Memory, Imagination, and Consciousness in Funes the Memorious and MeursaultConsciousness separates humans from the sense-perceiving “heaps of garbage.” Jorge Luis Borges, in “Funes the Memorious,” and Albert Camus, in “The Stranger,” explore the causes of consciousness. These are philosophers who write fiction to answer the question “What makes us conscious?” » Imperfect memory and imagination define our reality. Funes can be aware of other realities because he has perfect memory. Meursault reveals that the missing element for Funès to have consciousness is imagination. I will define consciousness, evaluate memory and imagination as essential, discuss metaphor as a manifestation of consciousness, and isolate the affect of consciousness from another consciousness. Without memory, we could not compare a past object or idea with a present object. Memory allows us to enhance past objective observations with present sensory perceptions. Because we have an imperfect memory, meaning we cannot remember every detail, we embellish. We give a past idea or object an identity independent of the external world because we perceive and imagine it differently from our initial sensory reaction. We modify our original reaction with our imagination. This way, creative people experience life more vividly. In the process of consciousness, we first remember something imperfectly and then qualify it with other embellished thoughts. The act of thought is therefore not consciousness. Thought is the comparison of one object to another. We are not conscious because we notice a difference between two things. However, once we embellish the relationship, we create an internal reality that is an imperfect copy of our true sensory response. We possess consciousness...... middle of paper ....... Together, Camus and Borges show us that through our imperfect memories and our distorting and lying imagination, we obtain an individual identity. Works Cited Borges, Jorge Luis. Labyrinths: “Funes the Memorial”. New York: New Directions Publishing Co., 1964. Camus, Albert. The Stranger. New York: Random House, 1988. Christ, Ronald. The Narrow Act: The Art of Borges Fiction. New York: Lumen Books, 1995. Hart, Thomas R. Jr. “The Literary Criticism of Borges.” Modern critical views: Jorge Luis Borges. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. 5-20. Jaynes, Julian. The origin of consciousness in the collapse of the bicameral mind. Boston: Houghton, 1976. Muller, Max. The science of thought. London: Longmans Green, 1887. 78-9. Sarte, Jean-Paul. “An Explanation of “The Stranger.” Camus. Ed. Germaine Brée. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1962.

Essay / Memory, Imagination, and Consciousness in Funes the Memorious and MeursaultConsciousness separates humans from the sense-perceiving “heaps of garbage.” Jorge Luis Borges, in “Funes the Memorious,” and Albert Camus, in “The Stranger,” explore the causes of consciousness. These are philosophers who write fiction to answer the question “What makes us conscious?” » Imperfect memory and imagination define our reality. Funes can be aware of other realities because he has perfect memory. Meursault reveals that the missing element for Funès to have consciousness is imagination. I will define consciousness, evaluate memory and imagination as essential, discuss metaphor as a manifestation of consciousness, and isolate the affect of consciousness from another consciousness. Without memory, we could not compare a past object or idea with a present object. Memory allows us to enhance past objective observations with present sensory perceptions. Because we have an imperfect memory, meaning we cannot remember every detail, we embellish. We give a past idea or object an identity independent of the external world because we perceive and imagine it differently from our initial sensory reaction. We modify our original reaction with our imagination. This way, creative people experience life more vividly. In the process of consciousness, we first remember something imperfectly and then qualify it with other embellished thoughts. The act of thought is therefore not consciousness. Thought is the comparison of one object to another. We are not conscious because we notice a difference between two things. However, once we embellish the relationship, we create an internal reality that is an imperfect copy of our true sensory response. We possess consciousness...... middle of paper ....... Together, Camus and Borges show us that through our imperfect memories and our distorting and lying imagination, we obtain an individual identity. Works Cited Borges, Jorge Luis. Labyrinths: “Funes the Memorial”. New York: New Directions Publishing Co., 1964. Camus, Albert. The Stranger. New York: Random House, 1988. Christ, Ronald. The Narrow Act: The Art of Borges Fiction. New York: Lumen Books, 1995. Hart, Thomas R. Jr. “The Literary Criticism of Borges.” Modern critical views: Jorge Luis Borges. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. 5-20. Jaynes, Julian. The origin of consciousness in the collapse of the bicameral mind. Boston: Houghton, 1976. Muller, Max. The science of thought. London: Longmans Green, 1887. 78-9. Sarte, Jean-Paul. “An Explanation of “The Stranger.” Camus. Ed. Germaine Brée. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1962.

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