When we were looking at the passage that has the description of memory, I noticed some very real parallels with neuroscience among the various supernatural elements.
Memory is described as being tied to a place, namely 124; it will never die as long as that place exists. WE took this as a supernatural quality of 124 to be able to retain memories. However, this is very similar to recent studies of classroom dynamics. They suggest that what you learn is tied to the space that you learned them and you remember them best in that place. This is a part of memory by association. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_%28psychology%29) Therefore, the house is not haunted, but the characters are being haunted by this familiar place.
Sethe takes this a step further and romanticizes the relationship with the memory. This makes the process more spiritual, but founded on similar neurological concepts. The reader gets the impression of a memory that is animate and evolving. This directly relates to studies of memory reconstruction. Science has shown that your memories are rebuilt from scratch each time you access them and evolve each time they are reconstructed, having been saturated with the experience of the experience of the memory. Re-memory is an illustration of this concept. This information comes from a mind blowing radiolab documentary that has stuck with me (http://www.radiolab.org/story/91569-memory-and-forgetting/ I would definitely recommend listening to this).
In conclusion, the complexity of the plot is reflective of the nuances of the brain and the processes of memory. Much of the weird dealings with memory in Beloved are founded in science.
I think one reason that the ghost "goes away" when beloved comes could be due to the fact that they now have a physical representation of the ghost, so they overlook things that might have made them think of the ghost before beloved shows up.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you connected science, which is something so realistic, with Beloved, which has so many supernatural elements, namely, the ghost of Beloved's reappearance as a grown woman. We all can't related to Sethe's problem of having a baby ghost haunting her house, but we can understand her problem with memories. No one can really control what they remember, and this is one of Sethe's main concerns-- when she wakes up in the morning, her only real goal is to keep the past at bay.
ReplyDeleteI can see this. Events or places could cause PTSD-like rememories of stressful events from the past; every time Seths sees something related to milk, she remembers her abuse. I can't see how this explains the red light on the ground or the shaking of the table. Morrison could have added physical events to associative memory to create something that is founded in science, but takes a more standout role in the text.
ReplyDeleteI think, as some of the other people said, that connecting this "rememory" scene to science is cool (helps you, or us, to wrap your head around it). however, I also think this book doesn't really need scientific explanations for what happened. I think that yes, the characters may be haunted by this house, but the way in which Morrison describes ghosts or spirits or whatever is unlike anything that we've experienced before. She is painting this picture for us as she (or her characters) see it, not in context of what we know (science), but in context of what her characters FEEL (sorry for caps, I wish I could use itallics). I call this book a very "feel" book because it is showing us and letting us feel some of the many emotions that are wrapped into this novel. Science as an answer for any of it? I don't know...
ReplyDeleteNice reading this post, though. Thanks.
Yeah I agree. There does seem to be a lot more going on in Sethe's world, both real and supernatural. It seams that the science provides a framework for understanding what is happening, but the experiences of the characters have a much deeper meaning.
DeleteWow, connecting the supernatural aspect with a scientific one is the last place I expected this to go! This actually really brings attention to the emotional aspects of the novel and helps explain not only why Sethe refuses to leave 124 but also why she says she tries to limit which things she remembers. As for the abilities for her memories to evolve and reconstruct, we now know why the novel is kind of pieced together like a mystery novel.
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