February 24, 2015

"Photos seem to be shifting us to that observer perspective, distancing us in some way, so it’s clearly a reconstructed memory."

"There’s an 'observer,' third-person perspective versus a 'field perspective' through your own eyes."
This reconstruction may be even more drastic for children, who not only will observe a photo or video of themselves from the point of view of whoever is holding the camera, but one that is from a taller adult.

It may not seem like a major distinction, but it serves as a metaphor for how an image can alter our perspective and exclude our first-person recollection.

26 comments:

Peter said...

Aren't all memories (except perhaps very short term ones) reconstructed?

traditionalguy said...

Lots of big words to say that Walt Disney's FantasyLand spirit has glamorized Walter Mitty.

Pettifogger said...

Even as a child, I had memories of when I was two-years old and we were at the Aztec pyramids at Teotihuacan. This would have been about 1950.

My mother was teasing me, trying to get me to put my hand into the mouth of a jaguar sculpture. I wouldn't do it.

Then I saw a home movie of the episode. Since then I have been unsure whether I'm remembering the event or the movie of the event. I have other memories of the trip of which there is no movie, so I don't know.

madAsHell said...

This is waaayy to meta for me.

My Dad was a big 16mm fan. There is nothing in those films that I don't remember. Of course, I viewed those films several times as a kid.

madAsHell said...

Dammit!!

This is waaayy too meta for me.

ken in tx said...

I remember sitting in a high chair, I have no idea of my age. There were no photos or movies of that. I had a double lined baby dish that you put hot water in the keep the food warm. Seeing that later may have refreshed the memory, when I was a toddler.

Amexpat said...

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world’s
A sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to a photograph
So mama, don’t take my Kodachrome away

Laslo Spatula said...

I have no childhood memories. No glimmers, nothing.

My memory begins at fifth-grade, like someone turned on a garden hose.

This was true before the medications.


I am Laslo.

Laslo Spatula said...

My older sister shows me photographs from when I was a child. There are many from third-grade where we were at Disneyland with my grandparents.

Don't recognize any of it, but I seemed to be having a good time.

I am Laslo.

madAsHell said...

Don't recognize any of it, but I seemed to be having a good time.


...and that is why you are Lazlo!!

Wince said...

Is this about Brian Williams again?

Laslo Spatula said...

My first real memory is of laying on my back of the grass of our small suburban California front lawn. It was a clear night sky that was overtaken by clouds, and the clouds parted and the Face of God appeared to me, and Spoke.

Scoff, scoffers, but it is what happened.

The next day I laid on that same grass and received a November bee sting.

I am Laslo.

Laslo Spatula said...

In the womb I was meant to be one of twins, but evidently I consumed my sibling, leaving a tiny tooth inside me.

Did I consume the Second Coming of Christ while in the womb?

It would explain some things, while leaving much a mystery.


I am Laslo.

Laslo Spatula said...

Probably a good time to take my pills.

I am Laslo.

Smilin' Jack said...

""Photos seem to be shifting us to that observer perspective, distancing us in some way, so it’s clearly a reconstructed memory.""

Wut??

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rcommal said...

I remember posts in which Althouse talked about being at Brookside Elementary School. Her oldest posts are ever harder to find, to the point that it's easier to locate a grade portrait to validate memory (for which I'm grateful, by the way) than to bring up posts worth remembering. Helluva thing, but so it goes. I guess that's how it's supposed to work.

rcommal said...

That "easier" makes me sad.

tim in vermont said...

My earliest visual memory was of the green wooden screen door at the front door of the house which I was looking through when my mother told me she was pregnant with my little sister. I would have been 3 and a half. Mixed in with that memory is the sound of the screen door slamming, which I think is just associated with the door, not the event.

One time my heart stopped for about 30 seconds due to a pain drug administered by a hospital and my life flashed before my eyes and now I have a clear memory of my toe-headed brother and I in a pasture ducking under a bob wire fence through tall grass to get away from a "bull" by a creek near where I grew up.

I always remembered that little adventure, but the flash event filled it in with a clear image of my brother rather than a sort of verbal description of the event and an image of the fence and the "bull." Of course I have no idea whether it was really a bull, it was probably a cow, but that is what we thought.

rhhardin said...

You can have an out-of-camera experience though.

Bob Boyd said...

"the Face of God appeared to me, and Spoke."

What did He say?
Was it funny?

rastajenk said...

And is there an official transcript?

CWJ said...

rastajenk,

That would be the Koran.

Pettifogger said...

Re Tim in Vermont's memory of a "bob wire" fence.

Do they say that in Vermont? I grew up in Texas, and I had to puzzle out what was really meant by "bob wahr.". I don't remember how old I was when I finally figured out that they had to mean barbed wire.

mikee said...

I went to a small parochial school from 1st through 8th grade. The desks in the first grade classroom got smaller every year I was there.

Yeah, perspectives change.

I also laugh inwardly at my son's & daughter's novel experiences in life. Been there, done that, usually, remember the feels.

ken in tx said...

Re Pettifogger, I grew up in Alabama and I thought that All, Oil, and Awl were homonyms. I also thought that Tire and Fire rhymed with Car. Also, the word Miles had a silent S on the end, as in "Birmingham is about 60 mile that'a way."