Chain of Memories, Warning Tediousness Ahead

[sub_divided]

...you will be manipulated into obsessing over Kingdom Hearts just like everyone else! (I know, I know. Another one bites the dust. But you can watch the gameboy advanced game as a movie and it only takes three hours! Three hours, might I add, of not having to write exposition.)

As diversions go, Chain of Memories was pretty entertaining. XD but you sort of have to care about the issues, or it just becomes tedious. Since I happen to care about memory I lot, I liked it. The story is divided between Sora and Riku: Sora is looking for Riku, but the further into Castle Oblivion he goes the more he forgets what he's looking for; meanwhile, Riku must struggle with his inner darkness.

I described the plot to my mother as a "movie" and she immediately asked whether I really meant to say "anime". ^^; it is an anime-ish plot. But structured progressive memory loss (and with it, loss or corruption of purpose) isn't a phenomenon confined to anime. Did anyone else see Neverending Story II? The main character in that movie is sucked into the Neverland world because he's trying to escape from his fear of the high-dive (LAME). He is given a quest and also, an object that allows him to wish for things -- spray cans, swords, whatever he thinks will be useful -- but in return, he loses one memory every time he makes a wish. Eventually he forgets why he's even on this quest in the first place, and then the evil woman who gave him the object...but anyway, Sora's story is like that. He's tricked into entering the castle and lied to to keep him there, and as he progresses his real memories are replaced with fake ones that draw him deeper into the castle, until he's forgotten nearly everything except for the fake memories. It is really arresting because you know what's going on, but Sora doesn't.

What kept me amused, though ('cause I'm not fooling myself thinking this stuff is deep or anything: it was about as deep as Riku's half of the story, which bored me silly what with all of the "you belong to the darkness" "no, the light will never abandon you!" "no, darkness!" "no, light!" talk (ALTHOUGH OMG THE ENDING, that is so cool, I want to be Sora so I can have a pet Riku of my very own!)) was thinking about all this memory stuff in a larger context. Although I have blocked out most of that class on modern intellectualism that nearly killed my soul, I do remember that towards the end there was a section on memory, which the professor claimed was one of the "dominating forces of current intellectual discourse". As I matter of fact, I still have about half of the reading we were assigned that day:

Patrick H. Hutton - The Art of Memory Reconceived: From Rhetoric to Psychoanalysis
Pierre Nora - Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Memoire
Kerwin Klein - On the Emergence of Memory in Historical Discourse

This one has no bearing on KH, but is referred to by the other three and was also assigned that day: Collective Memory and Cultural Identity. (Actually, I saved most of the reading for that class to my webspace if you want to take a look. Distributing it like this is illegal, but whatever!)


The first article talks about the evolution of memory from a necessary tool for discourse (because dictionaries/Google/Wikipedia did not exist yet) to something used to justify nationalism (by way of collective memory, which was a stand-in for the idea of a national character[1]) to an instrument of self-analysis. He makes the point that while Frueud thought of forgetfulness as imposed ("the unconscious mind retains all memories, and the act of forgetting is an act of repression"), this is no longer considered to be the case. Now it is remembering that is purposeful. Currently, identity and memory are linked ("our sense of identity is profoundly tied to specific experiences in our past which we believe it is crucial to maintain in present conditions"); there are also counter-memory people who argue that obsession with memories is dangerous, though this view is itself dangerous ("Focault questioned the intrinsic value of remembering... The current popular obsession with maladies of amnesia may well be a legitimate medical worry, but it is also a metaphor for the cultural malaise of our time.") [Note that "our time" = the eighties, I don't believe we are trying to achieve mass amnesia anymore.] He uses the word "oblivion" several times, in reference to the purposeful destruction of memories as opposed to their repression.

The second article also talks about how memory has become linked with psychology, and how this is replacing the idea of memory and history being the same (in French they were the same word until very recently, though this isn't true in many other languages, including English). "One of the costs of the historical metamerphosis of memory has been a wholesale preoccupation with the individual psychology of remembering. Indeed, the two phenomenon are so innately linked that one can hardly avoid comparing them, down to their exact chronological coincidence." He also claims that the reason we are so obsessed with memory is that changes are happening faster, within single lifetimes; confronted with visible differences from the past, we question ourselves and our traditions and our memory and etc. "The total psychologicalization of contemporary memory entails a completely new economy of the identity of the self, the mechanics of memory, and the relevance of the past...the atomization of a general memory into a private one has has given the obligation to remember the power of internal coercion. The less memory is experienced collectively, the more it will require individuals to undertake to become themselves memory-individuals..." He ends on a really dramatic note, saying that privatizing memory is leading to the spectacular bereavement of literature (which I don't believe for a second). Oh, and he talks about memory-sites (think Vietnam Wall), which are these days all about the personal act of remembering, rather than the real event they are supposedly enshrining.

The third article is almost entirely concerned with changes in the way memory has been talked about by other intellectual historians. It presents five or six different theories for why memory has virtually taken over academic discourse (no idea if this is still true - apintrix?). One theory is that Memory is the new Human Soul (something that lets spirituality creep back into discourse), one is that it's the new National Consciousness (collective memory again), one is that it emerged from our preoccupation with Identity (but the two are linked and memory came first, so this is a somewhat circular argument), one that it has something to do with Trauma and the 20th century being partcularly traumatic ("First, "traumatic events" of recent history (that is, the holocaust and the increased awareness of the prevalence of child abuse) have staged their belated return as memory discourse. Second, interest in "lieux de memoire" [memory-sites] has also turned our attention towards memory.") He ends by saying maybe people like it because it turns big events into personal journeys, which makes them easier to talk about ("Memory can come to the fore in an age of historiograohic crisis precisely because it figures as a therapeutic alternative to historical discourse") and that we should BEWARE! this use of memory.

...what I learned from all this is that squishy is too an academic word.

To get somewhat back on track, memory is a Big Thing, and it is particularly big in Japan, where is currently being expressed as a desire to face up to Japan's WWII atrocities, or at least to consider how fifty years of whitewashed textbooks may have harmed the national character. (So my professor said, anyway. I will note that our Japanese exchange student wrote her final paper on memory and WWII (I wrote mine on Intellectual Identity Crises, OH GOD IT WAS AWFUL.))

The best way to express how Kingdom Hearts figures in all this is with screenshots.










THE IRONY, IT BURNS. What is false becomes real and what is real becomes false! Sora, get a clue! (HE NEVER. DOES.)





SING IT, SISTER.

As the game goes on, and Sora's delusions deepen (HAHA, there is even a line where one of the Organization members confronts him saying YOU ARE DELUSIONAL <-- in caps, just like that), even Goofy and Donald (who have by this point forgotten they were looking for King Mickey) sense that there is something amiss. Although they confront Sora on this point, the very nature of the problem makes it impossible for him to believe them.



Yes, be rational! Reflect! Don't accept what you're told, even if it's your "heart" that's telling you! Sadly, Sora doesn't listen at all, because he already "knows" the truth.

Fortunately, Sora's memories weren't obliterated, they were just submerged. Namine tells him this when she gives a different, much less dark, explanation for the title "Chain of Memories":




Awwww! I will point out that there's something...a little false about all of this. For instance, Sora Goofy & Donald make a new preomise to always look out for each other, even when they can't remember each other -- somehow I don't think it works like that. And Goofy and Donald swear they won't let Sora forget, but yanno, the last time they tried to tell him something that went against what he remembered he DIDN'T LISTEN TO THEM.



Yeah Japan! Throw out those fake textbooks! ...I'm sorry, I realize that this is not really what the game is about (not even a little bit), but I just...enjoy...making these kinds of connections. Even though they're wrong (at least, not the whole truth).



Awwwwww!


SPOILERS for Riku's story
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In conclusion, RIKU IS SO AWESOME OMG. I wasn't capping for the first hour, so I missed all of his great moments at the beginning (when he isn't taken in by the Organization's lies) but here, have some later scenes:



OH GOD, THE WOOBIE.



It is very unfortunate that in Japanese you can talk about "smelling" evil or two people having the "same smell" while in English you...can't. -_-; why didn't they just go with "feel" or "sense"?



Riku can do it because he's special ♥



Damn straight! Also, ohgod, the scene at the end where he shoulders the burden - of darkness and of remembering Castle Oblivion - because Sora will need him to make those kinds of sacrifices. I died. He is like a big dangerous animal kept tame by the power of his LOVE, and Sora has no idea. It so cute.



***
(Not-really spoilers for something with Axel) This isn't related to anything, but I also liked this scene um a lot:






I like the way that Axel forces - uhh Malurxia? - to say it clearly before he cheerfully goes off to murder his former comrade. That was a nice touch.



Hmm, I appear to have spent many hours on this post. OH WELL, IT'S EASIER THAN WRITING ANYWAY. Note to all, I played about halfway through the first Kingdom Hearts and I haven't played the second at all, but I've been willingly spoiled to hell and back so I don't mind spoilers in comments. Overall I feel that the game is a lot of pretentious nonsense, but it's topical, and certainly TRIES to be more than what you'd expect from a title like this.

EDIT EDIT EDIT Fic rec:
Imaginary Friends by rabbitprint. Axel and Roxas pre-Chain of Memories. Gen. I dunno, sometimes you just want to read something where the characters are together, but not in that way.