{"id":314,"date":"2017-02-02T07:20:19","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T07:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/?p=314"},"modified":"2017-02-02T20:23:10","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T20:23:10","slug":"how-do-you-remember-it-the-construction-of-truth-in-a-head-full-of-ghosts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/2017\/02\/02\/how-do-you-remember-it-the-construction-of-truth-in-a-head-full-of-ghosts\/","title":{"rendered":"How Do you Remember it? The Construction of Truth in “A Head Full of Ghosts”"},"content":{"rendered":"

In A Head Full of Ghosts<\/em>, Paul Tremblay destabilizes the belief that there exists one version of reality, providing instead various conflicting accounts and retellings of one event to highlight the subjective and constructed nature of truth. When multiple \u201ccorrect\u201d versions of a situation exist, anything becomes possible; both logical and irrational explanations (mental illness versus a spirit possession) have equal authority. Horror is achieved through the realization that there are no limits, only different sides to the same story.<\/p>\n

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The concept of truth is less tangible and exact than we want to believe. Different versions blur together. Takemoto, Akio. Blurry People. 2015. Flickr. Web. 2 Feb. 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The characters in A Head Full of Ghosts<\/em> struggle to find the \u201ctrue\u201d story of Marjorie. Rachel makes it her mission to locate \u201cAn accurate account of what happened\u201d (Tremblay 111) and Merry\u2019s mother documents events in a red notebook (46). Merry grapples with this struggle for the \u201ccorrect\u201d version of events as well, questioning her memory each time it contradicts the accounts of those around her and the TV show\u2019s interpretation. \u00a0Merry undermines the validity of her memories by acknowledging that they \u201c\u201c\u2026were mixed together with what other people told [her] about what had happened, and [she] included pop culture and media\u201d\u201d as influences (Tremblay 112). She often hesitates as she recounts her experience, offering excuses each time her memory differs from recorded happenings including\u00a0\u201cmisremembering\u201d (Tremblay 72) and the possibility that she blocked out the trauma or even confused reenactment with reality (73). Self-doubt, amplified by the 15 years that have passed since the incident, cause Merry to falter in her conviction.<\/p>\n

Merry\u2019s hesitation introduces a central dilemma: what happens when we can\u2019t remember and\u00a0when our memory fails us? In his article \u201cThe Storyteller: Reflections on the Works of Nikolai Leskov,\u201d Walter Benjamin describes memory as a \u201c\u2026tradition which passes a happening on from generation to generation\u201d (Benjamin 371). However, in A Head Full of Ghosts<\/em>, the memory of what happened to Marjorie is passed via technology\u2014the camera and the tape recorder. This shift from human memory to technological storage removes the human responsibility of \u201c\u2026reproducing the story\u201d through memory (Benjamin 370). Technology serves as a vault of memories and traumas that will never be fully processed or interpreted outside of their factual value as information or cheep entertainment.<\/p>\n

It is perhaps more accurate to say that technology preserves rather than remembers. Memories are rooted in emotion, tied to the feelings experienced in the moment. Because they are tied to emotion, memories are physical experiences that allow us to relive a situation in the past. Technology, however, can\u2019t capture feeling, only fact. For example, when Merry uses her video camera to capture Marjorie\u2019s invasion of her room one night, she is disappointed re-watching it, noting, \u201cIt didn\u2019t look as scary as I remember it\u201d (Tremblay 149). The video is unable to address Merry\u2019s fear and anger, and as a result, it\u2019s literal depiction no longer represents the truth. Without Merry\u2019s emotional response, the recording fails to capture the integrity of the event.<\/p>\n

This limitation in technology\u2019s \u201cmemory\u201d is reminiscent of Black Mirror<\/em>. In her grief, Martha finds solace in the thought that Ash can be forever preserved, his memory left intact. The fear of forgetting him is removed as a burden. However, not unlike humans, technology has a selective memory and we soon realize that the synthesized version of Ash is missing the very qualities that made him who he was when living. Just like the cameras of the reality TV show The Possession<\/em> in Tremblay\u2019s book, Marjorie and Ash are remembered through their exterior, public construction of themselves. This concept of remembrance circles us back to the Benjamin reading, which introduces the term to signify what we remember and preserve of a person when they are dead or gone. Benjamin uses the example of the \u201cMan\u2026who died at thirty-five [who] will appear to remembrance at every point in his life as a man who died at the age of thirty-five. In other words, the statement that makes no sense for real life becomes indisputable for remembered life\u201d (Benjamin 373). In the context of A Head Full of Ghosts,<\/em> the confusion and hesitation of the real-life trauma experienced\u00a0by the Barrett family is distorted into a single, condensed and indisputable account of the event by the single lens of technology. This one incident in Marjorie’s fourteen years on earth becomes her entire essence and identity in her absence.<\/p>\n

Works Cited:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBe Right Back.\u201d\u00a0Black Mirror, s<\/i>eason 2, episode 1, \u00a0Netflix.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Benjamin, Walter, and Hannah Arendt. “The Storyteller: Reflections on the Works of Nikolai Leslov.” Illuminations<\/em>. Trans. Harry Zohn. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968. 83-109. Print.<\/p>\n

Tremblay, Paul. A Head Full of Ghosts: A Novel<\/em>. New York, NY: William Morrow, 2015. Print.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In A Head Full of Ghosts, Paul Tremblay destabilizes the belief that there exists one version of reality, providing instead various conflicting accounts and retellings of one event to highlight the subjective and constructed nature of truth. When multiple \u201ccorrect\u201d versions of a situation exist, anything becomes possible; both logical and irrational explanations (mental illness … <\/p>\n

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