Unsatisfactory Education
Paul Theroux, "Fresh-air Fiend: Travel Writings, 1985-2000." He makes the case for the virtues of having a bad memory (such an afflicted person is less worldly and less ambitious and less garrulous), and asserts, ‘an outstanding memory is often associated with weak judgment.’ There are other treats in store for the deeply forgetful person: ‘Books and places which I look at again are always welcome. ["Funes the Memorious" is the tale of one Ireneo Funes, who, after falling off his horse and receiving a bad head injury, acquired the amazing talent—or curse—of remembering absolutely everything" Wikipedia] "Funes is almost incapable of sustained thought or of generalizing. he reconstructed a whole day; he never hesitated, but each reconstruction required a whole day. ‘I alone have more memories than all mankind has probably had since the world has been the world My memory is like a garbage heap.’ [Theroux about himself] "My intelligence was emphatically pictorial I foundered whenever a subject became unreasonably abstract. I still regard the best sentences as those which throw up clear images, and the worst as opaque, abstract, unvisualizable – like this one!" Worst sentences are opaque, abstract, unvisualizable. What a bunch of words of opaque words. I hate the word Opaque. I kept misunderstanding the meaning. I bounced off it. See through? No! NOT see through. Abstract is abstract. Letters jangling along conveying something airy-fairy. Abstract. Theroux loves sentences that throw clear images at the reader. He is a travel writer who uses words to evoke the images he encounters. Still, he is very good at generalizing, abstracting. "I survived school because I remembered everything: my memory saved me. It was an odd, undemanding and unsatisfactory education" Odd, undemanding, unsatisfactory. It is odd to think of "education" as memorizing. How does that educate? Undemanding? Use one muscle: Remember: "I remembered everything." Unsatisfactory. I was not educated. I was disciplined, brainwashed, made to remember tons of useless stuff Too much of education in England and America is remembering, not comprehending I'll end with a vivid "Flashbulb" memory. I, and my classmates are standing around outside the soon-to-be-opened door of our final exam classroom. I "see" me vividly reciting "mnemonic" devices to remember "lists." This graduate school class in Communications was nuts, truly nuts. No real knowledge but tons of five point-lists, or three essential, or the eight signs. Nuts, nuts. I have a lousy memory, am stressed out of my mind. Standing near me is an Asian student who seems preternaturally calm. I am gob-smacked. How can he be so calm? He says he has a photographic memory. He has no problems with any American exams. An odd, undemanding, unsatisfactory education.