ENGL 1005 Literature: A Global Perspective - The Memory Police

Overview of The Memory Police

• Written by Yoko Ogawa, first published in Japan in 1994 and translated into English in 2019.
• Finalist for the National Book Award.
• Described as "an elegantly spare dystopian fable" by The New York Times Review of Books.

Author Background: Yoko Ogawa

• Born in 1962 in Japan.
• Recipient of nearly every literary award in Japan and several in North America.
• Author of 50 works of fiction and nonfiction.
• Influenced by American author Paul Auster, known for creating a spoken literature feel.

Setting and Themes

• Setting: An authoritarian regime on an unknown island that forces the disappearance of objects and their meanings from collective memory.
• Key Theme: The authoritarian regime's view on memory—"anything that fails to vanish when they say it should is inconceivable" (Ogawa 25).

Characters

• Narrator: A protagonist and novelist living alone after her parents' death.
• R: The narrator’s editor who retains memories of forgotten things.
• Old Man: The narrator's friend and accomplice.
• Memory Police: Antagonistic forces enforcing memory loss on the island.

Plot Overview

• The story illustrates the progressive removal of memories and objects.
• The Memory Police use force to control the population, and the narrator and Old Man hide R.
• The narrator writes a novel within the narrative about a Typist (frame narrative).

Science Fiction (SF) Genre

• Defined by alternate or altered realities:
  • Transformed human experiences due to technologies, ecological changes, or alien visitations.
  • Often explores utopian versus dystopian societies.
  • Highly imaginative yet rooted in real-world issues.

Defamiliarization in Literature

• Concept developed by Viktor Shklovsky; involves making the familiar strange to question habitual perceptions.
• Examples include Marcel Duchamp's Bicycle Wheel (1963) and René Magritte’s “The Treachery of Images” (1929).

Application of Defamiliarization in The Memory Police

1. Forgetting Concept: The ordinary act of forgetting is intensified, where people are forced to forget familiar items.
2. Memory Loss Effects: Example where the narrator loses memories of a bird: “everything I knew about them had disappeared…” (Ogawa 10).

Dystopian Themes

• Dystopia is characterized by oppressive control and societal flaws opposite to utopia.
• Key themes address authoritarianism, surveillance, collapse, and dehumanization, serving as cautionary tales reflecting societal issues.

Description of Memory Police

• Officers described: dressed in dark uniforms, using heavy weaponry; they are brutal in methods for enforcing memory loss.
• Memory Police's function explained employing an analogy of gaining health (cutting off an infected toe).

Commentary on Memory and Passivity

• Characters often reflect on the loss of feelings and sensations associated with memory.
• “Time is a great healer. It just flows on all of its own accord” (Ogawa 51).

Forms of Resistance

• Retaining memories of the past.
• Protecting those who can remember.

The Frame Narrative

• The dual narrative of the narrator and the girl reflects silence under oppression.
• Allegorical layers representing the enhancement of totalitarianism, likening the interactions in educational contexts to fascism.

Questions for Consideration

• How does loss of memory shape the characters’ identities?
• What significant items disappear in the second half of the novel?
• What does the novel caution against as a societal reflection?
• How are historical or current societal events represented in the text?

Future Discussions

• Post-Reading Week discussions to conclude The Memory Police and ongoing exploration of its themes and implications.