As long as (1)....

Ask people to recall their memory about a thing or a person, they usually come up many different ways and approaches to that question. Someone may say I remember my childhood lived in attic, and I was very happy; someone says my first car was in very beautiful blue I was nearly broke in order to take it; I kept two diaries in high school, one for my parents, another for myself.

Theory about how our brain works to store or keep a memory are mostly very scientific. The approach I have recently found is from the film ‘Memento’ which I watch it after a friend’s death. Indeed, there are many concepts toward the director symbolic filming techniques, but I am more impressed on his approach on the relationship between facts and memory.

' Memory can change the shape of a room; it can change the color of a car. And memories can be distorted. They're just an interpretation, they're not a record, and they're irrelevant if you have the facts.’ from Memento

Now, in trying to keep the above mentioned theory in perspective, my first question is: what is ‘fact’ and ‘memory’?
Some definitions about fact from online dictionary:
- something that actually exists; reality; truth:
- something known to exist or to have happened:
- a truth known by actual experience or observation;
- something said to be true or supposed to have happened
- a piece of information about circumstances that exist or events that have occurred;
- an event known to have happened or something known to have existed;
- a concept whose truth can be proved;


And the definition about ‘memory’’
- the mental capacity or faculty of retaining and reviving facts, events, impressions, etc., or of recalling or recognizing previous experiences
- a particular act of recall or recollection
- the period of time covered by the remembrance or recollection of a person or group of persons
- the act or fact of retaining and recalling impressions, facts, etc.; remembrance; recollection: to draw from memory

If fact is a concept whose truth can be proved, how can we prove a smell of bread, a smile of a face, or a feeling of extra cream on top of mocha?

If Memory is defined as the mental capacity or faculty of retaining and reviving facts, events, impressions, and etc., how far can I retain or recall those facts, events, and impressions about a friend pass away? Lenny said, you need to have a system. He makes the notes, tattoos, Polarid photos as his ‘condition’ needed. That sounds good to me even my condition is no belief of any system and somehow I know that, my memory will fade away, this is slightly worried me, one day I may wake up in a bank, say Cheers~ to the ATM machine.

One fateful day, a big event, a friend died, it was the point that I start thinking the ‘system’ more seriously.

(to be continued...)

Memento

Director: Christopher Nolan
Writers: Jonathan Nolan (short story "Memento Mori")
Christopher Nolan (screenplay)
Release date: 11 October 2000
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Cast: Guy Pearce / Carrie-Anne Moss / Joe Pantoliano / Russ Fega / Jorja Fox