The Imperfect Memory And The Excessive Imagination — страница 3

  • Просмотров 371
  • Скачиваний 5
  • Размер файла 18
    Кб

corner and circle the room, mentally noting everything there was on the way (78). This is, quite literally, a creation of reality through imagination. Through our memory and imagination we create a new essence for an idea or object, such as Funes meeting with the narrator, separate and independent from its existence. Funes exact copy of the external world emphasizes why Meursault s use of metaphor manifests his consciousness. Together, Funes and Meursault illustrate that comparison is not consciousness. Funes was … incapable of ideas of a general, Platonic sort … it bothered him that the dog at three fourteen (seen from the side) should have the same name as a dog at three fifteen (seen from the front) (65). His mind consists of such perfect memory that no room exists for

human creativity to link two dissimilar objects. Borges writes that, I suspect, however, that he was not very capable of thought. To think is to forget differences, generalize, make abstractions (66). Thus, he cannot develop consciousness if he cannot communicate using the external reality as a medium. Jean-Paul Sartre addresses Meursault s use of metaphor as it relates to experience when he assesses that, we have, on the one hand, the amorphous, everyday flow of realities as it is experienced, and, on the other, the edifying reconstruction of this reality by speech (115). So, according to Sartre, Meursault experiences and then creatively translates into communicable metaphors. Sartre misses, unfortunately, the critical effect of imperfect memory to Meursault s use of metaphor.

Indeed, Meursault s use of metaphors expands exponentially as he develops a consciousness. Sartre reveals why Funes invention of a numbering system is essentially mathematical comparison and not a creative manifestation of consciousness. Funes numbering system links numbers with specific signs. His system is pure association. It involves no imagination or abstraction. Funes does not perceive the world as creatively or personally as Meursault. Max M ller writes that no one ever saw a tree, but only this or that fir tree, or oak tree, or apple tree … Tree therefore is a concept, and as such can never be seen or perceived by the senses (78-9). This reveals the reason for Funes sadness (he cannot conceptualize). M ller also provides a deeper philosophical twist to Meursault s

memory. Perhaps when we think of the word tree, we envision a particular tree, not a picture of the abstract and intangible image that tree represents. Indeed Meursault remarks that, I was assailed by memories of a life that wasn t mine anymore, but one in which I d found the simplest and most lasting joys: the smells of summer, the part of town I loved, a certain evening sky, Marie s dress and the way she laughed (104). Camus takes the application of M ller s theory one step further. Meursault associates the intangible idea of joy with, among other things, Marie s dress and the way she laughed. Instead of thinking of all the joys he ever experienced, like Funes might, Meursault isolates her dress as representative of what joy means to him. So, by measuring all other joy with

this abstract, distorted image, Meursault reveals how Funes is both incapable of distancing himself from the reality of his senses and from making generalizations that limit or ignore details. Through Meursault s seemingly odd desires, Camus shows why Funes attempts to concentrate the external reality. Meursault tells the priest that he, like many other people, wishes for a different life. One where I could remember this life! (120). Meursault desires to transcend his current consciousness. It is no coincidence that Camus works the priest into his physical transcendence theme. He comments that part of the human condition is the frustration that the physical realm limits our awareness. If Meursault could remember the perceptions and ideas from the first reality, he would know and

directly perceive two internal realities. Thus, he could eliminate the variables and isolate the external constant. Through Meursault s desire, Camus reveals Funes intention for sitting in a dark room. Borges writes that, She told me Ireneo was in the back room and I should not be surprised to find him in the dark, because he knew how to pass the idle hours without lighting the candle (62). Funes, too, tries to isolate and focus the external reality so that it does not overwhelm him. Camus exposes Funes hope that by limiting his scope of reality, he could experience reality more vividly. This also explains why he becomes fixated with the seemingly simple smell of a santonica sprig. Since Funes experiences all sensory perceptions immediately, he merges with the external reality.