Bibliograph

A primer for forgetting, getting past the past, Lewis Hyde

Type

Label

A primer for forgetting, getting past the past, Lewis Hyde

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages [343]-357) and index

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

A primer for forgetting

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1053487922

Responsibility statement

Lewis Hyde

Sub title

getting past the past

Summary

"We live in a culture that prizes memory--how much we can store, the quality of what's preserved, how we might better document and retain the moments of our life while fighting off the nightmare of losing all that we have experienced. But what if forgetfulness were seen not as something to fear--be it in the form of illness or simple absentmindedness--but rather as a blessing, a balm, a path to peace and rebirth? Lewis Hyde's A Primer for Forgetting is a remarkable experiment in scholarship, autobiography, and social criticism by the author of the classics The Gift and Trickster Makes This World. It forges a new vision of forgetfulness by assembling fragments of art and writing from the ancient world to the modern, weighing the potential boons forgetfulness might offer the present moment as a creative and political force. It also turns inward, using the author's own life and memory as a canvas upon which to extol the virtues of a concept too long taken as an evil. Drawing material from Hesiod to Jorge Luis Borges to Elizabeth Bishop to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, from myths and legends to very real and recent traumas both personal and historical, A Primer for Forgetting is a unique and remarkable synthesis that only Lewis Hyde could have produced."--Page [2] of cover

Table Of Contents

What this is -- Notebook I: myth -- Notebook II: self -- Notebook III: nation -- Notebook IV: creator

Creator