"The things that have come into being change continually. The man with a good memory remembers nothing because he forgets nothing"
About this Quote
Reality, Roa Bastos reminds us, is not a museum of stable objects but a moving river. "The things that have come into being change continually" reads like a calm metaphysical premise, then snaps into something harsher: memory, usually treated as a virtue, becomes a trap. The second line is a paradox with teeth: "The man with a good memory remembers nothing because he forgets nothing". If you never forget, you never get to remember in the meaningful sense - you never select, shape, or give the past a usable form. You just hoard it.
The intent here is less self-help than political and moral warning. Roa Bastos wrote from Paraguay's long shadow of dictatorship and exile, a world where official histories are weaponized and private recollections can be incriminating. In that context, forgetting isn't simply failure; it's also survival, mercy, even resistance. Memory that cannot let go becomes an internal censor, forcing the present to relive an unedited archive of injuries and compromises.
The subtext is that remembering is an act of interpretation, not storage. A "good" memory, imagined as perfect fidelity, is actually bad literature: no perspective, no emphasis, no transformation. For a novelist steeped in power's manipulations of narrative, the line doubles as craft advice. Forgetting is what allows pattern, character, and meaning to emerge from flux. Without it, you don't remember; you merely persist.
The intent here is less self-help than political and moral warning. Roa Bastos wrote from Paraguay's long shadow of dictatorship and exile, a world where official histories are weaponized and private recollections can be incriminating. In that context, forgetting isn't simply failure; it's also survival, mercy, even resistance. Memory that cannot let go becomes an internal censor, forcing the present to relive an unedited archive of injuries and compromises.
The subtext is that remembering is an act of interpretation, not storage. A "good" memory, imagined as perfect fidelity, is actually bad literature: no perspective, no emphasis, no transformation. For a novelist steeped in power's manipulations of narrative, the line doubles as craft advice. Forgetting is what allows pattern, character, and meaning to emerge from flux. Without it, you don't remember; you merely persist.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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