While reading the book, at some point, I found myself looking at the pictures instead of reading the actual prints. The main thing, besides the notes and the cooking/relationship books that I noticed was the immense amount of clothing attire that’s in the book. As a reader, I expected at some point for each page to have some clothing attire.

I also noticed in the book that there are multiple book pictures and the two main topics of the books are cooking and relationship topics. Aside from that, Important Artifacts had many pieces in there that I wanted to include as being important in the making of the book. The two lots that I chose were lot 1231 (92), 1283 (110). I chose them because they show a lot about the relationship the two characters share. They always seem apart from each other and doing different things. The representation of the shirts lay in the difference of locations/places that each shirt represents. It seemed that in their relationship, they lived parallel to one another. A majority of their relationship was shared apart. The lot that interest me that most was the one with the shoes on page (92). Many shoes and clothing attire appeared many times in book. I thought it was ironic how that picture of these shoes has the woman’s pair worn out from use and the man’s pair barely worn since he is the one who travels the most. Also, in the many of pages before that picture, there are many attire and the point that Jon came up in class was the fact that there’s so many clothes, but no one seems to be in them.

The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination – Elizabeth Hardwick

Should movies (like Memento) be regarded differently because it’s seen as a film instead of a novel? The way I see it is at the end of the film audience still has to analyze elements and conclusion of the story.  If the intentions of the viewer are to analyze a critical work, the option of choosing a novel or a film should weigh about the same.

Now what tip the scale is the preference of the audience- do they prefer the seclusion of a good book, or the inclusion of a group watching a movie, but then again there are people who choose to join book clubs to enjoy reading as a group.

Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness – Helen Keller

There’s learning in reading a good book. Books hold education. It’s a way to increase one’s vocabulary, increase imagination and create imagery with words provided.

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go – Dr. Seuss

Books have wonderful characters, settings, plot, language that readers can choose to read over and over. When a chararcter is created through words, the reader get to visually create that character. Intrestingly  enough, the way that I may imagine a character may be different than the way my roommate my imagine a character. Ex: the way that I may imagine Edward Cullen to look like may be different than the way a fourteen year old may imagine him to be.

If you read a lot of books you are considered well read. But if you watch a lot of TV, you’re not considered well viewed – Lily Tomlin

The movie like the book is a form of art. There are many aspects of the movie as well. The movie has set angles that it is shot in, characters and setting… (Etc).  All the angles that the director uses to show a scene are open to interpretation. The characters are visually presented before you, so you won’t have to wonder what the character might possibly look like since the movie has it portrayed. Also, viewers can by pass dull pages that makes it hard to grip the essence of the book. Movies has special effects, music and action sequences that makes audience awe. Some books come to life on screen than in pages.

In terms of advancement:

Think back to high school days, when people think of books, they use to aassociate them with “nerds”

I think the the older generation has more an appreciation for books. The newer generation read mostly for school, so it has been engrained in us as a source of education versus a source of entertainment.

Easy is the way of the new. Everything that is upgraded is made to make life faster and easier, but advancements doesn’t necessarily mean better; just different. Better is open to interpretation.  Instead of reading a book for 2 days, people would rather watch the movie for 2 hours to gain an idea of the book.

“Time is of the essence – I read a lot and I read fast but if I were to spend my entire weekend doing nothing but reading I’d be pushing to finish three novels (admittedly I read fantasy and they tend to be huge but still).  If I spend the entire weekend watching movies (unless I’m watching Lord of the Rings or something equally epic) I can probably knock over about twelve movies.  Movies skip out a lot of detail that appears in books, plus they don’t need to describe scenes to you, they just flash a picture and move on.  They are quicker in conveying the story.” (Cassandra Jade)

What are we loosing: Most importantly- Imagination, language, use of words.

(The reason why I included so many quotes is to show different views on film and books.)

“They’re Memories just an interpretation, they’re not a record, and they’re irrelevant if you have the facts.” (Leonard)

This video makes the audience doubt anything that Leonard says, so in the end of it all, he’s just another character that no one can trust. Everything that happens in this movie is open to interpretation, especially since the main character questions his own memories and talk about the possible “distorting” of memories. Every flashback that he does is open to theory. How can the audience be sure that the memories that he shares happened the way he said the happened. Everything still remains a web of lies. Now I’m left to wonder which memories are real and which are “distorted”

Every aspect of Memento is a challenge. After multiple views, everything still puzzles me, and I still find myself going around in circle. After my third viewing, I did not find it easier to come up with a better conclusion to his story. Is Sammy really Leonard? Was Teddy who he says he was? At some point, I did realize that the conclusion that the viewers made were different according to the individual. I watched it with my roommate and she was convinced that Leonard was interpreting his memories that way he wanted to. His interpretation of his memories is what has him so unhappy. He kept relieving it so often that they are becoming distorted, whether Leonard is doing it intentionally is up to debate. My roommate, however believes that Leonard is intentionally distorting his memories of his wife  because he doesn’t want to believe that the Insulin shock is what killed his wife, he wants someone else to be responsible, hence why the police reports were messed around with and why he keeps chasing the John G.  That is also why he forced the memory of Teddy being a liar, and why he choose a name so popular like John G. to hunt down. He knows that there are multiple people he can hunt down for the murder of his wife with such a popular name. In the end, my roommate concluded that Leonard was a serial killer. (Good Laugh)

What I took notice is that Leonard was right in putting down don’t believe his lies, under Teddy’s picture because Teddy sets Leonard up to kill Jimmy in order to rob him of drug money. Since many ideas can be formed about the movie, it is hard to come up with a concise conclusion, which I think was the writer’s intentions. Memento is a puzzle that cannot be solved, hence why my roommate and I both had our own theories and conclusion for Memento.

While we were discussing the idea of truths and lies in class- notes, characterization of Lenny, and Natalie were some ideas we had under truth. After thinking about it a little more, I actually don’t think there’s any real truth in this movie. Everything is set up so that the audience ends up asking more questions. Lenny himself, in the last scene, admits that he would lie to himself in order to bring happiness to his lonely life. Nathalie was using him, Teddy was trying to get the money from his car, and the hotel clerk was charging him for two rooms. His handwriting couldn’t be trusted either since he himself lie to himself. His own memories couldn’t be trusted since he distorted them. Everything is entangled in a web of lies. It is at a point where it would be close to impossible to get out.

Everyone was looking out for their own selves, driven by motivation to obtain what they must- through manipulation. The audience was left to assumption on a majority of the story. Since memory could not be trusted, there was no way to validate any ideas or situation that occurred in the story. It was made worse since everyone seemed to have a reason to justify their actions. Everyone wanted to be the truth, but no one seemed to present a real identity.

I also picked up on the idea of Obsession of Lents with Helen, which goes well with the idea of “Galatea” Obsession with Helen- because of Audrey

The informational pattern of when Richard was in the Netherlands:

Main Idea discussed: Language

In order for powers to teach himself the language, he would try a different word in sentences and see if they work. The same thing goes for the Imp. There’s the idea of back propagation- saying the words back over and over in an attempt to learn the material. We can compare Helen’s way of learning to Richard’s way of learning. The way in which they both learn I from repetition, rephrasing, just it out to see if it works.

An element that seems to be more prominent in this section of the book is memory loss. Upon meeting Lentz’s wife the audience and “Marcel” (who I believe is the nickname for the “narrator”) gets this moment where everything seems to be making sense. Richard now understands why Lentz wants Helen to do well. It’s about Helen being able to make connection- something his wife seemed unable to do, as well as unable to identify people. Lentz’s wife is basically holding the major elements of what this book is on, which are forgetting and loss, identity, and making connections.

Here’s to what may happen in the end of the book.