The Woman Who Can’t Forget

In an interview on Memory and the Digital Age

Jill Price’s The Woman Who Can’t Forget has echoes of your first choice, but she is the real-life version.

Exactly. Borges made the story of Funes up but this is all about someone who really can’t forget anything in real life. She is woman who quite literally remembers almost everything that ever happened to her. She has been studied by scientists and by the popular press. Now she has written her autobiography with the help of a journalist. 

The book is remarkable because of how vividly she is able to remember every single thing. Far from an eternal blessing, every of her past incorrect decisions continue to haunt her in the present and end up impeding her ability to decide what to do next. Again, there is this idea of total recall being problematic for us humans. She feels like she is shackled to the past and at times would love to have an erase button so she could forget it all – but she can’t. We see the same happening in our digital age. For example, many of us would love to get rid of those embarrassing memories of drunken parties and stupid photos but they are forever documented for all to see on Facebook!