What stood out to me about Momento was the obsession over "the facts." When I think of a momento I think of something that is concrete, usually one is able to hold this memory or token, and there is no doubt or uncertainty. Yet, all of Leonard's "momento's are manipulated and blurred so that he doesn't even know the facts. Can a fact still be a fact if it is based off of lies? Can a fact still be a fact if the person stating the fact doesn't even know the significance, origin, or truth. Leonard's whole life is based around these "facts" tattooed on his body, but if he is in this perpetual cycle of gaining "facts" off of things he doesn't know or remember than how can he trust the future facts that are based off of the other facts.
This reminds me of Cat's Cradle and foma and essentially the entire Books of Bokonon. The citizens of San Lorenzo were able to gain truth from the lies but does that make it ok? Is it ok that Leonard is finding potentially fatal "truth" from previous lies. The San Lorenzans were solely doing it to survive, while Leonard is looking to kill, so do our motives come into play over whether this is valid? I'm not sure. I left this movie with a lot of questions. Since seeing the first half, I have done some research on it, and it has just left me with more questions.
This is a really interesting concept: Can a fact still be a fact if it is based off of lies? I think that it depends. In this case Leonard takes all of his “facts” as truth, so as long as he is willing to believe them then they are his reality. However, knowing this, I don’t think that Leonard believing the facts are true will ever make them true to others. In order for Leonard to keep these things his reality, he in essence, confines his life to the reality he wants to believe. But, in the end, don’t we all put our own spin on the “facts” that surround us.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up an interesting concept when it comes to facts. After reading your post I wonder if there really is something that is a fact. Scientists stray from using that word because they can never be certain of something being a fact. The same goes for daily life. Can a person ever be sure that something is a fact? Is it okay to lie about what is a fact or not? Everyone wants to believe something and these lies manipulate the facts to what we want to believe. I think it is okay to lie to yourself. People need to do what makes them happy and we have seen in this class that a lie can promote more happiness than the "truth" could ever.
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