On Journals
May. 30th, 2002 07:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldSir Andrew MacPhail (1864-1938) is a native-born Islander who has achieved a fair degree of renown, as a writer and historical personage. His semi-autobiographical novel (though classified as biographical under the Dewey Decimal System) The Master's Wife is a wonderful description of life, as it was, in his childhood in the late 19th century in a conservative Highland Scots settlement.
On the first page of my edition (republished in 1994), there is a quote:
"The remembrance of any life, rich and fresh, should not be lost to the world."
This is a profoundly ethical statement. Firstly, that all life is important, and that memory of life should be maintained post-morten. Secondly, it implies that we all can benefit from these memories of lives lived, not only the author though codification of dispersed memories can be a help, but an audience which can enjoy and benefit from these memories. Souvenirs of the mind, as you were, not manufactured in Anhui or Chennai, but something authentic.
On the first page of my edition (republished in 1994), there is a quote:
"The remembrance of any life, rich and fresh, should not be lost to the world."
This is a profoundly ethical statement. Firstly, that all life is important, and that memory of life should be maintained post-morten. Secondly, it implies that we all can benefit from these memories of lives lived, not only the author though codification of dispersed memories can be a help, but an audience which can enjoy and benefit from these memories. Souvenirs of the mind, as you were, not manufactured in Anhui or Chennai, but something authentic.
