“In the sky you could watch history happen as though on the world’s most massive TV, and history’s wreckage could rain down on you at the park with your friends.”
memory
Posted inArts & Culture, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Sports, Story
Smell, Memory
Perfumers evoke the elegance of an imagined tennis game, not the stench of a real one.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Spark Connection
Kirsten Tranter is cleaning out her closet. But her clothes don’t spark joy, they spark memory.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes, Writing
Why Fiction Haunts Us: Pulitzer Prize Winner Viet Thanh Nguyen on His Ghosts
Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen talks about how ghosts and authors of fiction share a similar role in today’s culture.
Posted inFirst Chapters, Story
Wrestling With the Truth
A 1992 murder of a young boy unravels a journalist’s dark family secrets.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
When Alzheimer’s Disease Relieves Us of the Pain in Our Past
For Maria Browning’s mother, Alzheimer’s Disease has dimmed old torments.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Doll in Shadow
Maria Browning reflects on the fact that while Alzheimer’s Disease has stolen her mother’s memory, it has also relieved her of the pain of her past — something that Browning is unable to forget.
Posted inEditor's Pick
His Heart, Her Hands
Steve Goodwin was a talented musician, but he had never recorded or written anything down. As his memory began to fade, his family found a professional pianist, Naomi LaViolette, to work with him to save the music in his head.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes, Science & Nature
Learning About Memory from a Woman Who Lost Hers
Lonni Sue Johnson was a successful illustrator, when the herpes simplex virus attacked her brain; she lost almost her entire lifetime of knowledge, along with the ability to form new memories. Michael Lemonick describes how she’s invaluable to neuroscientists working to understand how we make and store memories.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Living In the Now
Lonni Sue can paint, but not name a painting; learn new music without knowing a tune. Scientific American opinion editor Michael Lemonick explore what she’s is teaching us about memory.