Nick Bantock's The Forgetting Room:
A Second Look
Those of you who have frequented this site over the past few years have known that I have never been happy with my initial evaluation of The Forgetting Room. At the time I was not sure why didn't feel comfortable with it… It was, after all, just my impression of the book, my opinion. I thought perhaps it was just because I didn't feel wholly comfortable publishing a review that wasn't 100% glowing from someone I consider to be a keen creative mind. (You know what your mom taught you about not being able to say something nice…)
After almost three years, and finally an opportunity to re-read this book, I think I have finally figured out why I was not happy: I had not taken a step back to see the larger picture.
Literally.
Choosing to re-read this book now turned out to be most serendipitous, almost as if the book had waited for the right time to nudge me back into a read. You see, I am rather artistically and creatively inclined, but direct most of that creativity to computer-based things like websites and graphics in day-to-day life. I get very few opportunities to grab a brush and paint, feel the paper with my hands and get the pigment under my fingernails, and sometimes I can feel that wear very heavily on my soul. However, after a very long dry spell, I had only four days previously drawn a green man motif onto a large piece of green fabric (all right, so it was a queen sized flat bedsheet), and spent Friday night and most of Saturday afternoon painting him in (with the help of my most talented housemate, Andra), breathing life into him, letting loose the creativity, submerging myself in the highlights and shadows of the green man's face…
What has this to do with TFR? It has much to do with what Armon Hurt gains by the end of the story. It is an intricate treasure hunt rife with mystery and mythology, fable and fantasy. Upon the second read, the final scene left me feeling like I had been whomped in the stomach. How did I miss that the first time? I closed the book and only then realized how Armon's experience so closely paralleled my own, and how right and appropriate it was that I should have chosen to read that book again when I did.
And you know what? The nitpicky things that seemed to bug me so much the first time did not matter at all to me this time. Anyone who has ever regained something that they did not realize was quite so precious, never missed it until it was gone and back again, will appreciate TFR.
TFR still serves as an excellent insight into the more technical side of Nick Bantock's creative processes, probably the best (and only) until The Artful Dodger came to bookshelves (but since I haven't read the latter, I could not actually say for certain). Being acutely interested in how he works, this fascinates me (but may not be quite so exciting to those who don't love the process as much as the result :) ).
Anyhow, if anyone was put off of this book by my grumpy first opinion, know ye that I have seen the light and repented. I think I had been far too heavily influenced by G&S (and even, to some extent, The Venetian's Wife, which is now also slated for a re-read). I had not opened my mind enough three years ago beyond the scope of what I knew, to fully understand and appreciate the story in TFR. Those nearly three years of accumulated life experience has counted for a lot, but you know, I may still not have fully appreciated it if not for the rekindling of my creative spirit only those few days previous.
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