I loved the chapter- there was nothing wrong with the previous two, but this the mixed bag of very good stuff pointing in multiple directions that I hadn’t realized I was missing. I’m talking about psychological/philosophical/emotional material more than the potential plot twists.
I’ve suddenly realized that this is a chapter in which almost nothing happens in terms of physical action- it’s all talk and thought and emotion (and a bit of humming), and it’s incredibly engrossing.
Is Hermione’s inability to think that she might have been bespelled part of the spell, or normal psychological reaction?
Would fake memories have the same kind and amount of detail as real memories?
Harry saying that the first year girls should put their reputations on the line about Hermione is so perfectly Harry...
Is Hermione’s inability to think that she might have been bespelled part of the spell, or normal psychological reaction?
Would fake memories have the same kind and amount of detail as real memories?
I would hypothesise that, to an ordinary person who has not learned about the fallibility of memory in general, the idea that something that feels like a completely real memory would be false is a very challenging one. Thinking “have I been memory-charmed?” is like thinking “I could be wrong about absolutely anything I remember” for the first time. It would be very difficult, and exactly the kind of thought one flinches away from.
From personal experience, I remember recalling a very emotionally charged MSN conversation months later, and thinking about an agreement I’d made with someone in it. But searching through the logs (and I logged everything), I could find no mention of any such agreement ever. It was pretty traumatic to discover that my memory was so fallible on something so important, and I’m not sure I could have accepted it without such firm evidence.
In regard to detail, I’m not sure people ever go through their memories and say “huh, this memory lacks detail so something must be off”. Unless some key feature is missing (say, Hermione being unable to recall the words of the curse she used), I imagine any given detail’s absence could be easily rationalised.
Thinking “have I been memory-charmed?” is like thinking “I could be wrong about absolutely anything I remember” for the first time. It would be very difficult, and exactly the kind of thought one flinches away from.
Beliefs don’t feel like beliefs. They feel like how the world is.
I don’t think it’s quite eidetic—she says as much herself. It’s just ridiculously good. I think if she had literally perfect recall of all her experiences, rather than merely amazing recall of information she consciously tried to absorb, she would be less of a normal 11-year old girl. For example, she’d have perfect recall of every mistake she’d ever made, and every time anyone had ever hurt her. I imagine she would be much warier of doing anything with the potential to leave traumatic memories.
With that said, it’s worth noting that no-one has ever proved having long-term eidetic memory in repeated scientific tests, so all our speculations on the subject must rely on anecdotal evidence and fictional examples.
Perhaps she is only ridiculously exhausted, low on brain juices.
She is not used to being low on brain juices because she has never been either undernourished or pushed so hard. It is a novel experience, which can be frightening.
Yeah, memory is fallible as hell. This is why I love having conversation logs and why I have contemplated trying to figure out a way to log my entire life (so I could do that for real conversations as well).
It’d be illegal in most countries, but getting very small mics is not that hard. I’ve used it myself for testing if I had a better idea generation state of mind while running/doing sports than when penning.
My comment from fanfic.net:
I loved the chapter- there was nothing wrong with the previous two, but this the mixed bag of very good stuff pointing in multiple directions that I hadn’t realized I was missing. I’m talking about psychological/philosophical/emotional material more than the potential plot twists.
I’ve suddenly realized that this is a chapter in which almost nothing happens in terms of physical action- it’s all talk and thought and emotion (and a bit of humming), and it’s incredibly engrossing.
Is Hermione’s inability to think that she might have been bespelled part of the spell, or normal psychological reaction?
Would fake memories have the same kind and amount of detail as real memories?
Harry saying that the first year girls should put their reputations on the line about Hermione is so perfectly Harry...
I would hypothesise that, to an ordinary person who has not learned about the fallibility of memory in general, the idea that something that feels like a completely real memory would be false is a very challenging one. Thinking “have I been memory-charmed?” is like thinking “I could be wrong about absolutely anything I remember” for the first time. It would be very difficult, and exactly the kind of thought one flinches away from.
From personal experience, I remember recalling a very emotionally charged MSN conversation months later, and thinking about an agreement I’d made with someone in it. But searching through the logs (and I logged everything), I could find no mention of any such agreement ever. It was pretty traumatic to discover that my memory was so fallible on something so important, and I’m not sure I could have accepted it without such firm evidence.
In regard to detail, I’m not sure people ever go through their memories and say “huh, this memory lacks detail so something must be off”. Unless some key feature is missing (say, Hermione being unable to recall the words of the curse she used), I imagine any given detail’s absence could be easily rationalised.
Beliefs don’t feel like beliefs. They feel like how the world is.
And it’s especially surreal to Hermione, because she has eidetic memory.
I don’t think it’s quite eidetic—she says as much herself. It’s just ridiculously good. I think if she had literally perfect recall of all her experiences, rather than merely amazing recall of information she consciously tried to absorb, she would be less of a normal 11-year old girl. For example, she’d have perfect recall of every mistake she’d ever made, and every time anyone had ever hurt her. I imagine she would be much warier of doing anything with the potential to leave traumatic memories.
With that said, it’s worth noting that no-one has ever proved having long-term eidetic memory in repeated scientific tests, so all our speculations on the subject must rely on anecdotal evidence and fictional examples.
It takes her a few seconds to remember the Asch Conformity Experiment and that was a long enough delay to be frightening.
Perhaps she is only ridiculously exhausted, low on brain juices.
She is not used to being low on brain juices because she has never been either undernourished or pushed so hard. It is a novel experience, which can be frightening.
Or, recently created memories esp of false-memory-charm origin are likely to be in the forefront, and push everything else to the background.
Yeah, memory is fallible as hell. This is why I love having conversation logs and why I have contemplated trying to figure out a way to log my entire life (so I could do that for real conversations as well).
It’d be illegal in most countries, but getting very small mics is not that hard. I’ve used it myself for testing if I had a better idea generation state of mind while running/doing sports than when penning.
I’m pretty sure he was inviting everyone in Ravenclaw.