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Quote by Mohsin Hamid

Work

Moth Smoke

Moth Smoke is a novel that delves into the complexities of addiction and the societal decay during the British colonial period in India. The story is set against the backdrop of a small Indian town, where the protagonist grapples with his personal demons and the broader issues of his time. more

Author

Mohsin Hamid
Mohsin Hamid

Mohsin Hamid is a Pakistani-British writer born in Karachi in 1971. His works often explore themes of globalization, identity, and modernity. Hamid's debut novel, 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist,' published in 2001, received widespread acclaim and earned him numerous awards. His other notable works include 'How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia' and 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist'. more

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“Ricoeur describes forgetting as both an active and a passive act: the individual’s responsibility to keep the event remembered is just as important as the changing political environment that is beyond the individual’s control. Neglect, or an unwillingness to revisit the past, constitutes an active act of forgetting. The responsibility of the individual to give an account (or testimony) of a significant event, and the need to remember and mourn the past, form some of Ricoeur’s ethical concerns in Memory, History, Forgetting.”

“Forgetting is what nature does best. The universe is a huge forgetting machine. It erases information no matter how hard we try to hang onto it. How could it be any different? What if the memory of everything that ever happened still existed? The universe would be clogged with information, so packed with it we couldn’t move. We’d be paralyzed, because every moment we ever lived would still be with us. It would be hell.”

“Why is it important to forget? Forgetting plays a vital role in our ability to function for a deceptively simple reason. Forgetting allows us to prioritise. Anything irrelevant to our survival will take up wasteful cognitive space if we assign it the same priority as events critical to our survival.”