I forgot that ending...

[Luciana]

It happens all too often with me. I will remember the plot, or the anguish of the drama, as some might put it, but I will forget the ending. That happens even with books that I read twice. For the life of me, I can't remember whodunnit, or the author's conclusion, if there was one.

Just yesterday I saw a movie ("The Triplets of Belleville", not that I'm recommending it), and although I remember the premise, I completely forgot the ending! The last scene? I've been wrecking my brains since early morning and haven't remembered it yet.

A few months ago I reread my collection of P. D. James's books, 13 or 14 of them. By looking at the covers, I could tell which were my favorite ones. But I could not tell why. Other than generalities as "this one was set in an island, it features a young lady, not Adam Dalgliesh...". As I start to go through them, my memory was sparked and I could tell a few things beforehand. But even if I remembered who the killer was, could not remember how or why, any detail whatsoever.

How does "1984" ends? Dunno. "Brothers Karamozov"? No idea. I could go on what those books are about, some details pertaining to the plot and my perceptions of it, but never the ending. Hell, even Sherlock Holmes' stories which I read three times and saw the movie!

Am I alone in this?

 

[LuxFerum]

Am I alone in this?

Yes.

 

[LuxFerum]

I know someone who bought a book only to find out, after reading some chapters, that she already had read that book.

 

[Tanja]

Hi Luciana,

Quite often the only thing I remember about a film or a book is my general impression of it, rather than facts from it. I can safely re-read my Agatha Christie books (yes, I like them) every five years or so.

My memory is not much better for films. As films tend to be shown on TV late and I am a morning person, I often fall asleep when I watch a film, so obviously I don't recall much the following day.

I am often frustrated by my older sister, who has the memory of an elephant. Before when we were still living together, if I missed an epizode of a TV show I was following, she would tell it to me so vividly and in detail that couple of days later I would feel like I saw it myself. My sister can quote my telephone conversations from ten years ago. She has a large hard disk in her head!

 

[CFLarsen]

How does "1984" ends? Dunno. "Brothers Karamozov"? No idea. I could go on what those books are about, some details pertaining to the plot and my perceptions of it, but never the ending. Hell, even Sherlock Holmes' stories which I read three times and saw the movie!

Am I alone in this?

Hmmm...dunno. It might be a case of "don't think of an elephant" - you think you can't remember the ending, and then your mind blocks it. I wouldn't worry about it, though: You can see the same murder mystery and still not know who the killer is!

However, if you have forgotten how Casablance ends, then you have a problem!!

 

[Luciana]

I know someone who bought a book only to find out, after reading some chapters, that she already had read that book.

I've done that too...

Though this is more likely to happen with cheap literature, that kind of book that is perfectly forgettable. For example, most of the things written by Stephen King, everything by Sue Grafton... guilty, guilty. See, I can rationalize it very well.

I don't think so, I really can't remember it, it's not as if I have conditioned myself not to remember - I'm too optimistic for that.

Casablanca? Ok, that's a hit for me.

Tanja - I first read all of Christie's books when I was 13. Then again at 18. Again at 23 or 24, now in English. Might have to do it again one of these days... copyrights are expiring so soon we'll have them all available for free download.

 

[Brown]

Am I alone in this?

At times, I cannot remember the endings. Tanja mentioned Agatha Christie books. There is one Christie story--it's a Poirot story but its name escapes me at the moment--in which I could tell you virtually the entire plot, but I cannot remember who the murderer is!

More frequent for me, however, is that I cannot remember plot points that occur in the middle of the story. Certain things happened in the story, but I cannot remember WHY they occurred.

Often, the inability to remember a plot point leaves a logical hole in the story.

An example: I saw "Star Wars" in a theater in the late 1970s. Thinking about the movie later, I remembered a scene in which C-3PO and R2-D2 were inside a chamber in the Death Star and the stormtroopers were trying to get in and C-3PO was nearly in a panic at the prospect of being discovered.... and then I remembered the scene in which the droids rescued the folks in the trash masher. But for the life of me I could not remember how the droids escaped from the stormtroopers.

I recently watched "The Bridge on the River Kwai" for about the fifteenth time. This time I picked up on two or three plot points that I had missed the first fourteen times I watched it. (One sign of a really good movie, by the way, is that you get more out of it with each viewing.)

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Just yesterday I saw a movie ("The Triplets of Belleville", not that I'm recommending it),

Not recommending it?!?!?!?!? Are you nuts?? It was one of the best films of 2003.

And IIRC, didn't it end with them leaving Belleville, driving across the bridge and into the countryside?

 

[Luciana]

Re: Re: I forgot that ending...

Not recommending it?!?!?!?!? Are you nuts?? It was one of the best films of 2003.

Hmm... it's not for all tastes, thus the non-recommendation. I found it mildly interesting. The beginning was very promising, but it got too slow at some points - not a problem in itself, but with animation the scenes just seemed frozen. I was in a theater full of children and I could see they were completely unaware of the plot. I liked the premise, the animation and the humor, but... maybe I wasn't in the right mood. I can't pinpoint what went missing.

And IIRC, didn't it end with them leaving Belleville, driving across the bridge and into the countryside?

Oh. oh yeah...

 

[Voob]

How does "1984" ends?

Spoiler:

















He loved Big Brother.

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Re: Re: Re: I forgot that ending...

I was in a theater full of children and I could see they were completely unaware of the plot.

I am always amazed at how many idiot parents take kids to a film like that without having any clue as to what it is about. They assume that because it is animated, it must be for children. Reminds me a of a conversation I had with an idiot co-worker about a dozen years ago when he came in complaining about the content of the Simpsons:

Dean: I can't believe they would say that in a cartoon. I don't want my kids hearing that.

Me: Well, it's not a childrens show, it's for adults. Maybe they shouldn't be watching it.

Dean: Well, you try telling them that.

Me: No, you try telling them that. Grow a spine.

Dean: (walks off mumbling....)

 

[LW]

I know someone who bought a book only to find out, after reading some chapters, that she already had read that book.

Been there, done that, have two copies of the book on my bookshelf to prove it.

But sometimes it gets really spooky when you read a book that you know you haven't ever touched before but you still recognize events in it.

Last time this happened to me was after I found the memoirs of Alexander Pokryshkin from a used book store. [He was the second-highest scoring Soviet fighter-ace in WWII with 59 confirmed and 13 unconfirmed kills].

Since finding translated Soviet memoirs is not exactly an everyday occurrence to me, I could be certain that I hadn't read the book before. It took me some time before I realized that some military historian had lifted paragraphs verbatim from the text and inserted them into a book about Eastern Front. I haven't been able to remember which book it was so I can't check whether they were marked as quotes or did the author think that he could get away inserting them as his own text.