Memory Craft

 

There was a long wait for Memory Craft at the local library; evidently I was not the only person intrigued by Lynne Kelly's The Memory Code or Songlines (co-written with Margo Neale) and motivated to learn more. Memory Craft is an account of Kelly's own explorations in the world of memory training and expansion, where she herself has adopted various techniques and reports on their success.

By far the most fundamental and flexible method she uses is that of loci, otherwise known as the memory palace. This can take the form of physically walking your neighbourhood or your own house, or creating an imaginary 'memory palace.' Each location is linked with something to be remembered -- Kelly has created a history trail which takes her around the block. She also uses cards, portable memory boards, knotted khipu strings, painted and carved posts, beads, body parts, mandalas, and especially invented characters, which she calls rapscallions, to stare in wild invented vignettes and stories which cement facts in memory. One creation I found especially appealing is the idea of a 'winter count' -- an annual symbol to mark your year, which spirals out in a growing design. Kelly's detailed and explicit account of how she uses these techniques is surprisingly fascinating!

Kelly says that one effect she hadn't anticipated was the degree to which all her various memory techniques and the body of knowledge she's amassed all interact and enrich each other, and wonders if this approximates what it might have been like to live in a traditional, oral-based, pre-literate society, filled with story, myth, observations of the natural world, history and spirituality. She has certainly put in a lot of work to achieve that reward, and I definitely admire her, but I'm not sure if I'm prepared to take on that amount of effort! Maybe one day.