I am going to host a live chat (text, no video) here, one week from today, Friday, August 22, at 1 pm USA eastern time . It’s going to be just for paid subscribers this time. I suggest a very loose topic: Forgetting. But we can veer off immediately if it feels right, and talk about whatever. This will be the first attempt at a substack chat for me and by the time the appointed time comes along (next Friday the 22nd at 1 pm eastern time) I will hopefully have figured out how to set it up and then do it right. You might have to do it through the app; I’m not sure yet but I will get all the info I can and let you know.
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I will say this about that: Forgetting is one of the natural benefits of aging - some of the difficult or awkward occasions fade away or lose their potency. "Remembering" can also become enhanced, bringing back random events, people, and places with astonishing clarity. I believe this is the phenomenon referred to by Vonnegut in "Slaughterhouse Five" when he says Billy Pilgrim had become "unstuck in time." Would it be nice or totally dicey if we could chose what to forget or remember? This is one of the themes explored in Phillip K. Dick's sci-fi, "We can remember it for you wholesale."
I hope I don't forget the date and time!