Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Living with short-term amnesia [from the Independent]

It's not news, but it's a blog entry, so it should suffice, punk. The first DVD I ever bought had an encoded version of "Memento" on it, and since watching the decoded version of the film from that same DVD, I've always considered it a damn fine movie. In it, as you know, a man tries to avenge his wife's murder. Unfortunately for him, this is made harder by his inability to remember anything more than about 30 seconds beforehand. Fortunately for the viewer, this, and the use of reversing time so that what came before an event is not known until later on, make an excellent film. So now the Independent, in a flurry of non-journalism, have published a story about someone real - yes, real! - who suffers from a similar condition. It's not like there are wars or anything going on. From the article contained within this, somehow,

"In order to lead a normal life, Chandler must keep a meticulous diary to help jolt memories and remember forthcoming events. Her bedroom is scattered with notes: 'Check diary', '52 weeks, 365 days'. Often she repeats the notes over and over, forgetting that she has already tried to prompt herself to remember. In her bedroom, she also has pictures of Tony Blair and Charles Kennedy. Below she describes their roles. For the first time, she voted in the general election in May."