Forgotten

The Memory of Water by Emmi Itaranta is extremely sad to me. The most heartbreaking part, besides the visitation of horrible Commander Taro (ironic because I love Taro bubble tea), I think, was the fact that her mother left to study in a university and that the speaker and her father were all alone. I feel that in these times, it is important to stick with family and endure everything together. Perhaps, the mother felt like her family has got its identity figured out, and she should get hers too. I think that she wants to prove her worth, or try to make sense of everything that is happening. She is a symbol of logic while her husband is more artistic. She feels that if she could be successful in her research, her daughter would look up to her, too and she would have made a significant contribution to both her family and the world.

I feel like this dystopian vision is plausible. The skyscrapers of New York may very well be completely submerged in the future. “And somewhere, under the waves, arching like an ever-clouded sky, the ghost cities of the past world, sharp-edged and mute as memories.” (pg 81) However, there are things that I question. For example, why is that after all the disasters, there is a plastic grave? Why are some things completely unknown that should have been perfectly preserved throughout the Twilight Century? Noria touches upon this, and I hope the answers to these questions are satisfactory.

A quote I loved is on page 12-13. “Silence is not empty or immaterial, and it is not needed to chain tame things. It often guards powers strong enough to shatter everything.” I think it is amazing that even after translation, the beauty of language is somewhat preserved. This quote holds true meaning to it. She is referring to the secret of the spring, but it applies in real life. Some things should be kept to themselves in order to maintain peace and happiness. I also like the recurring motif: water has no beginning and no end. It is completely flowing, because it is life. This is why water is described as being the complement to death.