Memory

Isn't it amazing when a smell or a sound unpredictably reminds you of a time or a place which you once associated with that trigger? It happens at the most unpredictable times and can bring back memories, which are detail-perfect, or so minute that it seems incredible that the 2kg mass in your head bothers to store it. This just happened to me.

So I just clicked random on itunes and Will Young came on. [I would like to take this moment to make a disclaimer. My music taste is varied; I am aware that I appear to like some seriously bad pop but I like to think that I have a broad enough, and generally decent, taste in music for me to fall into the 'open-minded' category thus exempting me from any possible judgement from anyone]. Anyway, Will Young came on, 'Who am I' to be precise, and without being aware of the transition, I was immediately reading George Orwell's '1984' again on my friend's bedroom floor when I was 16. My memory of this is so lucid that I remember where I was sitting while I read, and what was happening in the story. I find this particularly strange because I can only recall the bare bones of the rest of the book. Afterwards, 'All Time Love' came on and I can actually feel the dull-ache of heartbreak that I once felt for the main characters and their predicament. The fact that I couldn't even remember their names (subsequent research - Winston & Julia), shows that I am remembering the emotion that I was feeling for the characters more than the facts. I find it amazing, if not slightly creepy, that this emotion that I had felt for two fictional characters has decided to lodge itself firmly in the depths of my brain (hippocampus to be precise (Bsc in neuroscience (nob, I know))). This associative emotional memory must be what makes mourning so hard to bear...

Anyway. This is not the first time that this has happened to me. I have seriously strong associations with Keane's first album, particularly 'Sunshine', and one of my favourite holidays in Grenada when I was 15. The same with the Ralph Lauren  'Blue' perfume I used to wear when I was 14 at boarding school.

I am going to do a bit of self-imposed research to find out what causes all this to happen. I'll report back at some point in the future. I am fully aware that people have a reluctance to comment on these things, or CBA, but if anyone cares to share their associative memories with me, please do, I'm genuinely interested.

As an aside; for those who haven't read 1984, do. Also, for those who watched the 'Who am I' video, notice how unrelated the song and the video are, poor effort. I wonder if I am the first person to ever associate Will Young and 1984 so strongly...probably literary sacrilege...ah well