# You've seen or read it, but so much time has gone by that you may as well not have? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 27, 2014, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-seen-or-read-it-but-so-much-time-has-gone-by-that-you-may-as-well-not-have/702638 "2014-10-27T10:36:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-seen-or-read-it-but-so-much-time-has-gone-by-that-you-may-as-well-not-have/702638/1 "2014-10-27T10:36:04Z")
I’m in my early 30’s now, and first started watching lots of great movies in my teens - half a lifetime ago, as unbelievable as that feels to me. I’ve been realizing lately that there are lots of movies that I _know_ I saw back then, but that my memory of them is now so fuzzy or even non-existent that I really may as well not have seen them at all. Recently some friends were talking about “The Godfather,” which I last watched when I was 17 or so. I probably don’t know much more about that movie today than I could have picked up from cultural osmosis. Ditto “Apocalypse Now” and “Goodfellas,” to name two that come immediately to mind. Same thing for books. I know I’ve read “Great Expectations” and “Catcher in the Rye,” but damned if I could give you a very good plot synopsis. Does this happen a lot to other people, or do I just have a particularly poor memory? If it happens to you, what’s the gap in time before you may as well not have seen or read something? ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-seen-or-read-it-but-so-much-time-has-gone-by-that-you-may-as-well-not-have/702638/2 "2014-10-27T12:23:36Z")
The last episode of QI had a bit where Stephen asked the audience if they’d read 1984. The audience got a forfeit purely on the idea that a large percentage were lying. I have read 1984, but I couldn’t now tell you any more about the plot than I pick up by osmosis. Same with almost any book I read more than about 10 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-seen-or-read-it-but-so-much-time-has-gone-by-that-you-may-as-well-not-have/702638/3 "2014-10-27T12:38:53Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > I’m in my early 30’s now, and first started watching lots of great movies in my teens - half a lifetime ago, as unbelievable as that feels to me. I’ve been realizing lately that there are lots of movies that I _know_ I saw back then, but that my memory of them is now so fuzzy or even non-existent that I really may as well not have seen them at all. Recently some friends were talking about “The Godfather,” which I last watched when I was 17 or so. I probably don’t know much more about that movie today than I could have picked up from cultural osmosis. Ditto “Apocalypse Now” and “Goodfellas,” to name two that come immediately to mind. > > Same thing for books. I know I’ve read “Great Expectations” and “Catcher in the Rye,” but damned if I could give you a very good plot synopsis. > > Does this happen a lot to other people, or do I just have a particularly poor memory? If it happens to you, what’s the gap in time before you may as well not have seen or read something? Wait until you have kids, and it turns out that one or more of them actually listen to some of your recommendations 😉 I have recommended novels, graphic novels, movies, etc. to my kids - then they come back and _want to discuss them_ - argh. And don’t get me started on stuff I had to read for school assignments - in one eye and out the other. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-seen-or-read-it-but-so-much-time-has-gone-by-that-you-may-as-well-not-have/702638/4 "2014-10-27T13:09:55Z")
It hit a bit later for me (I’m thinking early 40s - in my mid-30s I could have probably given a decent review of any book I’d ever read, and any movie I’d ever seen), but yeah, same here. Certainly for the past 15 years (I’m 60), there have been a lot of “I know I’ve read that book/seen that movie, but I can’t tell you much about it” moments. IMHO, our brains, which are still essentially the same brains as those of our ancestors who hunted mastodons, were designed to hold a certain amount of information in a way that could be easily called up in the memory. But by a certain point in our lives, we get well beyond that, thanks to our being able to access so much more information and stories through books, movies, and now the Web. Maybe it’s all there somewhere, if it can be called up the right way, but we can’t get to it for the most part. Like the kid in the Far Side cartoon, my brain is full. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-seen-or-read-it-but-so-much-time-has-gone-by-that-you-may-as-well-not-have/702638/5 "2014-10-27T14:40:51Z")
I’m not sure if this counts, but I read the first Harry Potter book, then three weeks later, I said to myself **I should really read that first HP book**. I didn’t remember one single moment of it. Is three weeks some kind of record? Should I be concerned? Is Harry Potter THAT forgettable? ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-seen-or-read-it-but-so-much-time-has-gone-by-that-you-may-as-well-not-have/702638/6 "2014-10-27T14:55:02Z")
There are a lot of books I HAD to read in high school or college, even books I had to write essays or lengthy papers on, that I forgot almost completely after finishing the course. At Columbia, I HAD to read the following “great books,” and I regret to admit I barely remember what any of them were about: Diderot’s _ **Rameau’s Nephew** _ Thucydides’ \*\*\*History of the Peloponnesian War \*\*\* Kafka’s _ **The Penal Colony** _ Adam Smith’s _ **The Wealth of Nations** _ (I’m always leery when my fellow conservatives sing the praises of this one- I’m never quite convinced they’ve actually read it!) Kant’s\*\*\* Critique of Pure Reason\*\*\* There are others, I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-seen-or-read-it-but-so-much-time-has-gone-by-that-you-may-as-well-not-have/702638/7 "2014-10-27T15:22:02Z")
The worst is when I recommend a tv show to a friend, like The Wire, that I haven’t seen since it aired. And then they “live-text” me while they watch it and I’m like “WTF are you talking about?” Ok that was just one friend who went so far as to “live-text” but even when people casually mention scenes in shows they just watched, that I had watched years before, I can’t really follow either. I consume too much media. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-seen-or-read-it-but-so-much-time-has-gone-by-that-you-may-as-well-not-have/702638/8 "2014-10-27T15:34:51Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Adam Smith’s _ **The Wealth of Nations** _ (I’m always leery when my fellow conservatives sing the praises of this one- I’m never quite convinced they’ve actually read it!) P.J. O’Rourke wrote a [book](http://www.amazon.com/On-The-Wealth-Nations-Changed/dp/0802143423/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1414424004&sr=8-2&keywords=PJ+O%27Rourke) about reading Adam Smith that I always thought looked interesting. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-seen-or-read-it-but-so-much-time-has-gone-by-that-you-may-as-well-not-have/702638/9 "2014-10-27T17:16:22Z")
We read Romeo and Juliet in high school, then we _really read_ Romeo and Juliet in college and discussed all of the rather juvenile humor that was laced through it. The play is a non-stop barrage of penis jokes. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-seen-or-read-it-but-so-much-time-has-gone-by-that-you-may-as-well-not-have/702638/10 "2014-10-27T17:37:13Z")
Hah! _Canterbury Tales_ is the same way - full of penis jokes, sex and boobs. I had to read it in high school and it was SO much better in grad school. I forget most movies shortly after I see them, particularly those that I saw when I was younger. It’s an odd quirk that comes with my seizure disorder. I remember books really, really well, but movies? Give me maybe a few years and they’re gone unless they were really memorable for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-seen-or-read-it-but-so-much-time-has-gone-by-that-you-may-as-well-not-have/702638/11 "2014-10-28T07:03:49Z")
I’m 69, and my advice is to get used to it; it gets worse. There are times when I’ll read a book or watch a movie, and not realize until the end that I’ve read/watched it before . . . even if I enjoyed it the first time. There could be a totally memorable and riveting scene that I swear was entirely new to me, like I must have dozed off the first time. On the plus side, things I’ve encountered before can be new experiences once again. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-seen-or-read-it-but-so-much-time-has-gone-by-that-you-may-as-well-not-have/702638/12 "2014-10-28T10:04:15Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > On the plus side, things I’ve encountered before can be new experiences once again. Exactly…I’ve started thinking of it as a feature, not a bug. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-seen-or-read-it-but-so-much-time-has-gone-by-that-you-may-as-well-not-have/702638/13 "2014-10-28T10:10:19Z")
Plato’s _Republic_, for me. I spent many a late, tired night reading it, as a kid. But I can just barely hope _some_ of it soaked in via osmosis, because about the only overt thing I can recall about it was that Thrasymachus was kind of a jerk. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-seen-or-read-it-but-so-much-time-has-gone-by-that-you-may-as-well-not-have/702638/14 "2014-10-28T10:24:12Z")
_Arrested Development_. I watched the DVDs when they first came out, but when my friend watched them years later, I couldn’t remember anything about them. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-seen-or-read-it-but-so-much-time-has-gone-by-that-you-may-as-well-not-have/702638/15 "2014-10-28T11:10:59Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > I’m not sure if this counts, but I read the first Harry Potter book, then three weeks later, I said to myself **I should really read that first HP book**. I didn’t remember one single moment of it. Is three weeks some kind of record? Should I be concerned? Is Harry Potter THAT forgettable? Three weeks? You’re right - that must be some kind of record! > [@panache45](#): > > On the plus side, things I’ve encountered before can be new experiences once again. > [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Exactly…I’ve started thinking of it as a feature, not a bug. This is an encouraging way to look at it. I get to watch “The Godfather” as though it were the first time - hoorah! ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-seen-or-read-it-but-so-much-time-has-gone-by-that-you-may-as-well-not-have/702638/16 "2014-10-28T14:01:31Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > Plato’s _Republic_, for me. I spent many a late, tired night reading it, as a kid. But I can just barely hope _some_ of it soaked in via osmosis, because about the only overt thing I can recall about it was that Thrasymachus was kind of a jerk. Now, Plato is one of the people we had to read at Columbia that I DO remember well, and could still carry on intelligent discussions and debates about! That’s how interesting and relevant I found him. Conversely, about the ONLY thing I remember about Immanuel Kant is that, over a urinal in Hamilton Hall, somebody scribbled: “A PISS IS A CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE.” - KANT ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-seen-or-read-it-but-so-much-time-has-gone-by-that-you-may-as-well-not-have/702638/17 "2014-10-28T14:08:23Z")
you can let a decade go by and view or read again. it might take some effort or strangeness to resist but it helps. like watch Apocalypse Now and if you want then watch a time or two in the next few months. then don’t watch it again for a decade. it won’t be new, you could remember to overall story, but some parts (scenes, dialog, details) will be new enough again to you.