Here’s a spectrum of “memory” genres
1. Autobiography
2. Family history
3. Personal memoir
4. Subcultural history
5. Public life memoir
6. Participant history
Prediction: All of it is in trouble. Our cultural memory processes are breaking.
Conversation
1. Autobiography is in trouble because it’s gone quantum. Living and narrating have gotten entangled live for anyone whose life might be of interest to others. You can’t just live an interesting life and then write it down. There’s a competing record of how you performed it live.
2
5
28
Replying to
It won’t stop them. It just won’t serve the kind of memory function it used to,
1

