Saturday, January 12, 2008

Memoir

"A man’s memory is bound to be a distortion of his past in accordance with his present interests, and the most faithful autobiography is likely to mirror less what a man was than what he has become."

~Fawn M. Brodie (1915–81), U.S. biographer. No Man Knows My History, ch. 19 (1945).

3 comments:

Syra said...

welcome to the blogging club =)

There is truth in that quote by fawn m brodie.
I will quote one of my friends. He(khany)said "everytime we reflect on the past we have the potential to change it. a lesson learnt from experience that shapes our actions today changes how we appreciate our past. and what is the past if not our appreciation of its relevance for the future?"

Isbah Omer said...

I think that a man's memory has more to do with what he thinks of himself rather than what he actually is... and an autobiography is usually a reflection of how he wants others to percieve his personality and his life as opposed to how it actually is percieved generally by people around him.

I also love what SairaStar quoted of Khany's. A lesson learnt from past can surely change our future in many ways.

P.s: Welcome aboard. Good to know that this place is baby proof.. [ducky lafter...]

Syra said...

I agree to Isbah and to the quote.

Some do distort (fake) their part to suit themselves and to their liking which is far from reality where as Sometimes we don't understand our present and only do so when we reflect back years later. I believe ,as time proceeds our perception of our own past changes since we live through to find all the pieces (moments of life, the good, the bad) fitting together and resultantly making the bigger picture more clearer. Sometimes a horrible thing happens to us, and years later we realize it was actually a good thing.So now when we reflect back, the horrible thing that happened doesn't feel horrible any more.