Can memory be the key to immortality? I will not argue that expanding a person's memory will make them physically live longer, but it can help them to leave a legacy of memories that could last for an unlimited amount of time. This is my step-by-step guide to immortality:
1. Read everything on our syllabus. Look at you go-you have already completed this step. Congratulations!
2. Devise your own memory system. It looks like we are good on this one too! Great job!
3. Keep reading! Now you should read everything you possibly can and remember all the really great parts and how they made you feel. Remember, Yates tells us that memory brings about imagination.
4. Take a break-that was a lot of work.
5. Write, write, write. To live forever you must first know who you are. Remember, Ong tells us that writing makes us more introspective. (Ong loc 2008)
6. You must keep thinking memorable thoughts; do not stop here!
7. Observe nature and people.
8. Now all you have left to do is write an amazing story that will touch the souls of all generations to come, and have it published. Go on tour, read it to as many people as possible. Publish it on the Internet in hopes even more people will read it.
9. Repeat. Yes, repeat. I know it's a large task, but if you want to become immortal you will have to work for it. Shakespeare did not stop at his first sonnet.
10. Now that countless people love your stories enough to not only enjoy them, but to also pass them down, you are forever preserved in the culture of literature. It will not only be your story that is saved from great eraser we call time, but remember all those introspective writings you did? Those will be dug up and remembered as well so your deepest insights will be there for all to see. Your grand children will auction them to the highest bidder the moment you hit the grave and make a fortune. They will suppose they got a great deal, but they have just continued people's curiosity which will make sure your memory lives on.
This is my version of how to become immortal which is meant to be humorous, but there is something to it. I took all the advise from what we have read, thought in detail about the great stories I enjoy, and have attempted to show the potential power of words. I doubt anyone will stop reading Shakespeare (for example) any time soon. His words still ring in our hearts today; considering he died in 1616, I think that shows quite a bit of power and a bit of immortality (source of date-Wikipedia). Yates gives evidence in chapter sixteen that Shakespeare's theatre was a memory palace. If you want your works to last, it cannot hurt to take a few cues from The Bard of Avon. I think artwork depicting him tends to show he has a bit of something going on behind his eyes; as if he knew something grand. I think it is the lights from his internal memory palace and the hidden memories he left lying around in buildings here and there on his journeys. I am sure I am not the only one who has left the image of a giant jar of pickled garlic at their parent's house, along with all the other items on Foer's grocery list. So, go clean out your Mom's house before she catches you in the mess you have made, and then go confidently forth on the path to immortality. You can do it!
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