Episode 16 - Memento

Update: I fixed an editing error where a "Future Jesse" line was in the wrong spot, overlapping some other speech.

Two big things:

First, I want to apologize for the audio quality this episode, especially mine. With everyone being quarantined at home, it's more difficult to find quiet places with good acoustics to record. I think I've got it sorted now, but it was too late to salvage my audio this episode, so I'm sorry in advance.

Second, and more important: the completely avoidable death of George Floyd at the hands of white supremacists in police uniforms, like so many before him, was a terrible tragedy. The release of this episode was delayed several weeks, because Jonathan and I felt it was more important to focus what platforms we have on promoting and elevating Black voices instead of talking about our own project which, while gratifying, is inconsequential next to all this. We here at Recorded tomorrow are unequivocally on the side of protesters in this struggle. Our show doesn't bring in any revenue, but Jonathan and I have each individually made donations to organizations working for racial justice, and we encourage each of you to do the same if you can. Because Black Lives Matter, and this fight isn't over.

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So, Memento isn't actually a time travel story, as anyone who's seen it will tell you. That said, we wanted to talk about it because it's a prime example of Narrative time travel, where the events unfold chronologically, but the audience as observer hops around from one part of the story to another, and as a result, we experience the story out-of-order, as if we were a time traveler. Memento isn't the first story to do this, it may not even be the best version of it. But it's one of the few stories where that narrative time travel is absolutely integral to the experience. 

We're joined by Greg Downing of the Through the Wind Door podcast.

Media References:

Memento (film)
Memento Mori (short story)