On Reading with Memory Difficulties

I've discussed memory difficulties a few times on the blog in the hope that it helps others who have similar afflictions- perhaps those dealing with the aftermath of an Acquired Brain Injury (ABI).

One of the struggles I face conflictingly comes with something I enjoy- stories. Following the plot in a book or film can be a massive issue, meaning I don't always understand what's going on, or that I don't rate a book or film as highly as most other people. Sometimes, though, a story can make perfect sense, and I can follow the plot through to the end. I remember being able to predict most of the twists in The DaVinci Code, for example. (That's when you know a book is predictable tosh- when it's clear to someone with short term memory difficulties what needs to happen to push the story on. Sorry Mr. Brown, but a brain-damaged special needs bloke can tell what's coming next.)

I recently read Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' epic superhero graphic novel. Like many other good tales, it isn't so easy to predict the plot. It's a weighty, generously long book about a disbanded group of ageing superheroes, brought back together after some of them are murdered.

Most graphic novels I can sit and read in one go- due to this book's size (plus a lack of entry into my diary about stuff I'd apparently agreed to do) I read this in chunks over the course of a couple of weeks. That didn't help my understanding. But the smaller backstories, the standalone scenes and the creative offshoots- 'reprinted' newspaper articles, interviews, diary entries and the like- really establish character and circumstances. Some are so detailed that you're left wondering how much of this is factual (zoological info relating to animal behaviour is, and how the heroes adopt certain traits isn't; details of old comics also aren't).

The point is, individual segments I can follow, except when past chapters are alluded to. The overarching story I usually struggle to follow, so I resort to Wikipedia's synopsis to fill in the gaps.

There's 2 types of forgetting something- one is where the memory is there, but it isn't accessible until the information is presented again. Let's say you read the synopsis, and you think, oh yeah, I remember that now. The other is where you read the synopsis and you check the title to see if you're definitely on the right page. Did I even read that part? I have no recollection. Reading the synopsis of Watchmen, I had both of those thoughts.

Watchmen won The Hugo Award, 'science fiction’s most prestigious award.' It's great, and I should probably read it again before trying out the film (which, predictably, isn't on Netflix).

When you have memory difficulties, you might not have a total understanding of what you're reading, but your gut still tells you whether you're reading something outstanding, and that's what you pick up from Watchmen.