A Primer for Forgetting: Getting Past the Past

This book, which is more of collection of mini-essays than a continuous narrative, looks at the function of forgetting in human society. We might think that memory and remembering are far more important to us, but Lewis Hyde shows us how many things we need to forget in order to be able to live with other people, to tell a coherent story, to simply get on with things. In the Hyde style that I love, he uses stories and examples from ancient and modern civilizations, literature, and his own life to illustrate.

I was sceptical about the form of the book at first. I prefer longer narratives to short vignettes–I like to have time to orient myself in a piece of writing, and it's hard to do that if the piece is too short. However, in the sections on Myth, Self, Nation, and Creation, the page-long reflections are interrelated if not continuous, so I never felt myself floundering to understand where I was in the process of the book.

Aphorisms accompany each section. There is a good sized bibliography and an index. I came away from this book with a new appreciation for forgetting in all its forms: allowing old stories to change, leaving details out to allow a particular story to emerge, letting things go that no longer serve any use, and more. The copy I read was from a library, but I am going to buy one for myself.