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A review by katellison
The Unreality of Memory: And Other Essays by Elisa Gabbert
4.0
the essays in parts 1 & 2 go hard, especially Doomsday Pattern, Big & Slow, Witches & Whiplash, and Sleep No More.
Part 3 is disappointing in comparison, a petering out that mimics the subject of those essays -- Gabbert's increasing emotionlessness and inaction in the face of public and private disaster. It's perhaps meaningful that the ideas there, penned in 2018&19, have degraded in intrigue and freshness by the time of my encountering in 2022.
From the end of Sleep No More:
"But what of the theory that the memory of pain is worse than pain, which seems related to the idea that the fear of pain is effectively pain? Sufficiently keen anticipation of pain hurts.
My own past suffering is often a great source of comfort to me. This must mean I've never really suffered."
Part 3 is disappointing in comparison, a petering out that mimics the subject of those essays -- Gabbert's increasing emotionlessness and inaction in the face of public and private disaster. It's perhaps meaningful that the ideas there, penned in 2018&19, have degraded in intrigue and freshness by the time of my encountering in 2022.
From the end of Sleep No More:
"But what of the theory that the memory of pain is worse than pain, which seems related to the idea that the fear of pain is effectively pain? Sufficiently keen anticipation of pain hurts.
My own past suffering is often a great source of comfort to me. This must mean I've never really suffered."