The First Hurdle

East was the first person I told about In Memorium snowballing into a full length novel. I tried to explain what I wanted to do with the story and what I wanted from the characters and he was well and truly stumped. He just didn't understand what my point was. I explained that I wanted Dasha to be a representation for lost or never received memories; she would interview clients for memory insertion and discover if she could ever undergo the same treatment. East asked me if it was like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. No it bloody isn't, I replied. It's the opposite. Clients are given memories as adults that they never had as children. He still couldn't see the difference and so I vaulted into a long and stumbling description of exactly what I meant. Problem was, I didn't know what I meant yet. I just knew it wasn't this:

At first there was a whole other part to the process. I wanted there to be donors who came and sold their memories which were then manipulated, matched to a client and uploaded into their brain like photos. East pointed out that this didn't make sense. How would these memories be recorded? And why would the process mean they had to be deleted? I rethought the basics and decided that donors were an unnecessary complication. Instead, clients described their ideal memory and the company would design it (think photoshop with a cerebral cortex instead of a palette) and copy it over. Obviously this kind of science doesn't exist yet but I don't like writing into the future. My way around it was to push the beginning of the story back to 1975 and invent the technology in the present day. Thus Dasha's first days at the company are in the mid 2000s. Let's say 2007. And what about the technology? I started my research into memory manipulation here:

“The human mind strives to maintain equilibrium between memory and oblivion and rejects irrelevant or disruptive memories. However, extensive amounts of stress hormones released at the time of a traumatic event can give rise to such powerful memory formation that traumatic memories cannot be rejected and do not vanish or diminish with time: Post-traumatic stress disorder may then develop. Recent scientific studies suggest that beta-blockers stopping the action of these stress hormones may reduce the emotional impact of disturbing memories or prevent their consolidation. Using such an intervention could, in principle, help people who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, but the idea of doing so is controversial.” - Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare and Ethics

All I need to do is create a procedure that achieves the exact opposite of this. Sounds easy enough. I'll let you know when I crack it.

Lara S.