A Flash called Clapper
Nabokov in Speak, Memory describes memory as brief intervals of flashes. “In probing my childhood (which is the next best to probing one’s eternity)I see the awakening of consciousness as a series of spaced flashes with the intervals between them gradually diminishing until bright blocks of perception are formed, affording memory a slippery hold.” One) brilliant and Two) how did this guy coming to English as a second language become so proficient? We all come to memory via differing triggers, but usually our earliest memories have a tenuous connection to speech. We have to know the name of something in order to attach the memory. The name can be gibberish, a native tongue, or a perceived name, but it is tied to verbalization, the concept that a thing is a thing. Outside of us. I had a flash memory the other day. Perhaps I am reliving my daughter’s childhood as I hold my grandson and try to understand what’s going on in that little head of his. I can bet it’s one ...