot to remember what you wanted me to forget?
(Jason Akira Somma)

7) We must learn history so we are not doomed to repeat
it, but history shows that history repeats itself.

8) A memory is what is left when something happens
and does not completely unhappen.
(Edward de Bono)

9) And even if you were in some prison, the walls of
which let none of the sounds of the world come to
your senses - would you not then still have your
childhood, that precious, kingly possession, that
treasure-house of memories?
(Rainer Maria Rilke)

10) One need not be a chamber to be haunted;
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place.
(Emily Dickinson)

11) Everybody needs his memories. They keep the wolf
of insignificance from the door. 
(Saul Bellow)

12) It is singular how soon we lose the impression of
what ceases to be constantly before us. A year
impairs, a luster obliterates. There is little distinct
left without an effort of memory, then indeed the
lights are rekindled for a moment - but who can be
sure that the Imagination is not the torch-bearer? 
(Lord Byron)

13) The existence of forgetting has never been proved:
We only know that some things don't come to mind
when we want them. 
(Friedrich Nietzsche)

14) The difference between false memories and true
ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the
false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant. 
(Salvador Dali)

15) That which is bitter to endure may be sweet to
remember.
(Thomas Fuller)

16) Our memories are independent of our wills. It is
not so easy to forget.
(Richard Brinsley Sheridan)

17) Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
(Simone Signoret)

18) When I was younger, I could remember anything,
whether it had happened or not. 
(Mark Twain)

19) The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living. 
(Marcus Tullius Cicero)

20) Memory moderates prosperity, decreases adversity,
controls youth and delights old age. 
(Lactantius Firmianus)

21) Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's
events.
(Albert Einstein)

22) Yesterday is but today's memory, and tomorrow is
today's dream.
(Kahil Gibran)

23) I was asked to memorise what I did not understand;
and, my memory being so good, it refused to be insulted
in that manner.
(Aleister Crowley)

24) An autobiography usually reveals nothing bad about
its writer except his memory.
(Franklin P. Jones)

26)  All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying
to get back to where it was.
(Toni Morrison)