{"id":1027,"date":"2006-07-13T06:00:13","date_gmt":"2006-07-13T11:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/the-challenge-of-forgetting\/"},"modified":"2006-07-13T07:35:44","modified_gmt":"2006-07-13T12:35:44","slug":"the-challenge-of-forgetting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/the-challenge-of-forgetting","title":{"rendered":"The Challenge of Forgetting"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Will’s mother died at 98, after a long period of dementia. He wrote a very touching tribute to her, while exploring the ravages of the long process<\/a> (alliteration notwithstanding):<\/p>\n

Dementia, that stealthy thief of identity, had bleached her vibrant self almost to indistinctness, like a photograph long exposed to sunlight.<\/p>\n

It is said that God gave us memory so we could have roses in winter. Dementia is an ever-deepening advance of wintry whiteness, a protracted paring away of personality. It inflicts on victims the terror of attenuated personhood, challenging philosophic and theological attempts to make death a clean, intelligible and bearable demarcation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(I know, I know: two Will links in two days? Sue me.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Will’s mother died at 98, after a long period of dementia. He wrote a very touching tribute to her, while exploring the ravages of the long process (alliteration notwithstanding): Dementia, that stealthy thief of identity, had bleached her vibrant self almost to indistinctness, like a photograph long exposed to sunlight. It is said that … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Challenge of Forgetting”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-gz","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7659,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-the-consolation-of-poetry","url_meta":{"origin":1027,"position":0},"title":"Podcast: The Consolation of Poetry","author":"Gil","date":"January 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Virtual Memories \u2013 season 4 episode 3 - The Consolation of Poetry \"Poetry chose me at an early age. I think it was connected to the fact that poetry is emotional, pretty, and short.\" Rachel Hadas, author of Strange Relation: A Memoir of Marriage, Dementia and Poetry\u00a0(Paul Dry Books),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/11973492465_5e16c1c364_o.jpg?fit=847%2C1114&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/11973492465_5e16c1c364_o.jpg?fit=847%2C1114&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/11973492465_5e16c1c364_o.jpg?fit=847%2C1114&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/11973492465_5e16c1c364_o.jpg?fit=847%2C1114&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1543,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/i-want-a-new-drug","url_meta":{"origin":1027,"position":1},"title":"I want a new drug","author":"Gil","date":"June 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I enjoy writing the big Top 20 Pharma \/ Top 10 Biopharma report each June. Sure, it's not what I imagined I'd be doing when I was a brooding, pretentious idiot in college, but it turns out that there's plenty of fun to be had in researching and writing these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9406,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-153-rachel-hadas","url_meta":{"origin":1027,"position":2},"title":"Episode 153 – Rachel Hadas","author":"Gil","date":"February 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show #153: Rachel Hadas \"I've never felt so happy, but I've never felt so mortal.\" Poet Rachel Hadas returns to the show to talk about her new books, Talking To The Dead (Spuyten Duyvil Press), and Questions in the Vestibule (Northwestern University Press). It's been two years since\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_2373.jpeg?fit=640%2C480&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_2373.jpeg?fit=640%2C480&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_2373.jpeg?fit=640%2C480&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1611,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/light","url_meta":{"origin":1027,"position":3},"title":"Light","author":"Gil","date":"July 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Ingmar Bergman's death seemed like a good occasion for me to finally watch a movie I'd been saving for a while: Light Keeps Me Company, a documentary about Bergman's great cinematographer, Sven Nykvist, who died last September. 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