The Memory Trap: How Society Bleeds the Forgetful

by Richard Crasta

Do you often forget things, and pay a heavy price for your forgetfulness? What about extreme forgetting who you are in the moment, the (potential) love of your life, or leaving behind and losing your precious, irreplaceable possessions? Memory failures can range from the trivial to the tragic, and they can make life more inconvenient, time-consuming, and financially draining for the forgetful person. In this long essay, the author examines the many problems of people with imperfect memories, and how society’s exploitation and penalization of imperfect memories is an inhumane and uncivilized practice.


Whether you describe the phenomenon as forgetfulness, absentmindedness, a defective memory, or impaired memory--some of us have it, and some do not, and many practices, from simple library fines, to stiff credit card penalties for late payments, and health insurance lapsing are unjust. It is unjust that society constantly punishes and extorts money from those with memory impairments, while rewarding those who make their plans well in advance and never forget a thing.


From the author of the twelve other books, including one published in ten countries, this short book is published in the public interest.
Around 7,000 words

ebook

First published August 1, 2014

About the author

Richard Crasta is the author of 12+ books (not 62 books or so, as shown by Goodreads--the author was simply trying out new titles for the same book, or launched a trial balloon book, then unpublished it; so most of the listed books don't exist). Crasta's novel of childhood and coming of age, "The Revised Kama Sutra," was described as "very funny" by Kurt Vonnegut and was published in 10 countries and in 7 languages. It has also been consistently been part of the recommended reading list in Lonely Planet's guides to India, at first, and then in the Lonely Planet Guide to South India.

Crasta's books include fiction, nonfiction, essays, autobiography (including books on fatherhood, publishing, and the lives of men), humor, and satire (3 of these under the pen name of Benny Profane). Throughout his literary career, he has been driven by a passion for freedom, self-expression, and resistance to colonialism and censorship, including that indirect form of censorship known as ethnic pigeonholing or literary apartheid. His books include "The Revised Kama Sutra," "Impressing the Whites," "The Killing of an Author," (the three books that comprise his Freedom Trilogy), and "What We All Need." They have been described as "going where no Indian writer has gone before," and try to present an unedited, uncensored self and view of the world.

Richard Crasta has traveled widely, and though his publishing imprint, Invisible Man Press, is located in New York, he now spends his time in Asia, working on seven books in progress.