So as I'm sitting around talking to my friend Lauryn (gossipping as usual), it hits me: our lives are so affected by lies, we barely even notice sometimes. Take gossip, for example. Despite what people try to say, everyone gossips at some point in their lives. It doesn't matter whether the story is true; it will be spread regardless. This reminds me of Momento in many ways. Firstly, Leonard's life was greatly affected by numerous lies, and most of the time he never even noticed it. He spent his days after the accident in a state of confusion, never knowing what to believe. Because of his condition, he gets to the point where he can't tell who's lying and who's telling the truth. Even though he goes through the same routines, he still can't pinpoint the lies from the truth. People, like Natalie for instance, can lie straight to his face without him noticing a thing. The same thing happens to people in this world everday. People get so good at lying, no one can ever catch them at it. In a way, it's kind of sad to think that a person who you are very close to can be lying to you about everything. That's pretty much what happens to Leonard throughout the movie. He trusts the wrong people, and in the end, never fully accepts that they were lying to him. This makes me think about how much we as a society focus on rumors and gossip on a day to day basis. Like Leonard and his condition, we go from one story to the next, forgetting the stuff in between. We can never focus on the truth in our lives simply because there's so many lies circulating at the same time. It also makes me think about all of the people I'm close to, and how I hope they don't lie to me like the people in Leonard's life lied to him.
If you think about it, anyone can lie. It takes real skill to be able to tell what's bullshit and what's not.
I totally agree. But what I want to talk more about is the fact that sometimes people don't even know they are telling a "lie." What I'm getting at is the subject on memories. In psychology class today I learned that everyone has false memories and that all memories are distorted in some way. So think about it, someone could be telling you a story that they totally think is true but in reality only like 50% of it happened. Is it there fault? Of course not; because in their mind they are telling you the "truth." This whole memory concept makes sense in "The Things They Carried" and in the film. There are plenty of examples where the person telling the story is telling it as a true one. What a person might consider the whole truth might be a complete lie to another (like a kid remembering something from their childhood that their parents swear never happened). Actually thinking about distorted memories gets me worried and thinking that a lot of what I remember from my childhood is fake. But this question rises again: does it really matter???
ReplyDeleteI think that the point you are making in this blog is certainly pertinent to everyone's lives. I know, personally, I have an extremely hard time trusting anyone, let alone people on a daily basis that I barely know. In that way, I can't even imagine how difficult it must be for someone like Leonard to trust anything, even his own handwriting, in his daily life. At least in most people's cases they are able to trust what they know to be true, but in Leonard's case he had no way of knowing whether these truths were what he thought them to be. I think at a certain point, we all have to start letting go of this concept of deciphering what is truth from what is lies, because in the end it will make us all go crazy. The fact of the matter is life is a messy, imperfect creation. Everyone lies at some point and most of the time, there is no way for any of us to know the difference. Just like with Leonard, sometimes it is easier to believe the lies and keep your sanity then to worry so much about where the truth "lies."
ReplyDeleteYour blog got me thinking, which most of the time is a dangerous thing!
ReplyDeleteYou portrayed very strongly how you and others hate being lied to, and how many have developed trust issues. When attempting to tie this in with a class that gives me headaches, I realized in the past when lied to in literature, I never really noticed and it never bothered me. I know I have only started "mistrusting" authors now that SOMEONE so kindly pointed it out to me. It is amazing how betrayed we feel when realizing we have been lied to; but even more so when we know its a lie (like fiction), yet still become frustrated. I think if I put aside all the side affects of lying and look at the bigger picture presented in the novel I may gain much more out of it. You said, "If you think about it, anyone can lie. It takes real skill to be able to tell what's bullshit and what's not." This is very true, but I think it takes even more skill to let the search for truth and lies go.