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Thanks for the clarification, Hagi.
I will continue to read with interest, and look forward to our conversations. I believe you and I live in the same universe, or at least are very near neighbors!
posted by
Ciel
on January 5, 2008 at 4:20 PM
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Re: Since all this is within the novel you are writing,
Well, the Egyptians have a concept of multiple souls - the best article online on this might be here: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/soul.htm . Some of these souls seem to have only "ritual" purposes, some are quite obscure or seem too, well, fantastic to be true, but some of them actually make sense - like body, heart, will and mind, "alter ego" etc. Still I avoided copying them because... Well, because it wouldn't be so interesting ;)
Although there are many similarities with Egyptian concept of souls (naturally), I actually made the seven souls up, thinking about what's important in defining me as a person (something along the lines "if I take this away, will something change?" and "how much can be taken away without eliminating me myself?" or, more specifically, questions like "would my husband love me if I was crippled? Would he love me if I was a man?" (we decided he most likely wouldn't because, as a man, I would smell different) or "should the murderer be convicted if he has amnesia and doesn't remember what he's done, so he can't actually remorse?" (yes, because the pattern of his actions is still imprinted in his brain) - gosh, I'm lost in these brackets).
The idea of three kinds of memory actually comes from latest National Geographic magazine - a very interesting article about memory in there - where it is established that there are actually three memories (three areas in the brain where memories are stored): the memory of actual events (which sounds simple but in fact it isn't), the memory of "how to do things" (like how to draw a complicated pattern etc. If you've seen Bourne Identity movie - the main hero has amnesia but he figures out he must be special because of unusual skills he has), and the emotional memory which is actually not as I described, it is more like "instinctive" fear of known danger, like predators/fire/height/speeding cars that lets you react fast, much faster than thinking "what the hell happened?!" - a vital skill for survival.
- It seems that I'll have to post this comment as an individual entry, possibly after finishing that soul business.
And yes, thank you for asking!
posted by
hagi
on January 5, 2008 at 12:13 PM
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Since all this is within the novel you are writing,
and based on what I read in your profile, I am wondering, how much of this is directly your research of Egyptian philosophy, and how much is your own model of the Universe?
It is compelling, either way--I am enjoying this very much.
posted by
Ciel
on January 5, 2008 at 10:57 AM
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