October 20, 2008
-
Finite Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
“Percy,” the older man started, strolling across the room, ”Do you remember being born?”
“No…No,” Percy responded timidly, clearing his voice in-between responses.
“Well then,” the older man continued slowly while pouring drinks at the table, “how do you know you were there?”
“I know I was there,” Percy, a habitually nervous little man, assured himself.
“You think you were there,” Cyril, the elderly gentleman, corrected.
“No, I was definitely there,” Percy resisted, ”How could I not be there when I was the one being born.”
“Good point,” Cyril said, handing Percy his glass of whiskey and seating himself in the study chair opposite him. Then, with his piercing eyes fixed on Percy’s distracted face, he added, ”So you must have not been born.”
“What! Just because I can’t remember?!” cried Percy, lurching forward in his chair.
“What is so shocking about it?” Cyril continued in his smooth, dulcet voice, ”Don’t you find it curious that all this time you always had to be told that you were there, being born, but even though you were there, you didn’t know it?”
“No…I was a baby,” Percy said, frantically glancing around at the carpet, ”Babies don’t—“
“—What? Know things? They have eyes. They have brains,” Cyril reasoned, raising his eyebrows for each point, “Are you discriminating based on size?”
“No! It’s just…I’m sure I was there. I was in the hospital room that first day. There are pictures of it,” Percy insisted, which he followed by taking a large drink.
“Does it look anything like you in the pictures?” Cyril questioned in a calm, suggestive tone.
“…No,” Percy said quietly.
“And you don’t remember it,” Cyril led on, sounding more confident and authoritative with each remark, ”Entering the world would be a considerably memorable occasion—don’t you think?”
“Yes,” Percy conceded.
“Then just accept it,” gaveled Cyril snidely, “You weren’t there. It never happened.”
“Impossible!” Percy yelled as he jumped out of his chair, grabbing his hair with his hands. He paced quickly back and forth, searching the carpet with his eyes for an answer, mentally groping for a rope as he fell down the dark well Cyril had pushed him into. “Oh yeah?” Percy said as he froze and pointed a finger at Cyril, ”Then how did I get here?”
“What do you remember?”
“Well,” Percy said as he recalled his first memory, ”I remember I was about six. My friend Jeremy was there, and…” Percy trailed off, “—ah yes—we were eating ice cream cones on the curb of the street.”
“Then I would go find Jeremy and ask him,” Cyril concluded, “He was apparently there when it happened.”
Comments (8)
Hello. This is good. In my world, that means I automatically like you. *subscribed*
Hah, most interesting.
You know, I recall reading a dialogue that started similarly to this one somewhere, but I can’t recall where… it’s bothering me rather much. Ugh.
I see you’re from Ohio and forgive me for this rash stereotype (you see, I’m from Texas, small states are, well, small) but I was wondering if you went to my college? Since everyone in Ohio has not only heard of my [tiny, isolated] college but has probably attended as well.
Cedarville University.
Speaking of births, who would want to remember it, anyways? Perhaps we all forget because it was such a traumatic experience!
You’re from Ohio? I used to live in the Akron area (Kent, specifically) and visited Cleveland very often.
Cool, I was doing a play during that concert and didn’t get to go. I remember it well though.
How I wrote (or have nearly written) a book:
I started in college. Although I didn’t know it at the time, it was mostly crap but good practice. Same characters but different story from the one I’ve written today. I’m very close to my characters, consequently; I’ve been with them four years next week.
After I graduated, I started writing the silly thing for real. My problem was I didn’t write an outline, so I was going every which way because, even though I knew the ending, my idea of what was important to expound upon changed day-to-day. I ended up writing almost a whole novel of stuff I’m not using today, right there. Big mistake.
About five months ago I got the outline down. THAT has been the element I was missing. It’s so important to do that. Not only does it save you time, it helps you set goals.
So, no bios… although for one character I started a small bio, and stopped. But outline, yes.
It’s fun. You should try it.
Interesting conversation…Percy could have fought the logic with arguments involving inductive reasoning (“No one I know remembers being born, including people I have personally witnessed the births of, so to say I was not born because I do not remember being born is improbable”), or even some deductive reasoning (with the right assumptions, of course). Nonetheless, it is good to be reminded we know less then we think we do.
I would advise you try to write a novel sometime. It would be fun to see how your thoughts and writing style would work in attempting to make it.
And what does the title have to do with the post?
@mettaurJX17 -
Well, it is true that a baby is born when the mother gives birth…but as long as no one watches the baby every moment from the moment it’s born, we don’t know if it is sucked into another dimension and then replaced with a cognizant duplicate around age five or not. Cyril, I’m sure, could have coldly explained, “Have you had cameras on the baby that came out of the woman you call your mother since she gave birth?”
“No, I suppose not.”
You’re right that it would be a good probability argument, but Percy is not a very confident person. He would probably lose any argument as long as the other person appeared more sure of themself. Cyril knows this, since he is actually a friend of Percy’s, so he decided to have some fun just before Percy arrived to have a drink in the study by the fire (there was a fire nearby, I just didn’t find room to mention it).
There’s a movie called “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” which is a line from a poem by Alexander Pope, and the meaning of the quote is that if you don’t remember anything you will be very happy. Here Percy can’t remember being born and his sunshine for it is a bit less than eternal.
Thanks for the encouragment.