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| Free Ass-sociate | ||
| HOME The Art of Memory Origin Myth Vivid Imagery Memory Is Personal Your Inner Monty Python The Use of Places Poetry and Song The Grid System Why It Works The Number Mnemonic Free Ass-sociate Conclusion |
If you are a typical, mentally sound, responsible adult who has not had much recent practice consciously using your imagination to make associations, start now, with the number system. Don’t get elaborate. Use the standard images I have suggested unless there are other images that compellingly come to mind for you. If the number 3 reminds you of a woman’s ass – the image I reserve for the letter B – then by all means use it. Or a man’s ass. Either way, be dirty. Be asinine. But resist the feeling that you need to be original. What works is what comes effortlessly and naturally to mind, and usually, like jokes, those are things we have gotten from others. Don't put thought into making your images more clever. Always use what is first available, right at hand, whatever pops up – these are the “free associations” -- free, meaning free of charge. Copyright has no place in an art of memory, and any consideration for property, like any consideration for propriety, only hinders. In the world of the mind and mental imagery, everything is free. No one owns anything. Wherever you got it from, if it's in your head, it's yours now. Giordano Bruno, the great 16th-century master of the Art, shamelessly lifted many of his images straight from earlier masters like Henry Cornelius Agrippa. He got burned at the stake, but it wasn't for violating 16th-century intellectual property laws. If you attempt to be original in your use of mental imagery, you are putting too much effort in and the returns diminish considerably. Remember: Memory is play; the more you make it into work, the less it will work.
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All material copyright 2006
Eric Wargo