tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401830411147364284.post406200912969363407..comments2024-03-18T19:05:39.072-07:00Comments on Morphosis: MemoryAdam Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15803399373213872690noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401830411147364284.post-75308235251545601682016-05-16T14:05:01.328-07:002016-05-16T14:05:01.328-07:00I think dreaming is a form of sense-making, more c...I think dreaming is a form of sense-making, more closely allied to waking thought processes than we might think (I say 'waking' rather than 'conscious'; I don't believe thought is ever fully conscious). Whether it's specifically a form of <b>memory</b> I'm not sure.Philhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07009879034507926661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401830411147364284.post-65018559721882210162016-05-16T05:33:19.976-07:002016-05-16T05:33:19.976-07:00That should read: '...without REM sleep and dr...That should read: '...<b>without</b> REM sleep and dreams'. It's annoying that Blogger won't let you edit comments once posted.Adam Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15803399373213872690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401830411147364284.post-15790329422079277182016-05-16T05:32:19.762-07:002016-05-16T05:32:19.762-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Adam Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15803399373213872690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401830411147364284.post-2632714967065571042016-05-16T05:29:46.863-07:002016-05-16T05:29:46.863-07:00'George Orr', not Geoff. I had to look it ...'George Orr', not Geoff. I had to look it up on Wikipedia. Sloppy of me. Or rather, of my <em>memory</em>.Adam Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15803399373213872690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401830411147364284.post-16552275028543447262016-05-16T05:29:00.305-07:002016-05-16T05:29:00.305-07:00Very interesting, professor. LeGuin's dreamers...Very interesting, professor. LeGuin's dreamers from that book are a kind of descendant of Geoff Orr from <em>The Lathe of Heaven</em>, whose dreams actively alter reality. There's a kind of valorisation of the Australian aboriginal 'dreamtime' concept behind this, and a lot of thinking about dreams -- as if dreams have magical force. Predictive force, say, like Pharaoh's dreams as interpreted by Joseph. But I suppose I'm advocating a more mundane reading: what if dreams were one of three crucial physiologically human modes of 'remembering'?Adam Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15803399373213872690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401830411147364284.post-61833721708940602752016-05-16T05:25:07.037-07:002016-05-16T05:25:07.037-07:00I agree with (what I take to be) the point of your...I agree with (what I take to be) the point of your comment, viz that calling dreams a form of memory may be merely trivially true. I'm hoping it's more than that: I could be wrong. So, for instance, many people function quite well, in old age for instance, with a working long-term but a badly impaired short-term memory; and a smaller group function tolerably well the other way around, with short term but no long term memory. But nobody can function, or indeed can live very long, with REM sleep and dreams. If dreaming is not just a process of rummaging randomly through the individuals mental detritus, but is a process of active remembering, then this says something important about the centrality of memory to human subjectivity. Doesn't it?<br /><br />As I say in the post: nonsense and blather.Adam Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15803399373213872690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401830411147364284.post-22815934680701508952016-05-16T04:43:59.401-07:002016-05-16T04:43:59.401-07:00This makes me think about LeGuin's The Word fo...This makes me think about LeGuin's <em>The Word for World is Forest</em>, in which the Athshean Dreamers exercise some degree of control over dreams, have to some degree harnessed them and put them to use — though this requires adjusting how one understands being "awake" and "conscious." Alan Jacobshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06777218862490842180noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401830411147364284.post-49321424025233663792016-05-16T04:33:47.928-07:002016-05-16T04:33:47.928-07:00Dreaming certainly processes memories - what else ...Dreaming certainly processes memories - what else can it process, apart from the sound of the alarm clock, the ill-advised light tap on the back of the neck, etc? Whether that makes it a form of memory may depend on whether you see memory as a (type of) resource or a (type of) process.<br /><br />Either way, I immediately thought of Freudian dreamwork, considered as a way of making 'sense' of memories - and as a set of techniques which we use in other sense-making activities; thinking here of Graham Hough's exposition of Spenser's use of condensation, splitting, doubling etc. Looks like Matte Blanco was considerably further down that line. Interesting stuff.Philhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07009879034507926661noreply@blogger.com