Software-like identity upgrading drives cultural obsession with memory disorders.
Evidence
In conditions where realities and identities are upgraded like software, it is not surprising that memory disorders should have become the focus of cultural anxiety – see, for instance, the Bourne films, Memento, Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 118
Categorization
- XREF: The ‘identities upgraded like software’ metaphor anticipates the malleable-self literature and connects to Fisher’s therapy/self-help critique elsewhere. — connects to: Memory-loss films reflect cultural anxiety about identities being upgradeable like software; Pervasive cultural nostalgia signals an inability to make new memories — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 249; Anterograde amnesia captures the postmodern inability to accept the new — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 122 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Memory-loss films reflect cultural anxiety about identities being upgradeable like software
#exemplifies(0.92) - Pervasive cultural nostalgia signals an inability to make new memories
#exemplifies(0.85) — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life, 249 - Anterograde amnesia captures the postmodern inability to accept the new
#exemplifies(0.85) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 122 - Dementia is another way humans lose control of their carefully maintained identities
#exemplifies(0.80) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 138 - Clip-show culture operates like anterograde amnesia, unable to make new memories
#exemplifies(0.80) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2426 - Claims of a unified postmodern condition stem from American cultural amnesia favoring novelty
#qualifies(0.75) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 718 - Postmodern culture mirrors anterograde amnesia, clinging to old certainties while newness stays unnavigable
#exemplifies(0.75) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 122