There is hardly anything that people need as badly as their own hearth and home. Indeed, the very image of a house has become the symbol of stability, warmth and cozy atmosphere. A house is associated even with a family, though the two do not go together all the time. However, there is something that people seldom attribute to a house, and these are memories, which does not seem right.
After living even for a short time in a certain place, one is likely to grow used to it and have a bunch of issues related to his/her dwelling, no matter whether it is a luxurious apartment or a humble hut, which raises the question how well memories are tied to a certain place and what the reasons for this phenomenon are.
According to Bachelard, it is not the connection between time and space that works for a human being, it is the fusion of space and memory. As the author says, “Her space is everything, for time ceases to quicken memory.”1 However, thinking that time in the given context can be replaced with memories would be a mistake; it seems that for the author, memory is not the alternative for time, but rather a link between time and space.
While time and space can exist on their own, with a human being as a third element, there must be something that will tie time and space together in the human reality, and memories serve this purpose perfectly. The given perspective is rather peculiar, since it raises the question whether for people, memories can exist outside the space context. In other words, the question is whether there must be a “house” to attach the memories to.
Again, according to the author’s viewpoint, a house is the storage for all sorts of memories; events of the past revive once someone related to these events enters the place. “Memories are motionless, and the more securely they are fixed in space, the sounder they are.”2 Indeed, people are likely to remember rather the environment in which something happened that anything else; these are the visuals that one refers to instantly when reminiscing.
Another peculiar idea to draw from the given extract is what matters more to people, the very event or the space in which it took place. Although the former seems an obvious choice at first, the issue is still worth being considered. Even the grandest event will wear out its novelty sooner or later, which the feeling that ran through someone will stay just as vivid and tangible even years later.
Thus, it is clear that memories are closely connected to the places where something to remember happened; it is not only the fact that matters to people, but also the circumstances in which it occurred.
Recalling a breathtaking cruise, one is likely to recall the coziness of a cruiser cabin; likewise, when thinking of talking to someone who changed one’s life completely, one will definitely remember the sunlit room where the conversation took place and the checked wallpaper on the walls. Clinging to the small things helps people retain the big events in their memory, and this is one of the mysterious ways in which human mind works.
Bibliography
Bachelard, G, ‘The house from cellar to garret’ in G Bachelard (ed.), The poetics of space, Beacon Press, Boston, MA, 1969, p. 81.
Footnotes
- Bachelard, G, ‘The house from cellar to garret’ in G Bachelard (ed.), The poetics of space, Beacon Press, Boston, MA, 1969, p. 81.
- Bachelard, G, ‘The house from cellar to garret’ in G Bachelard (ed.), The poetics of space, Beacon Press, Boston, MA, 1969, p. 81.