Post #12, 4-28-09, Remember When?

"Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders."

-Mary, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

For as long as can be remembered, memory has been a highly intriguing, thought-provoking process. The inner workings of the human brain have not only been the focus of intense scientific study, but also play a large part in the media. Movie after movie, TV show after TV show, book after book have been based on psychological theories. When a certain Newsweek article caught my eye, I began reading and was immediately reminded of scenes from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a 2004 release starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. The title of the film was inspired by "Eloisa to Abelard", a poem written by Alexander Pope in the early 1700's. A small portion of the poem reads as follows:

"How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd."

The Health for Life section of this week's issue of Newsweek features an article written by Claudia Kalb called "To Pluck a Rooted Sorrow". The article starts by describing an experiment begun by Karim Nader. This experiment involved testing a "fear conditioning technique", in which rats were electrically shocked each time they heard a certain sound. The rats soon started to associate the unpleasant shock with the sound, and formed a memory. Nader then realized that after injecting the rats with a new drug, the rats relaxed when the sound was played. The fear of shock and the sound were no longer connected. This same drug can be used on humans. We may be capable of actually erasing painful memories. This recent discovery is nothing similar to what is seen on TV, however. Dr. Roger Pitman is currently concentrating on victims of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, an illness kick-started by exceptionally distressing memories.

We may be able to help people who suffer from emotional scarring, but at what cost? In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the two main characters, Joel Barish and Clementine Kruczynski, erase their memories of each other after their relationship falls apart. Clementine undergoes the memory-erasing procedure first, and after hearing about it, Joel decides to forget about her too. However, half-way through the process, Joel changes his mind because he is still in love with Clementine. While the actual movie is much better than the rough story line I just provided, I got my point across. In the article Dr. Eric Kandel states, "Removing memory gets into dangerous territory. We have to think about it very carefully."

"To Pluck a Rooted Sorrow" brought up many interesting points, and I agree with something psychologist Alain Brunet was quoted on in the article: "People cherish their memories, even their bad memories. They don't want them to be erased, they want to recall them with less pain." I think that's what we all want, ultimately. A perfect life. But that's an unachievable goal. Life, in reality, is messy. When we make mistakes, we have to learn from them. When people hurt us, we have to forgive. I believe that our experiences shape us into who we are. Without knowledge of those past experiences, I'm concerned that the person we pride ourselves in being might be forgotten along with our lost memories. Any other thoughts?

Post #11, 4-21-09, Women

Through recent readings, I've come across several perceptions of women and the place they hold in specific societies. On one side, women are viewed as "truly the fairer sex". The article selected for "The Verdict" section of the April 20th issue of Newsweek describes women in governmental roles. It is said that President Obama will choose a woman to fill the next empty seat in the Supreme Court. Currently, there is only one female member of the court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Many people strongly agree that there should be more women present in politics. A theory based on the book by Carol Gilligan, "In a Different Voice", states that "men prefer their law with rigid rules, clear lines and neutral principles; women prefer to look at the totality of the circumstances and favor what Gilligan calls an 'ethic of care' over an 'ethic of rights'." Women provide a different insight, a different perspective on topics of interest. It is necessary to have more than one viewpoint on consequential issues.

However, the other side of the extreme often objectifies women and treats them as inferior. Peter Hessler observes this during his two-year stay in China, and writes about it in his book River Town. In River Town, Hessler describes the two types of Chinese women, or "xiaojie":

"It was impossible to define exactly what xiaojie meant, because it stretched across a broad range of implication. Anne was a xiaojie and so was Li Jiali, the prostitute who had pursued me at the teahouse. Xiaojie was a vague term, which was appropriate because it was difficult to define exactly what was expected of young women in a place like Fuling. They weren't like young upper-class men, whose aspirations could be neatly summarized, and I found that I had no equivalently simple definition for the average young woman in Fuling. She was expected to marry young and promptly have her child, and yet her childbearing was strictly and legally limited. She was expected to have a job and earn money of her own, but job discrimination was even more severe than in America. Traditional morality was breaking down, but this happened unevenly and in unhealthy ways; prostitution was becoming increasingly common and so were love affairs. I was amazed at how many of my young married friends in the city were cheating on their spouses, but divorce still came with a definite stigma for the women involved."

Hessler continues with other complex conditions Chinese women are expected to abide by. He later says that although circumstances were worse in other countries, "the issue of women's independence had reached a transitional stage, and it seemed to be a particularly painful one."

I find it interesting that a woman's purpose and status in society has been and remains so controversial. It is unclear to most what is expected of women, and various cultures come up with their own ideas of what is acceptable.

Forum #5, 4-7-09, A World within the World

"The Restaurant Owner" focuses mainly on Huang Xiaoqiang, a husband, father, and proud owner of a noodle restaurant called the Students' home in the East River district of Fuling. Huang Xiaoqiang lives in his own little world, a world that completely revolves and depends upon the success of his restaurant. Pete Hessler writes in this chapter: "Any changes are made within the world of the restaurant." When Huang Xiaoqiang experienced financial difficulties, he bought a telephone for his customer's use in an attempt to raise money. He also worked to obtain a driver's license, something not many others had in the city. This provided him with multiple opportunities. Hessler informs his readers: "They have no desire to go elsewhere. 'We're here for yibeizi,' Huang Xiaoqiang says, 'A lifetime.'"
This section of the chapter stuck out to me. I began to wonder, do we experience similar situations here in the United States? What are our individual "worlds"?