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Ratnakar Kumar Mphil 1st Sem Prof. Brinda Bose LH Presentation 11 November 2013 Understanding Adornos Memento through Christopher Nolans Memento Memento, as per the oxford dictionary means, A thing that you keep or give to somebody to remind you or them of a person or place. Etymologically, memento is derived from Latin meminisse which means to remember, recollect, think of, bear in mind. Now the process of remembering is a subjective process whereas to keep something as a token is an objective way of making oneself reminded of something or someone. Both the processes depend on the aspect of memory which is debated to be unreliable, if the facts are not available. At the same time, facts are something which is generated in accordance with the socio-politico-economical surroundings, making an objective aspect in present, a subjective one. To understand this more clearly if one takes into account Christopher Nolans movie Memento, one will notice that the character of Leonard (the protagonist) struggles to understand that his collections of facts are temporal and not something on which he should rely. I will not dwell more on the movie in this context. If you wish to read more on this, you can look at academia.edu which has a paper titled Fragments of Memento: exploring the origins of Subjective and Ideological Mediations by Landon S. Bevier. What interests me in the movie Memento is Leonards large collection of notes which serves as memento. Now if we relate this with a work of a researcher, we will find a striking

Kumar2 similarity between these two. One as a researcher also scraps down various facts in some notebook or the best available thing. Then for keeping it permanent, note it down to more reliable database. After this, what becomes significant is to carry the work based on this and also in the process collecting more notes. Coming back to the movie, I will read figures like Natalia and Teddy as warning figures for a researcher, which is neglected by Leonard as investigator. Sometimes a researcher gets so carried away in his research that he forgets what he was really trying to express; similarly in this movie those moments where Leonard is being chased, forgets that whether he is chasing or he is being chased. Also, towards the end when we as audience realize that it might be a possibility that his entire quest is just a process to give meaning to his life and he himself might have committed the murder. This is what Adorno warns the writer that: Anyone wishing to express something is so carried away by it that he ceases to reflect on it. Too close to his intention, in his thoughts, he forgets to say what he wants to say. Furthermore, as Leonard rubs away some facts depending on what he wishes to remember, a researcher also needs to do that. This is what Adorno says, if something exists that does not mean that it has to be a part of the work. Even sometimes a crucial point has to be neglected depending on researchers need. Moreover, there might be various ideas conveying the same meaning and showing authors incomprehensibility in coming to a conclusion. In that case, the best is chosen and developed. The movie Memento clearly shows this incomprehensibility. This movie constantly repeats certain actions with different angles in the quest of finding the mystery. The problem with the movie is it remains ambiguous, which in turn makes it a masterpiece to watch. Movie is a story and not a literary essay. It is a story and it has the liberty to do that. But when we write an essay talking on that movie it has to be different. It cannot be ambiguous and so has to opt for the best and develop it.

Kumar3 Thus, in the context of a critical work, Adorno says that discarding some ideas in turn, will give space to those which were repressed. Adorno mentions that: No improvement is too small or trivial to be worthwhile and so even clichs should be avoided by focusing on the structuring rather than being confined to single words. A writer has to keep balance between style and ideas. At the same time, if a text has the slightest misgivings then one should not neglect it. This has to be dealt very seriously otherwise it might amount to objective worthlessness of the whole. The worthiness of a text depends on authors effectiveness in expressing his meaning. According to Adorno, when this is achieved by any text, then that is beautiful and different from being too beautiful. Now the texts which are termed as such are perfect and their perfectness lie in justifying the relation of one object, whether that is a quotation or a statement or an argument, to other objects surrounding it. As Adorno says, In the light that it casts on its chosen substance, others begin to glow. Developing from these ideas, Adorno draws parallels between setting up a home and a writers writing. He places furniture and writers documents, pencils, books, papers on the same podium. The writer in the process of ordering these might re-arrange or ruin them or do both. His written piece becomes his home; but a home without a store house in present condition. Thats why he has to eliminate anything that has begun to encrust upon the work or to drift along idly. So, in the end, writer is not even allowed to live in his writing. If we consider this statement in the context of the movie, then we will see that Leonard, towards the end of the movie, appears to have gone beyond the world that he has created around him and struggles to come back to it. Similarly, for a writer, his own world betrays him or we can say that he is pushed out from his home. This statement of Adorno can also be read in the political context of the rising market. Writer becoming a producer in the market has to manifest his work accordingly; he might have to frame his thoughts; he no longer enjoys his freedom. Use of limited expression serves as a question on freedom of expression but at the

Kumar4 same time it has a symbolic value to it. When something is said in fewer words, they hold a lot of meaning in themselves. So, on paper which might appear as limited, in other context it might be expressive. Politics of expressing something revolutionary does not depend on the length of your expression, but on the content. At the same time, there is a paradox in it. Revolution is associated with the mass but the mass may not be able to find the way in the spiders web. To move in that home one needs to be a spider or at least to have spiders skills. This is a kind of argument given against the use of Jargon.