[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Severian

To me it seemed like he was suggesting a possibility.

eh? suchfriends is NEVER uncertain about anything-- that "maybe" was rhetorical, followed by a string of categorical judgments.

anyway, re: memory shifted/fractured -- sure, memory is selective, has to be sifted, etc..

but on a practical way, it can't be that inaccurate/fantastic, can it?

just imagine the ancient hunter gatherer: "this is the way we follow the caribou-- i remember from last year"-- and then they walk into a volcano crater and burn to cinders. or: "hey, i remember this fruit, it was delicious!" and then they all get poisoned. if memory was THAT inaccurate we'd be extinct.

we've evolved to have memory because it has some evolutionary advantage-- without it learning would be impossible. memory's function can't be the construction of a pure fantasyland. it has a correlate to reality, however imperfect. when it's overly distorted, it's a sign of mental illness.

also if memory is a fantasy then this would extend to lou as well-- and the biographers. so who is fantasizing more? who knows! right?

and yes, people have a way to block out trauma (mental illness)-- but seeing as how the lady in question is now a mental health professional with decades of experience, she must know a thing or two about that? she's probably had plenty of therapy herself, as it's a requirement to practice. hard to believe she's just peddling denial (but it could be).

last, the article from the ex-wife saying how "lewis" (i like how she calls him that) went back home and found a supportive atmosphere & even worked for his dad as a typist. if it had been such a terrifying home he wouldn't have returned there, would he? and the girl wasn't 12 then either.

last-last, the quote i found from lou reed about removing homosexuality with electroshock-- he attributes it to the hospital not his parents.

so yes, we color memory, it's selective, transformed, etc.-- but memory isn't pure nonsense either. if it was i wouldn't be able to typjasdn;v8eg;

i'm not saying this person is right this person is wrong-- we don't have access to an absolute truth here, but i do appreciate reading the sister's perspective in this story. no need to believe everything she says, but no need to dismiss her outright either. she was there, after all, and we weren't.