Viet Thanh Nguyen´s Just
Forgetting engages
in a conversation about memories and how one can forget it to move on with the
past, but the problem with that it diminishes the recognition of the past and
the histories that have become part of our understanding with our current
realities. Nguyen simply puts memories as critical recordings of what happened
no matter how awful or memorable it is. It challenges the notion of whether or
not the preservation of traumatic memories is even necessary to bring attention
to the atrocities of the war. Forgetting memories is not a form of justice, but
a form of suppression that only promotes the recognition of dominant
narratives. In a class where we study countering narratives, we discussed previously
in class that being silent is enough to surmise the trauma and pain that
happened in the past. In the minds and hearts of those people who were
involved, they never forget no matter how much they suppress it. It has been embedded
in their personal stories and experiences; it has become their identity and has
been a defining moment of their lives.
Last week we discussed the topic of
Agent Orange and how that triggered traumatic memories for mothers and parents
alike – this could be one of the reasons why many children are abandoned because
of their disfigured form and the memories that remind their parents. Viet
Thanh Nguyen’s Nothing Ever Dies is
a book that contests the accounts of the Viet Nam War; it reframes our stories
of the war through the recalling of unspoken accounts that continues to haunt
the people that experienced them. In the book, memory is such a sentimental concept
that it is caught in a split in terms of recognizing or suppressing them. Memories
as counternarratives are powerful mechanisms that contradict the dominating stories
of hardships, trauma, and pain. These are the types of memories that are of
historical value and significance in our continuous struggle to acknowledge unheard
voices. Just Forgetting is
a chapter that deals with renegotiating people’s history and memories of the
past as they are caught up in the process of moving on. This chapter in the book initiates an argument on whether or not we should recall traumatic pasts as a form of healing or should we stick to silence as a form of healing?
References:
Viet Thanh Nguyen. Nothing Ever
Dies. “Just Forgetting.”
“Viet Thanh Nguyen Still Remembers His
Traumatic Refugee Experience” YouTube. uploaded by Late Night with Seth
Meyers, 10 February 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOc6Unc_9ws&t=5s
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