False Memories

How Memories Work

What does it mean to be human? Every Science Fiction story, no matter how unique the plot may be, addresses this question. This concept of humanity is explored through different themes, symbols, and characters, often resulting in different answers. One specific literary device is used in both The X-Files episode "Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” as well as Phillip K Dick’s short story, "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale”. In each of these stories, false, or unreliable, memories is a central theme that provides answers to this core question. By comparing how the theme of false or unreliable memories is presented in both works, as well as comparing that information to real world studies regarding false memories, the answers to the question “what does it mean to be human” will become clear and allow for a deeper critical understanding of both stories.

In order to understand the impact of how false memories are presented in each of these works, it is important to expand upon what false memories are and how they are formed. According to neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux, “a memory is a set of synaptic connections” and “ each time a memory is retrieved, it becomes vulnerable;… it becomes susceptible to change… What gets stored back into memory is what is then carried forward”(40). Essentially, memories can be manipulated and once they are changed, the new memory overwrites the old one. Usually the change is insignificant, but the fact that there is an ability to create false memories has inspired both “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” and “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” to incorporate this science in an extreme form.

Notably using altered memory in a more drastic fashion, “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” follows Douglas Quail as he pays to have a false memory implanted. This is where science meets fiction. Not only in this story is it possible to alter memories, but it is possible to create completely new ones. In fact, the natural fallibility of human memory is acknowledged and compared to these manufactured memories. Mr. McClane claims , “The actual memory , with all its vagueness, omissions and ellipses, not to say distortions -thats second-best!”(38). When the procedure “fails”, the story begins to twist and turn when it comes to Quail’s memories. The rest of the plot forces the audience to question whether his memories were altered at Recall or if he is just remembering his actual life from before the government altered his memories.

The use of false memories adds several layers of uncertainty and brings up questions pertaining to identity. A philosophical analysis of Phillip K Dick’s works titled “Will You Survive a Trip to Recall,Inc.?” examines the film version of the story and highlights a link between memory and identity. The analysis questions that if the protagonist’s memories have been erased and “replaced…with the memories and personality of Douglas Quai[l]”, then is his “mental life not merely disjointed” but completely destroyed (74)? Do our memories make us who we are? This is a very human question. In fact, a scientific panel on false memories asked a similar question. The panel host, Steve Paulson, asked, “ What’s the connection between our memory and our sense of self, and if memory really is the core of our self-identity, what’s going to happen to us once scientists start to erase certain bad memories?…”(36). This is how “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” uses the theme of false memories to address what it means to be human. For this story, being human means questioning how our memory relates to our identity.

Compared to the previously mentioned story, The X-Files episode “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” uses false or unreliable memories more realistically. The main theme is how every person’s memory of an event can be vastly different. While there is the implication that the character Chrissy has her memory altered by the government, most of the plot focuses on unreliable memories. Chung sums up this main point in this quote, “I spent three months in Klass county and everybody there has a different version of what truly happened. Truth is as subjective as reality…”. The entire episode provides different explanations for what really happened. The explanations range from date-rape, to alien abduction, to a government conspiracy, but an absolute truth is never discovered. According to the article “Not Your Parent’s X-Files: Jose Chung’s From Outer Space”, “…at the show’s heart is Mulder and Scully’s search for truth…” and the “tension between truths and truth, between subjectivity and objectivity, between the inability to know and the desire to know” is what drives the show(126). The article focuses on this episode in particular because it most clearly portrays how unreliable memory results in different perspectives and how the truth may never be clear. The article also points out that “we are never sure of the degree to which Scully and Chung edit the stories they tell each other” (136). All of the different stories and the uncertainty of how accurate the retellings are add up to show that sometimes a single truth cannot be determined. “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” uses the theme of unreliable memories to show that being human means acknowledging the limitations of human memory and accepting that the truth may sometimes be subjective.

Each of these stories utilizes false or unreliable memories to answer the question of what it means to be human. When comparing the way that this theme is portrayed in each story, it becomes apparent that the point of each story is very different. For “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale”, the answer to “what does it mean to be human?” has to do with how people often associate their identity with their memories. This is supported by how the scientific panel on false memories questions this association, showing that humans are naturally inclined to make that correlation. By comparison, The X-Files episode “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” does not focus on one character searching for the truth of who he or she is, but instead focuses on several characters that want to know the truth of a single event. The severe differences in every person’s memory and the constant shifting of Chrissy’s story points out how it is human to have an unreliable memory. For “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space”, being human means accepting imperfect memories and subjective truths. Examining how the theme of unreliable or false memories answers what it means to be human in each of these stories provides further insight, revealing deeper meanings within the works.