Getting back into reading, & figured this blog would be a fine place to put thoughts on whatever I’ve recently finished.

The Memory Police is about an unnamed island where objects disappear, and a “memory police” that enforces the destruction of disappeared objects, as well as kidnapping special individuals who are unable to forget about the disappeared items.

I haven’t read many non-western authors, beyond this and Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Neither are particularly narrative-focused, which is a nice change of pace. I appreciate the “vibes” focus for their respective worlds.

The memory police

I do wish the narrative would explore more of the world. Some readers took issue with the unexplained purpose or origins of the memory police. Personally, it was enough to whet my appetite, and a good excuse to let my mind run wild.

While not the most goal oriented, it’s certainly one of the ways a totalitarian government could handle unexplainable phenomenon like the island’s “disappearances”: hunt down contraband to maximize social order, & isolate those who cannot conform.

The disappearances

I also didn’t mind the mucky origins, or mechanics, of disappearances. It felt almost like an eldritch horror.

Notably, those who could not forget were the ones most alarmed as more and more disappeared from the island. Those who could forget were okay with it, even if the disappeared item was their livelihood, such as hats for a hatmaker.

Spoilers below!

I found myself quickly forgetting the minutia of the novel, but consistently turning over pieces in my head: the themes, feelings from R, and the protagonist’s current novel.

The “disappearance” of limbs and body especially made me uncomfortable. Framed another way, I was incapable of forgetting, or understanding how islanders could accept such events.

I loved that the protagonist could finish writing a novel, yet incapable of moving her leg as that disappeared. Was she truly “normal” for doing so? Or only capable of filling one “hole” left by the disappearances, because she used to be a novelist?

My mind immediately turns to real world examples of totalitarianism, where absence of knowing any other way of life is a large hurdle. There is barely a concept of fighting against the disappearances, either by remembering or leaving the island. I enjoyed the stark contrast between defiance of the memory police, and struggled defiance against the disappearances.