Can't Remember to Forget You

Although we have most recently been discussing manipulation, I heard a line in Memento that reminded me of the beginning of the course. At one point in the movie Leonard is pretending to talk to his dead wife (I think--the context is a little fuzzy) when he says that he "can't remember to forget you" (referring to his wife). This made me first think of manipulation in terms of our memories. In most scenarios, we can't tell our brains what to remember and what to forget--we can't manipulate our memory. And because we can't forget upsetting things or unlearn what we've already learned, we must go about manipulating our brains the way the San Lorenzans did: through good old fashioned lies. If we cannot directly erase the knowledge that our religion is false, then we must tell ourselves that our religion is true. These lies work because they feed us the information that we want to hear rather than erase the information we don't. So which is better, self-delusion or ignorance?

It seems to me that self-delusion, while harder to wrap your head around, is definitely the better choice. Ignoring the existence of a reality is apathetic and will you get you nowhere; however, as the San Lorenzans have shown us, self-delusion can helpful, even healthy. Lying to yourself is a means to cope with a difficult truth, it is a form of self-manipulation in which its perpetrator is entirely aware of the lie and its intended effects. While it might be easier for Leonard to directly manipulate his memory and erase the knowledge of his wife entirely, that lie goes beyond just temporary self-delusion and actually changes who he is and what his purpose is. Without the memory of his wife Leonard would not have the same drive to make his condition work--he would be just another Sammy, a man who doesn't have a reason to continue living (not just surviving) despite his impaired memory.

So while the failure of memory might be the fact that you can't pick and choose it yourself, it is a failure that is also necessary and one that can be alleviated through the more gentle manipulation of lies.