There is a chapter in Eating the Sun titled 'You Are Only Remembering The Last Time You Remembered', which goes into some detail about memory, how it is far more fallible and susceptible to revision than we know. In the chapter, I write a little about the changeable, fickle nature of remembering, and why it is that each and every time we revisit a moment lodged in the past, it gets washed over—why the memories we return to the most are often, actually, the most inaccurate. My slight preoccupation with the subject is why this sentence from the 69th page in Olga Tokarczuk's book Flights did such a good job sticking to me:
“Description is akin to overuse—it destroys; the colors wear off, the corners lose their definition, and in the end what's been described begins to fade, to disappear. This applies most of all to places.”
The sentence took me to thinking about the resident or residual memories of a place, of people as places and people as memories, thinking about why it is that we can sometimes try to conjure up a physical place and instead, quite unexpectedly, remember a person—and vice versa. This in turn led me to thinking about scent, the particular smell of things, and why it can play such an integral (albeit flawed and ephemeral) part inside memories.
I have reached no particular conclusions.
WORK-RELATED NEWS:
Amongst other things, I finished the lettering for the German edition of Eating the Sun, did some gazing in awe at the beautiful book-smothered stand my Italian publisher, Marcos y Marcos, have at the currently-happening Salone Del Libro in Turin (this international book fair is the largest trade fair in Italy), felt quite stressed about anything I could get my hands on, tried to fold new ideas into established routines, and said yes to a Russian publisher for another edition of Eating the Sun.
THIS WEEK I FEEL IN LOVE ALL OVER AGAIN WITH:
Really everything by British director-animator-illustrator Hannah Jacobs, whose work I have adored for long enough that it's actually quite exhausting.
Checked out: 5
(Next due back on May 12)
On hold: 2
(1 Ready, pick up by May 11
1 Not ready, #64 on 23 copies)
The end.
Copyright © 2019 Ella Frances Sanders, All rights reserved.