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Memory: How important? | Reply to Arthur

Jacek Krankowski (X) — Mon, 18 Nov 2002 22:33:00 +0000

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Topic: Memory: How important?
Poster: Jacek Krankowski (X)
Post title: Reply to Arthur

Yes, sometimes it is better not to remember and try breaking the spiral of violence instead. Such is the conclusion of Dejan Dukovski\'s \"The Powder Keg\" (which was also made into a movie), a round-dance of Balkan violence, also referred to by the critics as Balkan cabaret macabre, which I saw tonight at that Festival. They now have the habit of playing for 2+ hours without intermission and that sometimes is quite a challenge when you go to see several plays.

Memory: How important? | Reply to Kasia

Jacek Krankowski (X) — Mon, 18 Nov 2002 07:47:00 +0000

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Topic: Memory: How important?
Poster: Jacek Krankowski (X)
Post title: Reply to Kasia

Your message was posted with a delay with respect to those of Platinum members, that is why I am late with my wholehearted thanks to you!

If I do not meet you in London, all the best

Jacek

Memory: How important? | More on the Buddhist Angle

Arthur Borges — Mon, 18 Nov 2002 06:33:00 +0000

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Poster: Arthur Borges
Post title: More on the Buddhist Angle

HH Dalai Lama was going on about love & compassion at a conference when someone asked about the extermination of the Jews and other inconvenient subcultures/minorities.

He replied to the effect that yes, it is important to remember the misdeeds of the past, but it is equally important not to pass on the hatred and bitterness these misdeeds engendered.

Memory: How important? | Our stories

Jacek Krankowski (X) — Sun, 17 Nov 2002 23:09:00 +0000

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Topic: Memory: How important?
Poster: Jacek Krankowski (X)
Post title: Our stories

Quote:

On 2002-11-17 14:35, alison1969 wrote:

....the Jungian concept of collective memory.... .... ties in very closely with the Buddhist concept of \"Engi\" or collective Karma...

...or with the narration:

\"Thus, story and memory remove humans from the horrible brevity of mortal life by bringing existence into a realm outside of time. Humans die, but through story their fellow humans can make them immortal. Even amidst lifes tragedies, stories allow us to transform what seems an unbearable reality into something deeply beautiful. And yet their power is not merely retrospective since stories impose moral responsibility on our every action. Forgetting, therefore, is among the worst evils; not only because of the moral perversity it permits, but also because of the meaning it denies.\"

(Text copyright 1999 by Aaron Schildkrout. All rights reserved.)

Memory: How important? | Inventing the past

Elena-Mirona Ciocirlie — Sun, 17 Nov 2002 20:33:00 +0000

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Topic: Memory: How important?
Poster: Elena-Mirona Ciocirlie
Post title: Inventing the past

I am also very much preoccupied with the memory topic these days. I suggest at least two books on the same topic: Kazuo Ishiguro\'s \"When We Were Orphans\" and a book published in 1992 by the Dutch writer Marcel Moring translated into Romanian with the title \"The Great Wish\". I really hope you can get hold of an English or Polish translation of the Dutch book, especially as it is absolutely brilliant in questioning memory issues. Thank you for mentioning \"Mnemonic\" to us! (Mirona)

Memory: How important? | Eureka!

Jacek Krankowski (X) — Sun, 17 Nov 2002 15:32:00 +0000

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Topic: Memory: How important?
Poster: Jacek Krankowski (X)
Post title: Eureka!

Thank you, Alison, so much for that link! It turns out my geriatric brain did remember correctly what it had heard from the stage. (I am now off to Volksbuehne Am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz with Dostoyevsky...)

And thanks to P.Kurek who sent me the same answer privately. I swear I had tried Google, to no avail...

Jacek

Muszla

Przed lustrem w sypialni rodzicw leaa rowa muszla. Zbliaem si do niej na palcach i nagym ruchem przytykaem do ucha. Chciaem zapa j kiedy na tym, e nie tskni jednostajnym szumem. Chocia byem may, wiedziaem, e nawet jeli kogo bardzo si kocha, czasem zdarza nam si o tym zapomnie.

[ This Message was edited by: on 2002-11-17 19:17 ]

Memory: How important? | My Polish books are all still at my parents house

Alison Schwitzgebel — Sun, 17 Nov 2002 14:35:00 +0000

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Topic: Memory: How important?
Poster: Alison Schwitzgebel
Post title: My Polish books are all still at my parents house

....and I\'m sure that I have collection of Herbert\'s poems. You could check out [url removed] to try and find a link.

....the Jungian concept of collective memory.... .... ties in very closely with the Buddhist concept of \"Engi\" or collective Karma... ...which I certainly do believe in....

Memory: How important? | Theatre de Complicite and Zbigniew Herbert

Kasia Trzcińska-Draper (X) — Sun, 17 Nov 2002 02:31:00 +0000

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Topic: Memory: How important?
Poster: Kasia Trzcińska-Draper (X)
Post title: Theatre de Complicite and Zbigniew Herbert

Witaj Jacku,

I am glad you went to see Mnemonic - I was going to post a recommendation on Theatre de Complicite on the Polish forum, but somehow never got around to it (I saw their adaptation of the Street of Crocodiles years and years ago, and it was just great).

As for the poem, here it is in Polish, as copied from [url removed]

\"Muszla

Przed lustrem w sypialni rodzicw leaa rowa muszla. Zbliaem si do niej na palcach i nagym

ruchem przytykaem do ucha. Chciaem zapa j kiedy na tym, e nie tskni jednostajnym szumem.

Chocia byem may, wiedziaem, e nawet jeli kogo bardzo si kocha, czasem zdarza nam si o tym

zapomnie.\"

I have not come across an English version of the poem, but then I have not really looked. Perhaps Adam Zagajewski has translated it? Anyway, here\'s my version of just the last sentence

\"...Although I was quite young, I knew that even if we really love somebody, sometimes we just happen to forget it.\"

So true.

All the best,

Kasia

Memory: How important? | Well, the mystical traditions hold

Arthur Borges — Sat, 16 Nov 2002 11:16:00 +0000

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Topic: Memory: How important?
Poster: Arthur Borges
Post title: Well, the mystical traditions hold

...that without memory, you\'ll never get anywhere.

IBM agrees.

Memory: How important?

Jacek Krankowski (X) — Sat, 16 Nov 2002 11:07:00 +0000

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Topic: Memory: How important?
Poster: Jacek Krankowski (X)

I saw another play at the Festival: Theatre de Complicite\'s \"Mnemonic\" ( [url removed] )

They now dedicate their performances to one of their actresses who died 2 months ago. Last night, what they also dedicated to her was a poem by Zbigniew Herbert which I only can summarize for you based on what I heard read from the stage:

***

I remember my parents\' room

with a pink conch next to a mirror

which I wanted to catch by surprise

and see whether it ever stops humming

We sometimes love people,

but forget that.

***

Do you with the latter?

Do you agree that we may be a construct of memory?

Last but not least: Does anyone happen to have that Herbert\'s poem, either in English or in Polish?

About the play itself:

\"At least since Carl Jung developed his theory of the collective unconscious, memory and its uncharted territories have fascinated Western civilization. If science has begun to explain the biochemistry of how we remember, what we do, why and when, are defining questions of society at the Millenniums turn. Is who we are, socially, culturally, ethnically, even humanly, essentially a construct of memory? In Mnemonic, the latest show devised by Theatre de Complicite, this possibility is compellingly explored, as one of Englands most exciting theater companies lead a fascinating trip into the minds eye of human experience.

Individually, the four stories presented in Mnemonic are far from unforgettable: a young woman travels in search of her father, the man she leaves behind struggles to understand their break-up, a Greek immigrant becomes a cab driver in London, and a group of archeologists debate theories regarding a recent discovery. Mnemonics magic takes hold, however, when it becomes apparent these tales are linked far beyond their simultaneous scenic presentation. In fact, they compose what Complicite co-founder and Mnemonics creator and director Simon McBurney calls an interlocking jigsaw of memory, whose vital center is both the subject of the archeologists discussion the frozen corpse of a Neolithic man devised and a problem that dogs McBurney.

Ive often been interested in this question whether we remember back before our lives, McBurney explained by phone from London. And of course we do because we have the stories of our parents and our grandparents. We have fragments of their memories which we remember. How far back does that go? Even as far as that ice-bound body? The idea is not implausible for McBurney. He continued, Just as DNA is passed from generation to generation, it is perfectly possible for there to be sort of very, very, very distant memories to be contained within that DNA, possibly. \"

(Molly Grofan, Paris Voice)

[ This Message was edited by: on 2002-11-17 23:06 ]