The challenge when navigating the

global is the discovery of the

personal and the universal.
When navigating the global, the challenge isn’t necessarily the discovery of the personal and the
universal, but the discovery of self within that; realising a purpose or place within the world as a
whole. It is more substantial to argue that the challenge arises when seeking the personal within the
universal. To differentiate personal from universal, is somewhat difficult, however, as what one may
regard as personal may be common to many others, and therefore universal. To discuss local and
global is slightly less intricate. Each is their own, distinct grouping; a separate entity, so disparate, so
extreme, so opposite, that one cannot exist without the other. In this sense, the relationship that exists
between the two is classified by balance; it is dialectical. And through the conflict of their opposing
forces comes “a changing reality”.
Globalisation; standardisation; homogenization. Boundaries of space and time erased and traditional
concepts blurred. Interconnectedness overrules and “knowledge, values and culture become at once
local and global”. An intense sense of placelessness results; a boundaryless self in a boundaryless
world.

A challenge suggests an opportunity for growth. What the stimulus then suggests is that we, as the
individual and community, are faced with an opportunity for growth as a result of this “globalisation of
communications”. Consequently, we must elicit a response to this changing reality: whether we
embrace, warily accept, challenge or retreat from it. And in doing so, embark on a journey of self-
discovery through the local and global. What needs to be addressed, in this sense, is an idea of what
each response entails and how then, is identity retrieved?
A common ideology suggests that in finding the local, one finds themself. Each of the texts I’ve
explored value a return to the local, but embrace a “here and everywhere” note, representative of the
transcendental nature of time and space. It is not just history and culture that is integral to one’s
development, in this sense, but memory. It’s strength in asserting who we are goes unparalleled and
as the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind suggests, it is concrete. “You can’t change the
past”. Memories are timeless, they themselves, blur the boundaries of time and space, being at once
personal, intimate, private and universal, shared, collective. Warren Neidich’s 1991 artwork Collective
Memory/Collective Amnesia as well as Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News and Seamus Heaney’s
Digging, Personal Helicon and Triptych introduce themes of memory on a local and global scale and
acquaint us with the importance of past in informing and enriching the present.

Stephen Bertman once said, “interlinked, [memories] form a chain of continuity from the past to the
present that helps us keep our bearings as we journey through life”. He questioned “can any culture
have a viable future if it has lost touch with its past?” – and the same goes for individuals. As the
studied texts and related material I’ve explored suggests, The Shipping News, Eternal Sunshine of
the Spotless Mind and Collective Memory/Collective Amnesia in particular, past remembrances have
a profound impact on the future. To forget is to dismiss from the mind; to disregard; to lose all
knowledge of. Loss of memory equals loss of past, and to lose knowledge of one’s past is to lose
knowledge of one’s self.
Each of the texts proposes this loss, however, as a means of starting anew. As Agnis says to Quoyle,
“it makes sense…for you to start a new life in a fresh place. It would help you all get over what’s
happened”. The pain that Quoyle experiences as a direct result of childhood abuse, constant “failure”
and ultimately the death of his cheating, exploitative wife causes him much misery but it is his Aunt,
who has experienced her own pain, that suggests moving through and away from it. “It helps if you’re
in a different place”, “you can be anything you want with a fresh start”. “And what place would be
more natural than where your family came from?” Eventually, Quoyle finds himself grounded in a past
he doesn’t know, a “darkness”, in a sense, that is comprised of “the ghastly unknown”. In this he
begins to find himself; his voice and independence just as Heaney uses his poetry to reflect what he
knows, to “see himself”, “to set the darkness echoing”. In Triptych, Heaney’s people find their voice:
“how we crept before we walked!”, he remembers: “those scared, irrevocable steps”. In uniting, they
discover that “[their] condition is not unique” and “that other people suffer as [they] suffer”. What is
personal, can be at once, universal.
Pain is a universal emotion inherent in and generated through memory. This, as a concept, is not only
evident in The Shipping News but each of the other texts also: the troubles reflected in Heaney’s
poetry – “who’s sorry for our troubles?”, he questions – as well as his struggle in obtaining identity, the
hardship faced by the local as a result of the “outside vibrations” of the global, the seesawing
relationship of Clem and Joel, and the pain they experience in letting go of one another, as well as the
tragedies and “global impact” of the Kennedy Assassination, The Challenger Explosion and the
Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Blast represented as “collective memories” in Neidich’s work. It is suggested
that the pain is “dulled” through “repetitive confrontation”. The workers at the Gammy Bird relive their
“inner fears” each time “as fresh as on the day of the first personal event”. In effect, the stories
published are desensitizing not only themselves, but also the public, to the trauma of the actual
events. By mixing historical, universally recognised images with personally made generalised emotive
responses, Neidich’s artworks desensitize the public to the significance of the events represented.
This investigation focuses on the way that the popularization of an event can jeopardize its historical
significance. Because of such popularization, Neidich says, the “real meaning of [Anne Frank’s] life
[has] become Disneyfied” just as the real meaning of memory is jeopardised by Dr. Mierzwiak’s
process of erasure.

Heaney’s poetry stands as a record of his memory, excavated and explored in various techniques,
language forms and features; an assertion of who he is and where he has come from. In Digging,
Heaney refers to memories of the work of his father and grandfather with great reverence but realises
he has “no spade to follow men like them”; and instead, “Between [his] finger and [his] thumb the
squat pen rests”…”I’ll dig with it”, he says.
Identity is a matter of memory, as Joel discovers the hard way in Eternal Sunshine. After finding out
that the woman he loved has erased him completely from her memory, he reacts by having the
procedure directed at his own memories of her. The erasure of such painful memories as a response
to a changing reality, in this sense, could well be considered a retreat not only from the global, but the
local as well. Encouraged to “empty [his] house, to empty [his] life of Clementine”, Joel is forced to
come to terms with the fact that “it will all be gone soon”. Patrick, however, one of the eraser
technicians, takes advantage of Joel’s memory loss, “stealing [his] identity” through his memoirs to
and relationship with Clem.

It is interesting that each of the texts brings to light similar ideas and Ways of Thinking. That, at once,
they encompass the personal and the universal; the local and the global, if you will. To share memory
is a warped and considerably improbable concept for it is only the experience that is shared. That
which is “collective”, as such, is questionable. Memory is personal, belonging only to an individual and
subsequently reflective of only their identity. To lose memory, is to lose one’s “self”. Were memories
to be erased, I don’t believe we could ever come to terms with the personal or understand the
universal. We would have no sense of past or present; a boundaryless self in a boundaryless world.
Overcoming this, as such, is the challenge.

Navigate the Global and embrace the sunshine that emanates from discovery.