IJ study archive

Joelle's walk and the U.H.I.D. card — "None of the passersby seem to…"

quote

None of the passersby seem to notice the display she stands before, reflecting. It’s some kind of anti-ad. To direct attention at what is not said. Lead up to an inevitability you deny. Not new. But an expensive and affecting display. The film-cartridge itself would be a blank, too, or the case empty, worthless because it really can be removed all the way from the slot in the figure’s hand. Joelle removes it and looks at it and puts it back.

Context

Carlisle's reading, recorded not adopted: because Jim never shared what he made, Joelle doesn't realize the display is presumably an advertisement for the very film she just remembered making — the rememberer handling her own memory's product and unable to recognize it. Perfect recall of the filming, total blindness to the artifact.

In anthology