The Mystery of “Memento”

Ever watch “Memento”?  Ever watch it fifteen, sixteen times -- sometimes with the sound off, searching for subtle visual clues that the noise might distract you from, like a magician’s patter?  Well, we did, me’n Joey.  Now that was one tough case to crack.

Only now, Doctor J may have a lead that could bust the thing wide open.  Check out the investigation here:

http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2011/01/redismembering-memento.html

[Dr J  in statu proprio]:There is, in fact, a similarity between the Leonard of “Memento” and the Murphy of “Murphy on the Mount”.  Both are engaged in a dogged, almost frenzied quest, in a case with almost no evidence -- and with absolutely nothing in it for them personally.  Both Leonard’s wife, and Murphy’s client (who wasn’t going to pay him anyway) are dead:  but the case has its own momentum, and they pursue its improbable solution,  like a knight  the grail.

Murphy: in Memoriam

Murphy was Catholic to the very core of him;  yet this fact had somehow managed to escape his knowledge.  It was like a small bright afterimage, off-center from the fovea,  which the eyeball swivels in an attempt to catch -- but ever it flees the field of vision.  Here it was not his faith that was off-center, but his sweating, striving conscious mind.   For any time he asked himself the question point-blank:  Are you a Christian?  the answer was uncertain.   “I wish I knew. -- I’m a letch and a drunkard, more concerned about where my next beer is coming from, and what might lie under that interesting skirt, than about what our Lord might require of me.   And I am not about to change that, either!”  (Stubbornly, chin out;  insides turned to porridge.) 

            The times when it was nevertheless brought home to him, that he was indeed a Christian, was when his consciousness was caught off-guard:  an unanticipated answering smile;   an act of kindness, flowing from him or -- through him;   or, wandering down by the pond, spotting a pair of married ducks.

            And how did he wind up, finally?   Did he eventually formally return to the Church?   Was he saved?

            Fie, for even asking that.   Let us   each of us   attend to our own mission, and care for our loved-ones,  seeking to understand the Lord’s will.   As for old Murphy -- well, to be sure, I pray for his salvation;  but as you know,  I pray for the salvation of the Devil himself.