memory lane essay

Going Down Memory Lane: The Value of Reminiscing

Reviewing life events helps us to better understand their effect on us..

Posted June 30, 2023 | Reviewed by Davia Sills

• All too often, we forget lessons learned from the past.
• Reminiscing can stimulate thoughts and events long forgotten. Remembering them can be revitalizing.
• Reminiscing is a life-long activity, starting as a child with parents and continuing to our elder years.

Reminiscing is an activity that can provide both cognitive and emotional meaning to our lives. It occurs when we think about past events or experiences or when we discuss them with others. According to Bluck, Alea, and Demiray (2010), recounting memories can guide our actions and can assist us in bonding with others.

Parental Reminiscing

The first instance of reminiscing occurs when we are children and interacting with our parents for bonding purposes. These “joint reminiscences” between child and parent (often the mother) not only build and strengthen their relationship but also help the child feel good about themself. Another outcome of young children reminiscing is the development of their self-concept , which impacts their self-competence and social acceptance.

Moreover, this joint reminiscing with the parent teaches the child the value of remembering past experiences and how to construct them so as to be able to remember and share them with others (Kulkofsky, Behrens, & Battin, 2015). Another important contribution of recalling past events and conversations about them is that the child has had time to remember and reflect upon the experience as well as have a better idea of assessing why the event was important and its personal relevance to the child (Behrens, 2015).

Benefits of Reminiscing as an Adult

Thinking about our memories can elicit many positive functions for oneself. Reflecting on people, events, or situations opens us up to savoring those experiences. It also stimulates other beneficial outcomes, such as:

• Engaging in self-reflection so as to give meaning to one’s life
• By recalling one’s past, we become more aware that our years are limited and, therefore, more prepared for death
• Sharing one’s life experiences to help others by informing them or giving advice (Demiray, Mischer, and Martin (2019)

In addition, recalling difficult times and recognizing how they coped can remind someone of their resilience .

Most people engage in reminiscing when they are with others. This form of “social reminiscence ,” with conversational disclosure of one’s past, including the recall of positive and negative events, can be very therapeutic. Disclosing one’s personal past in social settings helps maintain emotional bonds to connect or reconnect with others, as well as acknowledge similarities.

Reminiscing is not limited to the aged; that is, reflecting on the past and reviewing one’s experiences can be helpful at any age. However, older individuals may be more nostalgic and want to remember the long lives they led and go to a place in their memory that elicits encouraging and satisfying remembrances. Often this occurs among older people who benefit from recalling memories of themselves when they believed they were capable and had fulfilling lives.

Erikson (1959) identified eight stages of psychosocial development, the last stage being “Ego Integrity vs. Despair.” This stage is for individuals 65 years and older. He identified this period as one when the person has slowed down, is less productive, and is now at an age when retirement is expected. The purpose of this stage is to reflect on their accomplishments for which they can develop integrity and believe they led a successful life.

However, if someone sees themselves as leading an unproductive life or feels guilty or bad about not accomplishing their life goals , they are in despair and experience depression and hopelessness. These delineations, however, are not so definite. Most successful people experience both ego integrity and despair at different points in their life.

Clearly, this last stage is a time for reminiscence among seniors regarding the life they have led. If one cannot see a successful life lived, the frequency of reminiscing may be reduced.

Therapeutic Benefits of Reminiscing

Reminiscing can be a focused activity, particularly for older aged persons, irrespective of whether they are healthy or not. Many health and rehabilitation facilities offer activities directed toward successful aging in place. Reminiscing is most popular with occupational and activity therapies (Fletcher, 2017). Simple life review disclosures can attract participation from others. The social interaction is enhanced if the participants had similar events and now share their common or unique experiences.

Other means to evoke memories include mementos. For example, many older people have photographs arranged in their homes that have special meanings and remembrances. Seeing these memorialized depictions can activate memories and return the viewer to that place and time. Often, the most meaningful photos may be placed in personal spaces where emotional reminiscing is intended as opposed to public rooms where reminiscing is not expected to be as emotionally laden. Other personal items or acquisitions that depict or remind one of past experiences can also evoke memories of people or events that were meaningful.

It is important to live in the present and be aware of the here and now. However, remembering past experiences and profiting from them encourages the evolution of a better self and life, no matter one’s age.

Bluck, S., Alea, N., & Demiray, B. (2010). You get what you need: The psychosocial functions of remembering. In J. Mace (Ed.), The act of remembering: Toward an understanding of how we recall the past , pp. 284–307). UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Demiray, B., Mischler, M., Martin, M. (2019). Reminiscence in everyday conversations: A naturalistic observation study of older adults. Journals of Gerontology, Psychology Science3, 74 (5), 745–755. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbx141.

Erikson, E. H. (1959), Identity and the life cycle. International Universities Press, New York.

Fletcher, T. S. (2017). Factors that bring meaning to mementos created by elders. Aging & Mental Health, 21 (6), 609-615. doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2016.1141284

Kulkofsky, S., Behrens, K. Y., & Battin, D. B. (2015). The bonds that remind us: Maternal reminiscing for bonding purposes in relation to children’s perceived competence and social acceptance. Infant and Child Development, 24 (5), 469–488. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.1895

Shoba Sreenivasan, Ph.D., and Linda E. Weinberger, Ph.D. , are psychology professors at the Keck School of Medicine at USC.

• Find a Therapist
• Find a Treatment Center
• Find a Psychiatrist
• Find a Support Group
• Find Online Therapy
• United States
• Brooklyn, NY
• Chicago, IL
• Houston, TX
• Los Angeles, CA
• New York, NY
• Portland, OR
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Washington, DC
• Asperger's
• Bipolar Disorder
• Chronic Pain
• Eating Disorders
• Passive Aggression
• Personality
• Goal Setting
• Positive Psychology
• Stopping Smoking
• Low Sexual Desire
• Relationships
• Child Development
• Self Tests NEW
• Therapy Center
• Diagnosis Dictionary
• Types of Therapy

At any moment, someone’s aggravating behavior or our own bad luck can set us off on an emotional spiral that threatens to derail our entire day. Here’s how we can face our triggers with less reactivity so that we can get on with our lives.

• Emotional Intelligence
• Gaslighting
• Affective Forecasting
• Neuroscience

Read.Learn.Write

"So many books, so little time…" –Frank Zappa

The Ocean at the End of the Lane Meets Memory Lane

This is an essay by Brandon Monk.

“I remembered that, and, remembering that, I remembered everything.” Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane .

I’ve written before about the idea that taking a trip down reading memory lane  is a worthwhile way to re-kindle your reading interest. An old favorite–a book you read for pleasure as a child–can take you back to the days when reading was a care-free experience. Often, the mandatory reading school imposes robs us of the pleasure. Those who continue to read find ways to carve out time to read the things they like.

But, what if you have no pleasant reading memory? I recently read Neil Gaiman’s, The Ocean at the End of the Lane . It’s a book that captures the essence of what it’s like to read for pleasure. The main character is bookish, the setting is fantasy, and the book engages the mythic inclinations hard-wired in our minds.

I see Gaiman’s book as picking up where I left off when I wrote the piece about taking a trip down reading memory lane eighteen months ago. Sometimes it takes a new book to fill the gaps in our thought process. The Ocean at the End of the Lane does that for me. It’s the closest I’ve come to the feeling I had when I’d read something I loved as a child since I’ve been forced into adulthood by the passage of time. It gives me new hope that even without a pleasurable childhood reading experience we can fill the gaps in our adult lives and find a way to read for pleasure.

Gaiman invokes three things in the book that make it have the effect it does:

1. Gaiman’s main character takes us back to our childhood.

Gaiman must have poured much of himself into the main character of the novel. His bookish ways, the manner in which he views the world, his old-soul makeup. He’d rather be reading than adventuring. But, as children, we always end up doing something other than what we want and it’s often those things that make us grow the most.

Gaiman recognizes, though, that even as adults we’re still pretending to be something we aren’t. We’re still forced to do things we don’t want to do and the way we keep ourselves in tact is by taking some time to be alone with our inner-selves and even our inner-child.

2. Gaiman invokes our sense of nostalgia.

The novel begins with an adult main character returning to his childhood home. The novel becomes a reflection on his childhood past. The effect of this is to take the reader back in time to our own childhood. Gaiman guides us, through the narrative, to our own past. Those experiences are a combination of pleasant and unpleasant events that have shaped us into the people we are. Gaiman’s novel acts as a guided meditation down memory lane and it can supplement or fill the gaps of our childhood reading past.

To explore this aspect of the book, I recommend reading slowly enough to allow time for reflection. Make annotations in the book or in a notebook of the memories brought to the surface by your reading. The interaction you have with the novel can cause you to remember things you’d thought were long forgotten. In that way, the book serves as a path by which you can arrive at some of those sentimental places that exist, now, only in your mind.

3. Gaiman’s fantasy setting carries us far enough away from the real.

Fantasy settings allow us to step out of the world where we’re expected to know how everything works, and to have an answer for every uncertainty we experience. If a fantasy setting is done right, there are enough things there to remind us of our real lives, but it’s equally important that we be asked to temporarily suspend our rational thought processes long enough to accept the fantasy the author’s created. Gaiman masterfully mixes the two. We can both relate to the world we’re told of, yet not completely understand what will come next.

The benefit to the reader is that they’re given a break from the real. They’re given an opportunity to live in the world created by the cooperative effort of the author and the reader. Just enough distance is created by the fantasy to give space for you to explore our own thoughts and remembrances.

Gaiman’s novel does what I could never do in a non-fiction piece. It creates a fantasy that fills the gaps or reminds us what we used to be like when we were willing to admit we don’t know how everything works. It’s a novel that takes us down memory lane and it can, I think, re-kindle our love of reading even if we have no pleasurable reading memory of our own.

Brandon Monk is a Texas attorney. He created readlearnwrite.com to foster the love of amateur reading in adults.

Photo:   Some rights reserved  by  ajvin .

Angelo B. Ancheta

Thanks for this, Brandon. I’ve been meaning to read this new work from Neil Gaiman. I’ll sure to get back to you on this after i’m done reading.

Brandon Monk (@readlearnwrite)

I would love to hear your thoughts. Hopefully, I didn’t spoil much of the story for you.

*I’ll surely get back, rather

Brandon, I am so glad you wrote this, because I love, love, love The Ocean at the End of the Lane. It is definitely one of my top reads/releases of 2013 (perhaps only rivaled by Tartt’s The Goldfinch) and probably one of my favorite things Gaiman has ever written (which is saying a lot!) It just has a lot of feeling, which I feel is lacking in some of his others works.

I watched him speak about it for a Google talk and he said how he wrote it as a love letter to his wife, Amanda, basically, because he couldn’t be with her. I’d like to think this is one of the contributing factors for why this novel is so special and wonderful. Maybe that is just the romantic is me. I don’t know.

Hope you’re well, A.

Thanks Amarie. I loved the book, too. I had read American Gods a year or so ago and it just wasn’t for me, but this book showed me part of the reason why Gaiman has such a following. Of course, his endless efforts to reach out to readers on a personal level through signings, social media, etc help that a great deal, as well. It’s interesting to hear that this is a kind of love letter, but I get the feeling that the two express their love in the way that suits them best without regard to societal norms. I admire that a great deal.

I need to read The Goldfinch soon because I’ve heard from several reputable sources it’s worth it.

Comments are closed.

Memory Lane and Morality Essay (Article)

Introduction.

There is little knowledge on the effect of autobiographical memory on moral behavior. This research focuses on childhood memory as a type of autobiographic memory.

Conclusions drawn from research on moral psychology and memory propose that moral purity is elicited by childhood memories. It is a state where people feel they have clean morals and that they are innocent. As a result, when moral purity is heightened, pro-social behavior becomes great.

In the first experiment where participants were expected to remember their childhood experience, those memories aided the experimenter more than they let the participants take control. Moral purity mediated in this event. In another experiment, manipulation increased money donation (Aarts, and Dijksterhuis, 2003).

This effect came as a result of clear and inherent measures of moral purity. Experiment three further links moderation of childhood memories and pro-social behaviors with the fourth experiment. It indicates that child hood memories compromise others’ ethics. Finally both positive and negative valences increased aid as compared to control action (Edwards, and Lambert, 2007).

The participants in the first experiment were one hundred and thirteen. They were graduates from a university. There were instructions to read on computer screens after which they were to write about a particular occasion that took place at a certain time in the past. The provided time was 5-10 minutes and they were to start by describing their morning routine which was to enforce the true purpose of the study.

The reports on how the participants felt ten positive and negative emotions were given on a scale of seven. In the second experiment, eighty seven undergraduates with a mean age of 20.89 years old were selected for the experiment. First they were given a fifteen minute bogus task after which they received a compensation of $5. Thereafter, they did a different question from the one in experiment one.

The third group of participants comprised of one hundred and one people; both students and staff members. There were forty two male students with a mean age of 23.82 years and their purpose was to first do the task in experiment two after which they were to choose from a list of forty words containing their favorite words (Aarts, and Dijksterhuis, 2003).

The fourth experiment had one hundred and twenty adults with forty two females with a mean age of 44.20 years. They first did the activities in experiment two and three for ten minutes after which they had a different question to test on the negative and positive effects; including a question testing on nostalgia.

Findings of the first experiment showed that participants could write a lot about their favorite music and their first time experiences like bicycle riding from childhood memories. The manipulation was effective because the participants admitted that such actions like writing made it easy for them to draw back to their childhood memories.

Conditioned report proved a higher mean moral purity level than controlled participants. It also came out clear that the participants could do more when subjected to questions than when they were alone and not under conditions. From the second experiment, there were no guesses made on the hypothesis. Therefore, no participant was excluded from the analyses.

As in the case of first experiment, the second also showed that participants who wrote about their task easily remembered their childhood life. In terms of amount donated, more money was donated by participants who wrote about their childhood life. There was a significant manipulation in the third experiment where no participant was excluded.

Amount donated and moderated mediation were significantly and positively correlated. The two last experiments were characterized by same results except for the fact that having children for moderation in experiment five did not have any effect at all (Aarts, and Dijksterhuis, 2003).

There are various limitations to this research. Although nostalgia, moral purity and mediums through which pro-social behavior are promoted by childhood memories, there are other areas that were not covered in this research. Future research may widen our knowledge on additional mechanisms. Secondly, only a single manipulation for childhood memories was used in the experiments (Cialdini, 2001).

Each participant was expected to write about his own childhood memories. This type of memory ignited the concept of childhood. In future, it is important to test general findings like in a case of an office setup where participants can be asked about their preferred color or choice of furniture. The third limitation is failure to investigate the role of moderators.

For instance, they could have been asked about the effects and impacts of having their own children. Many important factors, both trial based and institutional based, may also moderate the investigated relationships in this research.

For example, importance of one’s moral identity can lower the chances of one remembering their childhood. Finally the research had little or no interest on the benefits of having childhood memories on potential costs. It only dwelled on the benefits of having the memories.

Moral identity is, therefore, important in moral motivation. It is also important to conduct a detailed examination on the two moderators considered in the last two experiments (4 and 5). One could perhaps consider comparing two participants with complicated childhood experiences.

Aarts, H., & Dijksterhuis, A. (2003). The silence of the library: Environmental control over social behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 18–28. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.84.1.18

Cialdini, R. B. (2001). Influence: Science and practice (4th ED). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Edwards, J. R., & Lambert, L. S. (2007). Methods for integrating moderation and mediation: A general analytical framework using moderated path analysis. Psychological Methods, 12, 1–22. Doi:10.1037/1082- 989X.12.1.1

• Prosocial Behavior, Volunteering, and Donation
• Issue Analysis: Pro-social Behavior
• Passing Lane on the Road in Colorado
• Importance of Group Counseling
• Sleep Habits and Its Impact on Human Mind Activity
• Adlerian Therapy
• Play Therapy: "Dibs in Search of Self" by Virginia Axline
• Valid and Invalid Application of BDI in a Population
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, April 17). Memory Lane and Morality. https://ivypanda.com/essays/memory-lane-and-morality/

"Memory Lane and Morality." IvyPanda , 17 Apr. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/memory-lane-and-morality/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Memory Lane and Morality'. 17 April.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Memory Lane and Morality." April 17, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/memory-lane-and-morality/.

1. IvyPanda . "Memory Lane and Morality." April 17, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/memory-lane-and-morality/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Memory Lane and Morality." April 17, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/memory-lane-and-morality/.

Adolf Hitler’s Rise: a Chilling Walk down Germany’s Memory Lane

This essay provides a compelling narrative of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, set against the tumultuous backdrop of early 20th-century Germany. It begins with the country’s struggle post-World War I, marked by economic hardship and national humiliation from the Treaty of Versailles. The narrative captures how Hitler, initially an unremarkable figure, exploits these conditions to climb the ranks of the German Workers’ Party, which he later transforms into the Nazi Party. Highlighting Hitler’s shrewd political tactics and charismatic oratory, the essay paints a picture of his gradual ascent, including his jail time and authorship of ‘Mein Kampf’. The Great Depression is portrayed as a crucial turning point, enabling the Nazis to gain public favor. The piece vividly describes the intricate political maneuvers leading to Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor in 1933 and the subsequent rapid transformation of Germany into a totalitarian state. This essay is not just a historical recount but a reflection on the fragility of democracy and the perils of unchecked ambition, resonating with the importance of vigilance in political life. Also at PapersOwl you can find more free essay examples related to Adolf Hitler.

How it works

Picture this: Germany, early 20th century, a country grappling with the aftermath of World War I and the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Enter Adolf Hitler, a name that would later resonate with infamy, but back then, just another face in the crowd, albeit a rather ambitious one. His rise to power, culminating in his appointment as Chancellor on January 30, 1933, is a story riddled with cunning politics, societal disarray, and a series of could-have-beens that might have altered history.

Let’s rewind to post-World War I Germany. It’s a mess. The Treaty of Versailles has left the nation economically crippled and nationally humiliated. Here’s where Hitler, an Austrian-born failed artist, sees his chance. He’s got a way with words and a knack for tapping into the public’s brewing discontent. In 1919, he joins the German Workers’ Party, later rebranded as the Nazi Party, and boy does he climb up the ranks fast.

Now, Hitler wasn’t just your run-of-the-mill politician; he was a master manipulator. His first major play for power, the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, was a flop that got him thrown in jail. But Hitler wasn’t the kind to get bogged down. Jail time meant writing time – cue ‘Mein Kampf’, his infamous autobiography cum manifesto.

Fast forward to the 1930s, and Germany’s in the grips of the Great Depression. The Nazi Party plays its cards right, selling themselves as the country’s only hope. It’s a mix of economic despair, political instability, and savvy propaganda that elevates them to the largest party in the Reichstag by 1932.

But here’s the twist – Hitler wasn’t handed the Chancellorship on a silver platter. It took a series of political maneuvers and underestimations, particularly by the conservative elites, who thought they could use Hitler as their puppet. Big mistake. On January 30, 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg appoints Hitler as Chancellor, unknowingly opening the gates to hell.

What follows is a rapid and ruthless consolidation of power. The Reichstag fire? Perfect excuse for Hitler to clamp down on the opposition. The Enabling Act? Goodbye, democracy; hello, dictatorship. In no time, Germany transforms into a one-party state under the iron fist of the Nazi regime.

What’s truly mind-boggling about Hitler’s ascent is how much of it happened within the legal frameworks of the time. It’s a masterclass in political manipulation and a sobering reminder of how fragile democratic systems can be. Hitler didn’t just exploit the political and economic turmoil; he played on the fears and hopes of a nation, painting himself as the savior Germany desperately needed.

To sum it up, Hitler’s journey to power was a complex dance of economic woes, political opportunism, and societal upheaval. It’s a chapter in history that’s as important as it is chilling, reminding us of the need to protect democratic values and stay alert to the dangers of power concentrated in the wrong hands.

Cite this page

Adolf Hitler's Rise: A Chilling Walk Down Germany's Memory Lane. (2024, Jan 26). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/adolf-hitlers-rise-a-chilling-walk-down-germanys-memory-lane/

"Adolf Hitler's Rise: A Chilling Walk Down Germany's Memory Lane." PapersOwl.com , 26 Jan 2024, https://papersowl.com/examples/adolf-hitlers-rise-a-chilling-walk-down-germanys-memory-lane/

PapersOwl.com. (2024). Adolf Hitler's Rise: A Chilling Walk Down Germany's Memory Lane . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/adolf-hitlers-rise-a-chilling-walk-down-germanys-memory-lane/ [Accessed: 23 May. 2024]

"Adolf Hitler's Rise: A Chilling Walk Down Germany's Memory Lane." PapersOwl.com, Jan 26, 2024. Accessed May 23, 2024. https://papersowl.com/examples/adolf-hitlers-rise-a-chilling-walk-down-germanys-memory-lane/

"Adolf Hitler's Rise: A Chilling Walk Down Germany's Memory Lane," PapersOwl.com , 26-Jan-2024. [Online]. Available: https://papersowl.com/examples/adolf-hitlers-rise-a-chilling-walk-down-germanys-memory-lane/. [Accessed: 23-May-2024]

PapersOwl.com. (2024). Adolf Hitler's Rise: A Chilling Walk Down Germany's Memory Lane . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/adolf-hitlers-rise-a-chilling-walk-down-germanys-memory-lane/ [Accessed: 23-May-2024]

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Hire a writer to get a unique paper crafted to your needs.

Our writers will help you fix any mistakes and get an A+!

Please check your inbox.

You can order an original essay written according to your instructions.

Trusted by over 1 million students worldwide

1. Tell Us Your Requirements

2. Pick your perfect writer

3. Get Your Paper and Pay

Hi! I'm Amy, your personal assistant!

Don't know where to start? Give me your paper requirements and I connect you to an academic expert.

short deadlines

100% Plagiarism-Free

Certified writers

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Neil gaiman, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane consists of the unnamed adult narrator ’s recollection of events that happened over a few days of his child. As such, the book is naturally interested in what people remember and why. Over the course of these few days, the narrator experiences a number of supernatural events with his friend Lettie Hempstock —but when his adventure comes to an end, he mysteriously forgets everything that happened. However, when he returns as an adult to the Hempstocks’ farm, he just as mysteriously remembers what happened but forgets again upon leaving the farm. As the adult narrator explores his childhood memories, the novel examines the role that perception plays in what a person deems important or real, as well as how they go about remembering that event. Ultimately, the story makes the case that reality and memory are both incredibly subjective because they both hinge on a person’s individual way of seeing the world.

The narrator’s movements and thought processes through the prologue make it clear that memory is far more complicated than it seems, as his long-forgotten childhood memories bubble up seemingly out of nowhere. In the frame story, the narrator finds himself driving to the Hempstock farm without knowing why or where the farm is. He finds the farm as though by instinct, suggesting that memory is primal and even beyond understanding. As he gets to the end of the lane, speaks to Old Mrs. Hempstock , and then heads for the duck pond behind the barns (the “ ocean ” from the story’s title), the know-how to perform each action seems to suddenly burst forth from him. Then, it’s only on the bank of the ocean that the narrator is able to remember what happened decades ago, when he was seven. This speaks to the way in which seemingly forgotten memories can be remembered with the help of something external, such as returning to a place that was meaningful in one’s childhood.

In the main story, the young narrator is forced to confront the ways in which his unique perspective as a child influences how he understands what happens to him and those around him. As a child, the narrator is used to adults not taking him seriously. He understands that he can’t trust adults to believe anything he has to say, real or otherwise, so it doesn’t cross his mind to ask his parents for help when he coughs up the mysterious sixpence. The narrator also recognizes that he’s the only one in his family who sees things for the way they are: sinister and terrifying. But although he can sense as much, he still can’t fully understand what he sees. This is true both in terms of the supernatural events (which the Hempstock women understand but only cursorily explain to the narrator) and the more adult events that unfold around him. For example, the narrator witnesses his father having sex with the monster disguised as a human woman, Ursula , one night while his mother is out. While he doesn’t recognize what he’s seeing as sex, nor does he give any indication he even knows what sex is at this age, he still understands the implication of seeing them together: his father is now on Ursula’s side and is no longer remotely trustworthy. In this way, the novel makes the case that even though one’s understanding of something may be simplistic, this doesn’t mean that their read of the situation is wrong. Furthermore, the narrator also shows that one’s understanding can change as time goes on. As an adult, the narrator understands what he saw as a child, and this leap in understanding changes the memory for him.

All of this together shows that memory is unreliable and subject to change—but the novel takes this claim a step further when it introduces the magical concept of “snip and cut,” or “snipping” an event out of time and replacing it with a different version of events. Even though “snip and cut” is a supernatural phenomenon in the novel, it speaks to the way that memories can change or even disappear altogether over time. Old Mrs. Hempstock first uses this method to protect the narrator from his father on the night that the narrator’s father attempts to drown the narrator in the bathtub. She knows that cutting away the bathtub incident and the fight preceding it will mean that the narrator’s father won’t be upset with his son—and will therefore allow the narrator to stay the night with the Hempstocks, where he’ll be safe from Ursula. However, though Old Mrs. Hempstock gives the narrator the choice to forget, he chooses to remember the bathtub incident as he experienced it—another example of how people can remember the same event in entirely different ways.

In many ways, it’s impossible to tell what actually happened to the narrator, given the supernatural elements of the story and the fact that the adult narrator is telling the reader about an event that happened to him decades ago—and he’s describing events that even he didn’t remember until he stepped onto the Hempstock farm. However, the story suggests that the truth of what did or didn’t happen is ultimately less important than what the narrator gets out of sharing his story and remembering. Lettie ultimately sacrificed herself to the hunger birds (the vultures of the story’s supernatural universe) in order to save the narrator. Returning to the Hempstocks’ farm thus gives the narrator a tangible connection to his past and a chance to check on Lettie’s healing (Lettie can’t die, per se; she’s been healing in the “ocean” since her sacrifice). Memory may be fleeting and unreliable—after all, he immediately loses his memory of these visits and reverts to believing that Lettie is in Australia—but it’s impossible, the novel suggests, to fully erase the memory of one’s close, trusting relationship with another.

Memory, Perception, and Reality ThemeTracker

Memory, Perception, and Reality Quotes in The Ocean at the End of the Lane

If you’d asked me an hour before, I would have said no, I did not remember the way. I do not even think I would have remembered Lettie Hempstock’s name. But standing in that hallway, it was all coming back to me. Memories were waiting at the edges of things, beckoning to me. Had you told me that I was seven again, I might have half-believed you, for a moment.

I wanted to tell someone about the shilling, but I did not know who to tell. I knew enough about adults to know that if I did tell them what had happened, I would not be believed. Adults rarely seemed to believe me when I told the truth anyway. Why would they believe me about something so unlikely?

I wondered, as I wondered so often when I was that age, who I was, and what exactly was looking at the face in the mirror. If the face I was looking at wasn’t me, and I knew it wasn’t, because I would still be me whatever happened to my face, then what was me? And what was watching?

Adults follow paths. Children explore. Adults are content to walk the same way, hundreds of times, or thousands; perhaps it never occurs to adults to step off the paths, to creep beneath rhododendrons, to find the spaces between fences. I was a child, which meant that I knew a dozen different ways of getting out of our property and into the lane, ways that would not involve walking down our drive.

“I’ve been inside you,” she said. “So a word to the wise. If you tell anybody anything, they won’t believe you. And, because I’ve been inside you, I’ll know. And I can make it so you never say anything I don’t want you to say to anybody, not ever again.”

I watched as my father’s free hand, the one not holding my sister, went down and rested, casually, proprietarily, on the swell of Ursula Monkton’s midi skirted bottom.

I would react differently to that now. At the time, I do not believe I thought anything of it at all. I was seven.

I took the box of matches from the mantelpiece, turned on the gas tap and lit the flame in the gas fire.

(I am staring at a pond, remembering things that are hard to believe. Why do I find the hardest thing for me to believe, looking back, is that a girl of five and a boy of seven had a gas fire in their bedroom?)

As I ran, I thought of my father, his arms around the housekeeper-who-wasn’t, kissing her neck, and then I saw his face through the chilly bathwater as he held me under, and now I was no longer scared by what had happened in the bathroom; now I was scared by what it meant that my father was kissing the neck of Ursula Monkton; that his hands had lifted her midi skirt above her waist.

Ursula Monkton smiled, and the lightnings wreathed and writhed around her. She was power incarnate, standing in the crackling air. She was the storm, she was the lightning, she was the adult world with all its power and all its secrets and all its foolish casual cruelty. She winked at me.

“If I burn this,” I asked them, “will it have really happened? Will my daddy have pushed me down into the bath? Will I forget it ever happened?”

Ginnie Hempstock was no longer smiling. Now she looked concerned. “What do you want?” she asked.

“I want to remember,” I said. “Because it happened to me. And I’m still me.” I threw the little scrap of cloth onto the fire.

She said, “I don’t hate her. She does what she does, according to her nature. She was asleep, she woke up, she’s trying to give everyone what they want.”

“Sometimes monsters are things people should be scared of, but they aren’t.”

I said, “People should be scared of Ursula Monkton.”

“P’raps. What do you think Ursula Monkton is scared of?”

“Dunno. Why do you think she’s scared of anything? She’s a grown-up, isn’t she? Grown-ups and monsters aren’t scared of things.”

“Oh, monsters are scared,” said Lettie. “That’s why they’re monsters.”

“I’m going to tell you something important. Grown-ups don’t look like grown-ups on the inside either. Outside, they’re big and thoughtless and they always know what they’re doing. Inside, they look just like they always have. Like they did when they were your age. The truth is, there aren’t any grown-ups. Not one, in the whole wide world.”

She had started to cry, and I felt uncomfortable. I did not know what to do when adults cried. [...] Adults should not weep, I knew. They did not have mothers who would comfort them.

I wondered if Ursula Monkton had ever had a mother.

“They need to finish this up. It’s what they do: they’re the carrion kind, the vultures of the void. Their job. Clean up the last remnants of the mess. Nice and neat. Pull you from the world and it will be as if you never existed. Just go with it. It won’t hurt.”

I stared at him. Adults only ever said that when it, whatever it happened to be, was going to hurt so much.

Lettie Hempstock looked like pale silk and candle flames. I wondered how I looked to her, in that place, and knew that even in a place that was nothing but knowledge that was the one thing I could not know. That if I looked inward I would see only infinite mirrors, staring into myself for eternity.

I said, “Will she be the same?”

The old woman guffawed, as if I had said the funniest thing in the universe. “Nothing’s ever the same,” she said. “Be it a second later or a hundred years. It’s always churning and roiling. And people change as much as oceans.”

Old Mrs. Hempstock shrugged. “What you remembered? Probably. More or less. Different people remember things differently, and you’ll not get any two people to remember anything the same, whether they were there or not. You stand two of you lot next to each other, and you could be continents away for all it means anything.”

Essay On Down The Memory Lane

The stars have been shining brightly under the dark blanket of the sky. Thin little gray clouds hover around casting light shadows on the face of the moon. A few chirping notes from the sound of crickets outside completes the serenity of the night. I have long been fond of watching these diamond-like trinkets sparkling from high above that simply watching them every night gives me this feeling like that of a child given sweet treats. But It seems Like after tonight, It would take long for me to be able to do this again.

The ticking of the clock brought me back to packing my stuffs for I am to leave early tomorrow morning bound to a foggy place uphill for my studies. I was busy rummaging at my now half empty room when I stumbled into something ?a purple box I had used to compile different things I have gathered and collected for the past years for sentimental reasons.

I picked it up and opened it as I sat on my bed. And Like the usual, memories flooded my system as If everything Just happened yesterday.

From that little girl wearing high socks with big laces a decade ago up to that omen who I am now, I can say that I had my fair share of life’s bitter-sweet experiences. And ironically, as I think about it, whether we admit it or not, we could never regret anything life had to offer. Because each of them, whether big or small, memorable or not, success or failures, all of them honed the person we are today.

Proficient in: Memory

“ Amazing writer! I am really satisfied with her work. An excellent price as well. ”

While learning from them as personal examples of our “what Ifs”, we are able to measure our strengths and weaknesses.

Short Paragraph On Journey Down The Memory Lane

And In some Instances we discover hidden parts of ourselves waiting to be revealed for the world to see. L can’t do this. ” “How would you know if you won’t even try? ” “l am afraid. ” “What are you afraid of? How long would you let that fear hinder you from growing and learning new stuffs? Come on! Come out of your shell. ” My thoughts have been storming -the typical scenario happening Inside the mind of an Introvert. I always have this tendency to fast forward things, thinking of all the possible outcomes before even making the first step towards them.

Maybe this is because I am afraid to come out of my comfort zone. I want things to go my way and afraid to eave things the other way around. Yes, I have this perfectionist and control-freak nature until things happened which triggered the start of a change. I remember quoting Robert Measles on one of his books that “In life, some rain must fall – though sometimes It may feel more Like a deluge. ” It was not raining that day. But for me, it was as if a big dark cloud suddenly came and everything around me started to melt as that dragging aura poured down on me soaking me wet.

That after taste of regret adding woods to the fire giving me the instantaneously need to e invisible, to runaway even Just for a while from the haunting of my spontaneous act, to get lost and save myself from a breakdown of emotions. But In ten end, no matter now much I try to Take It, my tears would Detract me revealing the weakling behind that poker face. As they say, I may be able to fool others but I definitely cannot fool myself. I lost in a battle and I can’t blame anyone but myself. But the hardest part of losing is the knowledge that so much has been expected from you.

This guilt trip has struck me the most. So yes, on that day, I Just et my eyes swell as I was being drenched with the ‘rain’. Then after finally growing tired of blaming and crying, it is when everything started to sink in. It was after all a good reminder to keep my feet on the ground and a light to see my burning desire to strive for more. Given that there are still so many who believe and continue to support me amidst a number of times I had fallen on my knees and had broken their expectations. Sometimes, it is okay to fall and commit mistakes because those two are also part of growing.

Cite this page

Essay On Down The Memory Lane. (2019, Dec 05). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/paper-on-a-trip-down-memory-lane/

"Essay On Down The Memory Lane." PaperAp.com , 5 Dec 2019, https://paperap.com/paper-on-a-trip-down-memory-lane/

PaperAp.com. (2019). Essay On Down The Memory Lane . [Online]. Available at: https://paperap.com/paper-on-a-trip-down-memory-lane/ [Accessed: 23 May. 2024]

"Essay On Down The Memory Lane." PaperAp.com, Dec 05, 2019. Accessed May 23, 2024. https://paperap.com/paper-on-a-trip-down-memory-lane/

"Essay On Down The Memory Lane," PaperAp.com , 05-Dec-2019. [Online]. Available: https://paperap.com/paper-on-a-trip-down-memory-lane/. [Accessed: 23-May-2024]

PaperAp.com. (2019). Essay On Down The Memory Lane . [Online]. Available at: https://paperap.com/paper-on-a-trip-down-memory-lane/ [Accessed: 23-May-2024]

• Fast Lane Alex at Landon Care Products Pages: 2 (499 words)
• Improving Memory and Disorders that Effect Memory Pages: 4 (1086 words)
• Top Down Approach Of Policy Implementation Social Work Essay Pages: 7 (1943 words)
• Autobiographical Memory Essay Pages: 2 (410 words)
• A Christmas Memory Essay Pages: 4 (1157 words)
• Heritage Conservation Collective Memory And Urban Development Tourism Essay Pages: 11 (3056 words)
• Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Pages: 11 (3020 words)
• The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: Cultural Clash Pages: 20 (5723 words)
• Poetry Terms Crossword "Down" Pages: 1 (134 words)
• 100.0% / 1041 words / Breaking Down Lipstick Types ... Pages: 4 (1051 words)

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Memory and Identity in The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

2017, Cultural Intertexts

In his novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013), Neil Gaiman has succeeded in telling another spellbinding ―fairy-tale‖ for adults. It is unique among Gaiman's novels, as it features a child protagonist and his specific worldview. Despite being a fantasy novel, with a narrative filled with magic and wonder, it tells the traumatic tale of memory, identity, self-sacrifice, and survival. It portrays the essential role of memory as a coping mechanism, necessary for survival, and the ways in which childhood occurrences ultimately shape the adult's identity. This article aims to address and analyse the identity formation and the role of the memory in this process in The Ocean at the End of the Lane, through the lens of memory studies, and structuralist theory.

Related Papers

Journal of Language and Communication (JLC)

Ong Li Yuan

Neil Gaiman, a well-known British author, writes science fictions using various literary genres such as fantasy, horror and Norse mythology. Through the uses of literary genres in his novels and short stories, Gaiman highlights the themes of childhood trauma and the main character's self-identity in "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" (2013). In this paper, the main protagonist's struggles in coping with adulthood are interpreted using repression and denial as his primary defense mechanisms. These psychoanalytic concepts are believed to be means of ego defense to dismiss the unnamed male character's childhood trauma. The character also undergoes repression and denial as the result of his inability to cope with his painful experiences during his childhood. In order to move on with his life, the unnamed character chooses to imagine and immerses himself into fantasy to lessen his painful experience of the unpleasant incidents by internalizing his memories and dismiss them via repression as well denial. Hence, this paper argues that the concepts of repression and denial, as defense mechanisms, help the unnamed male character to cope with negative situations, which threatens his psychological condition during his childhood.

Children's Literature in Education

Dr. Laura-Marie Schnitzler

Neil Gaiman’s recent adult novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013), presents the power of magic as an exclusively female concept. At the same time, however, it can be argued that the text subverts its own feminist potential in its advocation of motherhood as paradigmatic femininity. Gaiman’s ecofeminist vision connects the nurturing qualities of the motherly Hempstocks with the prospering magical landscape they inhabit. Evoking the image of the triple goddess of Neopaganism and connecting it to the Greek Moirai, Gaiman presents them as direct counterparts to the text’s other magical creature, the villainess Ursula Monkton, who appears as embodiment of Freud’s unruled id. Both variations of female magic empowerment can be read productively as gendered performances of the femme fatale and the godmother, used in order to effectively manipulate their human surroundings. Contrasting evil hypersexual femininity, which eventually has to be banished from the scene, with a benevolent nurturing femininity, the text clearly values one over the other. While the domesticity of the Hempstocks’ thus seems to communicate a surprisingly old-fashioned set of gender politics, continuously pointing to the constructedness of gender roles actually makes the text a postmodern meta-commentary on the performance of gender roles.

sadatil hasanah , Anjar Dwi Astuti

This research discusses magical realism in Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane . The purposes of this research are to find out the characteristics and literary techniques and to explain the role of magical realism that is portrayed in the novel. This research uses theories of characteristics of magical realism by Wendy B. Faris and literary techniques and role of magical realism by Anne C. Hegerfeldt. The method that is applied is descriptive qualitative and the approach is post-structuralism. The data are obtained from the dialogues and narrations that relate to the topics that are being analyzed. The result of the analysis shows that the five primary characteristics of magical realism are found in the novel like the irreducible elements of magic, unsettling doubts, phenomenal world, merging realms, and disruption of time/space/identity. It also shows that the five basic literary techniques of magical realism are represented within the novel such as the adaptation of oth...

THE RELATION BETWEEN IDENTITY (SELF) AND MEMORY- THE MEMORY OF WATER BY SHELAGH STEPHENSON

Individual memory assumes a fundamental part in the improvement of individual identity. Individuals' available points of view about themselves, feelings, and goals affect their recollections and evaluations of past selves. Thus, people's existing points of views about themselves are influenced by what they recall about their own past, and how they evaluate earlier selves and scenes. People's reproduced evaluations of memories, their obvious detachment from past experiences, and the point of view of their recollections have proposals for how the past impacts the present. In this study we will focus on the verification of the reciprocal relation between memory and identity in Shelagh Stephenson’s play The Memory of Water (1996) through three sisters who come together for their mother’s funeral service in the north of England. The sisters’ path toward mourning brings their past into question as memories strive for authenticity and the internal facts of their different lives affecting their current identities will be uncovered. Keywords: The Memory of Water, identity, memory, Shelagh Stephenson, burial ceremony

Serhat Akbak

Memory is a social structure, lying at the root of culture that connects individual lives through language, history, literature and innumerable cultural texts, narratives, historical documents, and museums, monuments and even historical sites. It is language-based; being ever-evolving mental faculty, memory is continuous construction and reconstruction of mind and self. The social movement in constructionist psychology treats it as a narrative or as a story telling activity— a sort of fictionalization of perceptual experiences. Remembering is accordingly sensed as an act of creating/recreating memory by narrating it through a channel of language, which’s meaning and construction vary from person to person, and according to circumstances of now self, environment or audiences whom it is told. For this thesis, a framework synthesizing various but interrelated concepts mostly from memory literature and several humanities on memory like philosophy, psychology and history provides critical perspective and theoretical background in the analysis of American author Thomas Wolfe’s first autobiographical work Look Homeward, Angel: A Story of the Buried Life (2006). The thesis also surveys contemporary and classic memory literature including American authors Pagan Kennedy (Confessions of a Memory Eater, 2013) and Vladimir Nabokov (Speak, Memory, 1989) and British authors Tom McCarthy (Remainder, 2005) and Kazuo Ishiguro (The Buried Giant, 2015) and Check author Milan Kundera (The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, 1982). Each of those stories idiosyncratically tells memory through literary themes of remembrance, amnesia, identity search or existential crisis. In a sense, the thesis addresses how and in what ways literature may reflect philosophy, psychology and history that tackle memory scientifically. Likewise, studying the ways Wolfe modified and narrated his actual experiences in his literary work is linked with an understanding of the writer’s world, which is as well related to social, cultural, historical political and also literary contexts in the production and the reproduction of Look Homeward Angel, and their examination in the scope of this study; however, “autobiography is itself a major source of concern because of its very instability in terms of the postulated opposites between self and world, literature and history, facts and fiction, subject and objects (Marcus 7). Self-other or subject-object dichotomies, which underlie the persistent dialectic in the criticism of autobiography as both literary and historical narrative, are revisited, criticized and developed in the analysis of the self representation in Look Homeward, Angel.

Matheus da Silva Nogueira

This study analysed the development of the identity of a female character in Coraline , a fiction written by Gaiman (2002), based on hero’s construction by Campbell (2003). This essay, performed through bibliographic research, discusses the adolescent phase, as well the nonbeing and the distress of reality. Also, it recognized the emergence of the double that represents the alterity as a main function in the formation of identity. In this sense, it understood Coraline’s journey as a return to her origin and inner darkness where the other means secureness and refusal of reality at the same time. Therefore, the self emerges from the renounce of the double for becoming a subject aware of her self-existence and vision about the real world.

Fabian Rocha

Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013) rendered the author, according to a speech given at Google in 2013, the best reviews of his life. Interestingly enough, the writer claims that this specific work stands out among his other writings in at least two senses: (1) it is somehow autobiographical and pervaded by feelings, and (2) it was written "accidentally". The present work aims at investigating how the stylistic and narratological choices made by Gaiman helped him build tension in The Ocean at the End of the Lane , and how they contribute to the construction of a multilayered narrative that, besides being impacting, stands out among his other novels. To do so I will perform a close reading of the work while relying mainly on the studies on narratology as proposed by Genette (1980) and Herman and Vervaeck (2005), Piglia's (2004) theses on the short story, and on Shen's (2005) researches on stylistics. By approaching the studies of these scholars to the way the novel was written and the author's comments on it, I hint on the possible interpretations of the narrative plot. Keywords: Literary Theory. Narratology. Neil Gaiman. Stylistics.

Kick: Students' Magazine

Zvonimir Prtenjača

During a literary career spanning almost three decades, Neil Gaiman has managed to position himself as a prodigious architect of modern fiction writing which exudes a particularly recurring structural pattern. Gaiman allows his prose to dance jovially both to the beats of the traditional and the unconventional, and his 2002 multi award-winning dark fantasy novella, Coraline, outlines the same trajectory. As a result, the titular tale transcends the boundaries of juvenile fiction under which it is generally categorised and yields itself to multilateral examinations, one of which this paper purports to tackle. It also aims to retrace the titular heroine’s adventure by applying Joseph Campbell’s theoretical framework offered in his seminal mythological study, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), and ultimately aspires to decode Coraline’s process of maturation by examining several developmental stages of her sense of self.

RELATED PAPERS

Jurnal Teknologi dan Sistem Komputer

Surya Agustian

International Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics

Anil Kurane

Juhana Salim

BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth

Angelo Nyamtema

Journal of biomedical optics

Suzan Dziennis

International Journal of Dental Sciences and Research

Andreas Chiabi

Graziella Mangone

GİRİT YAZITLARI

KAZIM MİRŞAN

Esther Torrego

Thrombosis and Haemostasis

Juan Frontroth

ISIJ International

Yanxiang Li

Melissa Chan

奥克兰理工大学毕业证文凭AUT录取通知书 AUT文凭AUT毕业证成绩单AUT

Ensayos revista de economía

SALVADOR SANDOVAL BRAVO

Advances in Contraception

ernesto ang

Cumhuriyet Science Journal

Bedrettin Mercimek

Journal of School Health

Claire Brindis

ICES Journal of Marine Science

Mayya Gogina

DFI journal

Robert Bittner

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

How to build your memory lane

Whenever you walk down your ‘memory lane’, do you think about who built it? What is the relation between architecture and memory and where does it come from?

In architectural vocabulary, the difference between a ‘site’ and a ‘place’ is experiential. The expanse of the Earth is filled with varied ‘spaces’ all of which are sites but touched by the memory of a person and grasped by their experience, it becomes a place. Memories play an important role in shaping our experience with our environment. And the environment, in turn, helps shape and build our memories.

It is a symbiotic relationship between architecture and memory. Interventions at a site act like anchor points for our memories. Human identity finds meaning in their history; for a person, their history is integral to their present. This tells us a lot about our fascination with heritage and historic structures, and our tendency to conserve them. The power of architecture to influence memories is what gives our ancestral homes the character of familiarity and comfort, and also where memorial architecture finds its roots. 

As kids, all of us have roamed around places aimlessly, just for fun, rebuilding those places inside our minds as memories and experiences. The presence of memories, in turn, is essential to the existence of a ‘place’. Good places are those which attract and hold on to memories, they are “magnetic”, in the words of Donlyn Lyndon, Professor of Architecture at UC Berkeley.

This feature of places, buildings, and structures to hold memories is more innate than we think, and very useful if we learn to bring it from our unconscious or subconscious to the conscious mind. The character of Sherlock Holmes from BBC’s ‘Sherlock’ stores all his memories in his ‘mind palace’- a physical location where memories are stored like objects in a room. Joshua Foer, US Memory Championship of 2006, elaborated on this method in his book Moonwalking with Einstein. He explained how he trained for the championship and memorized a long list of words, a poem, a set of faces, or a deck of cards by fusing them to a familiar place in his mind. This technique has its roots in a memory-enhancing method of loci- a mnemonic device of Roman origins where a series of things are woven into different elements of a narrative, describing a journey through space. 

To use this technique, you have to choose a place which is accentuated in your mind more than the others, e.g. a familiar place like your childhood home or neighborhood. Different components of your imagined place like the rooms of the house or different houses in a neighborhood then become containers of bits of information using the minds characteristic of holding on to visuals. You can then recall the items in the order you walk through this space. Give it a try for your next History of Architecture Exam, or a design jury, or a client presentation!

But it is not necessary that your ‘mind palace’ is based on a real place. According to the research from Jeremy Caplan at the University of Alberta, Canada, people who placed their memories into completely new structures that they explored for five minutes virtually, on a computer screen, performed as well as others using the method of loci in structures familiar to them. You can start building your mind palace from scratch and design a place in your mind to store bits of information that you need to remember. Just make sure you save it in a manner that it is easy to recall the space when needed.

Architecture has a great influence over memory, but does this relation hold good the other way round? Christopher Nolan’s Inception underlines the idea of sharing someone’s dream world and being able to alter their dream reality. Dominick Cobb, one of the ‘extractors’ in the movie, assigns the task of designing a ‘dream labyrinth’ to architecture student Ariadne. But creating worlds in one’s dreams based on one’s memories and experiences can start from early childhood.

A ‘Paracosm’ is a fictional world created by an individual or a group of individuals over time, starting from their childhood. JRR Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ was his childhood paracosm which he developed into a sensational series of novels. The term ‘Paracosm’ was first used in the mid-1970s by Stephen A. Mackeith and Robert Silvey, two psychiatrists from England, and has gripped the field of psychology since then. The ability to create Paracosms provides insights into the creative ability and potential of a child.       

As architects, the decisions related to spatial planning and construction are indirectly influenced by our unconscious and subconscious thoughts. What is the scope, if the impact of memory and thoughts on architecture becomes more direct; when they travel to the conscious mind and reshape the surroundings? Maybe soon it will be possible to manifest spaces in the virtual world and then translate that into spatial realities. Or maybe structures respond to the thoughts of the user and adjust themselves accordingly. The link between Architecture and Memory shall continue to be explored and discover more possibilities!    

Pursuing his bachelors’ degree of architecture, he is still exploring whatis it exactly that draws him to it. He believes that every story is worth knowing and wants to exchange them with the world irrespective of the form- brush strokes, words, musical notes or bricks and mortar.

Indian Women in Architecture

Shenzhen Natural History Museum mimics the flow of rivers

Related posts.

Design of perspectives by Architecture

Paradox – Human Existence Without Architecture

Building a Sustainable Tomorrow: The Future of Architecture

Human existence beyond architecture: stories from architecture school

Evolving Perspectives: A Journey Through Architecture Education

Shaping Spaces: The Influence of Architecture on Culture, Heritage, and Modernization

• Architectural Community
• Architectural Facts
• RTF Architectural Reviews
• Architectural styles
• City and Architecture
• Fun & Architecture
• History of Architecture
• Design Studio Portfolios
• Designing for typologies
• RTF Design Inspiration
• Architecture News
• Career Advice
• Case Studies
• Construction & Materials
• Covid and Architecture
• Interior Design
• Know Your Architects
• Landscape Architecture
• Materials & Construction
• Product Design
• RTF Fresh Perspectives
• Sustainable Architecture
• Top Architects
• Travel and Architecture
• Rethinking The Future Awards 2022
• RTF Awards 2021 | Results
• GADA 2021 | Results
• RTF Awards 2020 | Results
• ACD Awards 2020 | Results
• GADA 2019 | Results
• ACD Awards 2018 | Results
• GADA 2018 | Results
• RTF Awards 2017 | Results
• RTF Sustainability Awards 2017 | Results
• RTF Sustainability Awards 2016 | Results
• RTF Sustainability Awards 2015 | Results
• RTF Awards 2014 | Results
• RTF Architectural Visualization Competition 2020 – Results
• Architectural Photography Competition 2020 – Results
• Designer’s Days of Quarantine Contest – Results
• Urban Sketching Competition May 2020 – Results
• RTF Essay Writing Competition April 2020 – Results
• Architectural Photography Competition 2019 – Finalists
• The Ultimate Thesis Guide
• Introduction to Landscape Architecture
• Perfect Guide to Architecting Your Career
• How to Design Architecture Portfolio
• How to Design Streets
• Introduction to Urban Design
• Introduction to Product Design
• Complete Guide to Dissertation Writing
• Introduction to Skyscraper Design
• Educational
• Hospitality
• Institutional
• Office Buildings
• Public Building
• Residential
• Sports & Recreation
• Temporary Structure
• Commercial Interior Design
• Corporate Interior Design
• Healthcare Interior Design
• Hospitality Interior Design
• Residential Interior Design
• Sustainability
• Transportation
• Urban Design
• Host your Course with RTF
• Architectural Writing Training Programme | WFH
• Editorial Internship | In-office
• Graphic Design Internship
• Research Internship | WFH
• Research Internship | New Delhi
• RTF | About RTF
• Submit Your Story

Looking for Job/ Internship?

Rtf will connect you with right design studios.

• National Poetry Month
• Materials for Teachers
• Literary Seminars
• American Poets Magazine

Main navigation

• Academy of American Poets

User account menu

Find and share the perfect poems.

Page submenu block

• literary seminars
• materials for teachers
• poetry near you

Birthing Woman as Viscera-Sucker

Add to anthology.

text in italics from “The Viscera-Sucker and the Politics of Gender” by Herminia Meñez

In preparation for his arrival I made my den:                              candles, bergamot-doused humidifier, coconut water, contraction timer. 

                                         By day, the viscera-sucker                                          appears                                          an exceptionally attractive woman                                          with long hair fuller and richer                                           from the hormones that infused my body

            the creature clung to sac,             placenta,             umbilical cord.

                                         By night, she discards her lower torso, hiding it                                          under the sheets, in a closet, or among a patch                                          of banana trees. Day eleven after due date:                                           the hilot who evicted overstaying children                                           speared needles and enerhiya into my shoulders,                                           initiating his departure.                                           Another hilot swept membranes, 

            commenced a stirring.             *

            *

                        Triad of healers prepared massage                         looped a malong to stretch my back                         sang songs to dance the child down                                          sprinkling holy water, burning incense

                                          contractions                                           were violent,                                           bursting from the inside                                          displaying blessed palms,

            doula did not arrive

                                         the crucifix, and praying                                          are believed to paralyze a witch.

                        blood pooled out of me,                         maxi-pad soaked in red.                                             To capture a viscera-sucker,                         GO! I emitted.                                          one should cast a priest’s cincture                                          or belt around her body                                          to make her

                        At the hospital, I arrived                                          powerless.                                                        a tortured, writhing beast                                                        doctors and nurses in gowns and gloves                                                                                    probed                                                                                    connected                                                                                    draped                                                                                    monitored                                                                                    injected.

              A hand, my hand signed papers shoved at it.               Papers quivered off the narrow bed like leaves blown by a supernatural wind.          

Birth plans prayers blueprints abandoned.

They wringed their hands and wheeled me into the fluorescent chamber.

                                         If someone rubs ashes, salt, vinegar, lemon juice,                                          garlic, ginger, pepper, and other spices on her                                          discarded part, reattachment is impossible Sliced in two, I parted for his removal                                            and the viscera-sucker dies fragmented.

Copyright © 2024 by Aimee Suzara. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on May 23, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.

More by this poet

“These people, both men and women, seem amphibious, and to be able to live on water as well as on the land, so well do they swim and dive. Five pieces of iron were thrown into the sea to them for the pleasure of seeing them exercise themselves. One of them was skillful enough to get all five of them, and in so short a time, that one can regard it as marvelous.”

Mujer Malvada

To La Siguanaba

I sprout from your black waters—arms rooting  to earth, bajo luna del lago Coatepque. I am birthed from your memory, given a new skin and hide to brush and braid, ashes de Izalco dusting my hair. 

In the ن of it all

two arms in air,  in dance, after catastrophe. 

  the body                     the universe                       the body

the fabric held at two points:

i am lamb.                                   i am shepherd.

Newsletter Sign Up

• Academy of American Poets Newsletter
• Academy of American Poets Educator Newsletter
• Teach This Poem

• See us on twitter
• See us on instagram
• See us on facebook
• See us on linkedin

Medical Humanities & the Arts Program

Stanford storytelling and medicine scholars class of 2024, meet our team.

Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Marit UyHam is a rising sophomore at Dartmouth College. She plans to study biology and hopes to attend medical school.  At Dartmouth, Marit works in a biological anthropology lab which analyzes microfossils with a focus on prehistoric China.  Outside of class, Marit is involved in multiple dance programs, and she plays violin with the Dartmouth Chamber Orchestra.

With over six years of experience in healthcare,  Amal Sharif has dedicated her career to improving patient outcomes through innovative approaches. Having worked at Highland Hospital, a Level 1 trauma center in the East Bay, Amal has firsthand experience in high-pressure medical environments and understands the critical importance of effective communication and empathy in patient care. Amal holds a Mathematics, Psychology, and Economics degree from Laney College. Amal enjoys exploring her creativity through various artistic pursuits, such as pastel, and drawing.

Halle Boroski  is a senior at the College of William and Mary, finishing her degree in Neuroscience on the pre-medical track with a minor in Public Health and a concentration in Health, Society, and Wellness. Halle plans to pursue graduate school post-graduation before pursuing medical school. She is involved in W&M public health club, working at the admissions office and wellness center, and working in a research lab focused on learning and positive study techniques. In her spare time, Halle enjoys being with friends, reading, and walking in Williamsburg.

Meher Gandhi  is pursuing her Master’s in Comparative Literature at University of California, Davis. She has a BA triple major degree in English, Psychology and Media and a diploma in folklore and cultural studies. Her interest in medical humanities, especially memory studies and cognitive poetics, guides her work in the intersections between literature and psychology. Her research internship with the Center for Memory Studies, IIT Madras bolstered in her the desire to move ahead in this direction. She also holds experience in publishing (including Penguin Random House India), literary festivals, and art spaces. Her other interests include writing and reading poems, teaching, and exploring art and architecture. She believes that her future research works will feature a trialogue between literature, psychology, and architecture.

Peter Park  is a 4 th  year medical student pursuing Psychiatry. He has a background in theatre and comedy improv and has integrated his interests in medicine and the arts through hosting local events for medical students to share their experiences on stage via Stethoscope Stage and HuMed Short Story Night in partnership with TCU Burnett School of Medicine. Additionally, he is collaborating with TCU in establishing the Narrative Medicine Consortium of Texas to unite Texas medical schools in increasing Narrative Medicine education. His work has been featured on The Nocturnists Podcast, MedMic.com, and Crohn's & Colitis Young Adult Network. Peter plans to pursue Psychiatry with interests in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Eating Disorders, and GI-adjacent Psychiatry. 

Keren Shafer is a rising MS1 at the John Sealy School of Medicine -UTMB Health-. She is pursuing a medical and master’s in public health degree as a stepping stone to becoming a pediatrician or OBGYN. She graduated with a Distinguished History degree with a double minor in Biology and Chemistry. Her interest in Historical writing includes women’s, Chinese, and medical history. She has presented her research at the College of Liberal and Fine Arts Conference at her Undergraduate institution; her most recent project was “Women in Medicine: A Look at Specialty Clusters.” She is now shifting towards immigrant narratives as a form of self-expression and ownership of her life experiences. Her hobbies include quilting, reading, and board games.

Tabitha Hiyane is an English literature student at UCLA and an Opinion columnist for the  Daily Bruin . Holding a vested interest in the medical humanities, her archival research has explored how intimate narratives of embodiment, contextualized through health and illness, are both particularized and shared as part of the human condition - the very stories inscribed in the histories of our humanity. While continuing to grow as a writer, she plans on applying to medical school, aiming to discover and put into practice what it means to care for another in all aspects of being.

Nada Kaissieh holds a Masters of Bioethics from Johns Hopkins University and is currently advancing her medical education at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, working towards her MD. With over six years of dedicated involvement in mental health advocacy, she champions for the betterment of psychiatric care. Combining her expertise in writing and photography, she endeavors to reshape community and cultural perceptions of mental illness. Nada spearheads an ongoing project aimed at integrating mental health education into local elementary schools, striving to increase visibility and accessibility to support and resources.

Soo Yeon (Jean) Chun is a rising junior at Stanford University planning to major in Symbolic Systems on the Neuroscience track. Since middle school, she has been fascinated by the creative, emotional, and linguistic capabilities of the mind. An aspiring psychiatrist and writer, she is deeply interested in the power of creative writing—particularly poetry —to guide and heal. In her free time, she enjoys drumming, discovering new music, and reading and writing poetry. 

Maria Luiza Fernandes is a sophomore undergraduate student from Brazil. She is graduating in Pharmacy and plans to become a neuroscientist. Her research interests cover a range of disciplines under the umbrella of the pharmaceutical profession and cognitive science. As an Immerse Education fellow, over the past year she has worked on a research project on Alzheimer's disease, including the applications of gene editing in the treatment of pathologies associated with the nervous system. She is currently involved in a learning community on psychopathologies and an executive member of FLOTA, a project aimed at developing young female leaders around the Americas.

Robinrenee Hamre is a sophomore undergraduate student at UCLA, majoring in Biology. She is a Native American student, originally from Anaheim, California. Robinrenee is passionate about studying Neonatology and pursuing a career in the medical field, in hopes to become a NICU Doctor.  Some of her hobbies are writing, running, and reading poetry.

Mehakpreet Kaur Saggu , a Pearson Scholar at the University of Toronto, is passionately devoted to making neuroscience and psychology approachable for everyone. Her journey into this field began with her love for literature, which sparked a sense of wonder and fascination with Oliver Sacks, and this ongoing saga of inspiration has continued to shape her work. From conducting research in the Decision Neuroscience Lab to helping establish a new Cognitive Science undergraduate journal, Mehakpreet's dedication to simplifying the complexities of the human brain is evident. She is grateful for the opportunity to merge her academic pursuits with her goal of bringing advanced science closer to public understanding. As a researcher, author, and advocate, she endeavors to share the wonders of the human brain, hoping to enlighten and serve the broader community.

Jess Skyleson (they/them) is a former aerospace engineer and Ayurvedic practitioner who began writing poetry after being diagnosed with stage IV cancer at age 39. Currently in remission, they’re now pursuing an MFA in Digital + Media at Rhode Island School of Design, with particular interests in narrative medicine, computational poetry, and sonic art. Their poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies throughout the US and UK, and they have been awarded the 2022 Hippocrates Poetry and Medicine Prize, an Honorable Mention in the Tor House Poetry Prize, and were a finalist for the Yemassee Poetry Prize and Kalanithi Writing Award.  They are presently exploring the integration of the body, poetry, and sound, and one of their sound poetry projects was recently selected for exhibition in the New Media category at Brown University’s Ivy Film Festival. Jess facilitates creative writing and art workshops for patients, medical providers, and caregivers, and they are hoping to develop collaborative pathways across art mediums and personal/professional experiences of medicine.

Emily Koseck is a medical student at Queen’s University in Canada. She is currently working at Toronto Metropolitan University on the development of a new medical school with an innovative approach to education that will meet the current pain points in the healthcare system. Her interests include improving healthcare delivery and outcomes through bioethics, trauma-informed care, and addressing systemic biases. Emily enjoys being active, spending time outdoors, and volunteering at a wildlife rehabilitation centre.

Shreya Gunda 

Grace Reed 

Sohini Dasgupta

Oldest MLB player turns 100: Roomed with Yogi Berra, stymied Ted Williams

SONOMA, Calif. — There were no radar guns in Art Schallock’s day, and even if there were, the soft-throwing lefty knows he would have barely registered a blip. At 5-foot-9, 155 pounds, the New York Yankees pitcher got by on guile.

“I was sneaky,’’ Schallock said Monday.

But now, at very long last, the crafty lefty is about to hit triple-digits. Schallock turns 100 this month, a milestone day for the oldest living former Major League Baseball player.

Advertisement

And here inside this senior living center, where Schallock is the resident celebrity, they’re about to throw the party of his century. “Oh, it’s the big buzz,’’ said Wendy Cornejo, the executive director of the Cogir on Napa Road. “It’s all about Artie’s party.”

Schallock was born on April 25, 1924. Elsewhere that day, Babe Ruth hit a three-run home run against the Red Sox , while Wally Pipp played first base (Lou Gehrig’s epic Iron Man streak had yet to begin). Over in Philadelphia, “The Big Train” Walter Johnson lost a 2-1 decision to the Athletics .

So began Schallock’s lifelong connections to baseball’s gods. When he got called up for his major-league debut on July 16, 1951, the Yankees made room on the roster by optioning to Triple-A Kansas City a disappointing rookie named Mickey Mantle. They would joke about the absurdity of that transaction for years. And Mantle exacted his playful revenge, in 1955 when Schallock was with the Orioles , by hitting a home run that has yet to come down. The Mick smiled his way around the bases. “Jeez, he could hit that ball,” Schallock said.

Schallock’s first roommate on the road? The Yankees paired him with Yogi Berra, counting on the veteran catcher to share some wisdom with the rookie about how to attack hitters around the league. Schallock still marvels over how Berra knew the weaknesses of every American League hitter as well as who didn’t have one. “Once in a while he’d come across somebody and just say, ‘Hold them to a single,’” Schallock said with a laugh.

Berra got something out of the pairing, too.

“Yeah, when I roomed with him, the first thing in the morning, I had to run down to the lobby to get funny papers for him,’’ Schallock said, laughing again. “Hell, I didn’t know a thing about comic books, but he’d say, ‘Go down and pick up a half-a-dozen comic books.’”

With Schallock, as with some trees, you can calculate the age by counting the rings. He helped the Yankees win three consecutive World Series starting with his rookie season of 1951. For this interview, the facility adorned the walls of a conference room with photos from his Yankees days. By his side were the commemorative bats from those World Series winners and at one point he studied the names engraved on the 1953 model and began reading off royalty like roll call.

“Whitey Ford … Vic Raschi … Phil Rizzuto … Casey Stengel, oh, he was a great manager,’’ Schallock said. “He was a smart guy when it came to baseball. Half the time he’d be asleep on the bench and Frank Crosetti would run the ballclub.”

The golden names just keep coming. Though Schallock made just 58 appearances while shuttling between the big club and Triple-A from 1951 to 1955, he had time enough to play alongside eight Hall of Fame teammates — Berra, Mantle, Rizzuto, Ford, Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Mize and Enos Slaughter with the Yankees; and rookie third baseman Brooks Robinson with the Orioles.

On the mound, Schallock faced 14 future Cooperstown residents. Let the record reflect that Ted Williams was 0-for-2 against him.

“I threw him fastballs, but never threw it as a strike. He’d kill me!” Schallock said. “I changed speeds with him. But he did knock the first baseman down one time. Tore the glove right off his hand. He picked it up and threw him out.”

Schallock’s voice is strong and his memories are vivid, as even his bygone minor-league tales hold up to fact-checking. But beyond that and his sense of humor, not all of his health is so robust. “I can’t see. I can’t hear. I’m falling apart!” he cracked.

Schallock took over the distinction of oldest living ballplayer when the aptly named George Elder died on July 7, 2022, at the age of 101. By the time of Schallock’s 100th birthday, he will have been the oldest living former major leaguer for 659 days.

“Is that right?’’ Schallock said. “Well, I’ll be darned.”

The next two players behind him are also undersized pitchers. Schallock is 131 days older than Bill Greason (a 5-10, 170-pound right-hander) and 519 days older than Bobby Shantz (5-6, 139-pound left-hander).

This has meaning to Schallock, who cites his stature when asked what makes him most proud about his baseball career. On Aug. 15, 1951, the New York Times described him as “the diminutive southpaw from the Coast” in a story headlined “Schallock Subdues Senators, 5-3, For Sweep of Series by Bombers.”

“I thought I had two strikes against me because of my size,’’ Schallock said Monday. “But I made it. I mean, you can’t get any higher than the Yankees, world’s No. 1 team.”

Checking out a commemorative 1953 Yankees bat with the oldest living former major leaguer. Art Schallock turns 100 (!!!) on April 25 and has some fun here remembering teammate Eddie Lopat. pic.twitter.com/2MDa8ZqAyU — Daniel Brown (@BrownieAthletic) April 19, 2024

When asked to describe his pitching repertoire, Schallock talked about his fastball and a big breaking ball “like that left-hander from the Giants .” As he racked his brain for the name, it hits that his lifespan opens a wide range of possibilities — Carl Hubbell? Johnny Antonelli? Vida Blue? Barry Zito?

“Bumgarner,’’ he finally said, referring to the 2014 World Series MVP .

There are countless wonderful ways to fathom Schallock’s longevity. Also born in 1924 were iodized table salt, ready-to-use Band-Aids, Kleenex tissues, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and Washburn’s Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flakes (known today as Wheaties).

Baseball researcher and historian Bill Chuck , who unearthed many of the statistical gems for this story, noted that Babe Ruth hit 240 homers before Schallock was born and another 474 after.

Schallock’s favorite baseball player growing up was outfielder Lefty O’Doul, who last played in the majors in 1934. O’Doul was from San Francisco and Schallock was born and raised about 15 miles north, in the Marin County city of Mill Valley.

O’Doul spent the latter part of his post- MLB career playing for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League, and Schallock wanted to be just like him.

Alas, the admiration was not mutual.

“When I grew up, I wanted to play with Seals,’’ Schallock said. “But O’Doul scouted me and said I was too small.”

Instead, Schallock took the backroads to his improbable career. He was a star at Tamalpais High School when, as a senior in 1942, he registered for the draft. By 1943, he was taken into the Navy — and his baseball career was put on hold while he served as a radio operator on the USS Coral Sea during World War II .

Schallock was discharged in 1946, having received 11 battle stars. Not long after returning home, he went on a blind date with a woman named Dona Bernard. It seemed to work out OK. They were married for 76 years until Dona’s passing last year at age 97.

She died on Art’s 99th birthday. They had two children and five grandchildren.

“They were amazing together. A true life-long love right there,’’ Zach Pascoe, one of the grandchildren, wrote in an email. “They were best friends. They truly enjoyed being in each other’s company, and as partners, they were even stronger. They complemented each other perfectly. They knew when to give each other space and when to be right there for each other.”

When the Yankees added Art Schallock in 1951, they sent down Mickey Mantle, who was struggling and striking out too much for Casey Stengel's liking. The last homer Schallock allowed was on August 15, 1955; ironically enough, it was to Mickey Mantle. Schallock turns 100 in a week — The Bill Chuck Files (@BillyBall) April 19, 2024

The Dodgers signed Schallock in 1946, and his career of rubbing elbows with legends was underway. His first manager at Class-A Pueblo (Col.) in 1947 was Walter Alston.

In 1948, he made his debut with the Triple-A Montreal Royals by relieving the great Don Newcombe on a team that also included Duke Snider, at age 21. The first baseman of that team was Chuck Connors, who later made a name for himself as the star of the “Rifleman” television franchise.

Maybe that brush with a future actor prepared him for life for the Hollywood Stars, where Schallock played in 1949. That team’s celebrity stockholders included the likes of Cecil B. DeMille, Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck.

The fans were famous, too.

“Well, every homestand, Groucho Marx was there,’’ Schallock recalled. “He had a box in back of home plate. There were six seats in it, but he would only occupy one. … He was a neat guy.”

Dona cherished this time of their lives. “My wife loved Hollywood — rubbing elbows with all the movie stars,’’ Schallock said.

She was less keen at the time regarding the pecking order of the baseball universe. So Dona had a curious response when Hollywood Stars manager Fred Haney summoned her from the stands midway through a game in July 1951 to tell her that Art had just been traded to the New York Yankees.

“And my wife said, ‘Who in the hell are the New York Yankees?”’ Schallock said. “Fred Haney just about fell off the chair laughing.”

Schallock had his high moments in the major leagues. He threw three complete games and amassed a career record of 6-7 with a 4.02 ERA.

Though he played for three World Series teams, he appeared in only one Fall Classic. In 1953, with the Yankees trailing late in Game 4, he pitched the final two innings and gave up one run. And, as was his custom, he left with a story to tell. The first five batters he faced were Jackie Robinson, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider and Carl Furillo.

His favorite baseball memory, though, had nothing to do with the superstars in his midst.

“The height of my career was just walking into Yankee Stadium,’’ he said. “I thought it was a thrill just to be on the mound.”

Schallock will get the chance to tip his cap to the crowd at least one more time, at his 100th birthday celebration on April 25.

Staffers at Cogir on Napa Road will wear Yankees jerseys as they transform the parking lot into a mini-ballpark, complete with concession stands hawking popcorn and hot dogs.

Sonoma mayor John Gurney will present Schallock with a certificate saluting his centenarian status. The slightly younger players from the Sonoma High School baseball team will attend. CBS Evening News is dispatching a camera crew. There will be a live band.

“He’s just humble,’’ said Cornejo, the director of the facility. “And he loves baseball. It’s just an honor to be able to celebrate a living legend.”

Schallock wasn’t the hardest thrower, but it’s easy to see now what made the zip on his fastball so special. It had late life.

— Independent baseball researcher/historian Bill Chuck contributed to this story. Follow him at @BillyBall

(Top photo of Art Schallock: Daniel Brown / The Athletic)

Get all-access to exclusive stories.

Subscribe to The Athletic for in-depth coverage of your favorite players, teams, leagues and clubs. Try a week on us.

Daniel Brown is a staff editor/writer for The Athletic MLB. He began covering Bay Area sports in 1995, including stints as a beat writer covering the Giants and 49ers. His feature story on Sergio Romo and a young cancer patient won first place in feature writing from the Associated Press Sports Editors in 2015. He is a native of Cotati, Calif., and a graduate of UC Davis. Follow Daniel on Twitter @ BrownieAthletic