We were all of an age, though I more so, talking about how we remembered book lore. I argued for webs of proper nouns, especially names because they are more easily checked for misspellings, and connected by moving information. Reader Steve mentioned Jonathan Spence’s book, Matteo Ricci’s Memory Palace, in which each of many rooms in the palace houses a subject. I haven’t read the book, but this seemed a useful device for assigning meaning to my connected facts.
Fig. #40+. How about granite bricks/blocks to house the subjects of one’s mind, especially as the b/b’s are varied in size, placement, and color but each necessary to the wall’s standing. I love this rock wall in Tenants Harbor.
Then, Eureka! (That is a little librarian joke.) I remembered the Dewey Decimal System. As a long ago library cataloger of books, I knew well Melville Dewey’s classification system for all of 1876’s knowledge which he divided up into 100 subject/parts. Could Dewey parts be like subject rooms? An aside: Dewey was a strange, if clever, man. For instance, he placed the subject women in the high 300’s between folklore and holidays, instead of with men in the low 300‘s. This particular ninniness was changed in later editions, but psychology is still a subset of philosophy.
I’m ordering Jonathan Spence’s Matteo Ricci’s Memory Palace. I love Jonathan Spence. I don’t know of an introduction to the peculiarities of the Dewey Decimal System or any other classification scheme, but each has them. Any suggestions?
Why read? Reason #4: Readers make good conversation last longer and continue later.