An English philosophy professor suffering from memory loss returns to a former office and discovers a set of mysterious boxes labeled with the signs of the Zodiac. Within the boxes are the notes of another professor, Michel Haar, which include unpublished papers, lecture notes, vague astrological charts, and plans for something he calls a memory theater—a hypothetical tool through which “the human being can achieve absolute knowledge and become divine.”
This is the beginning of New School philosophy professor Simon Critchley's debut novel Memory Theater, out this week from Other Press. The paradigm shifting ride that follows is a modern philosophical thriller in CliffsNotes form. Although much will be lost without a base knowledge of Western philosophy, Critchley's writing is swift enough, and the book short enough—112 pages—that the litany of academic names never cloys. Critchley (also the name of the main character) unpacks the various metaphysical concepts that lead up to Haar's fascination with the memory theater, from the original concept in the 15th century from philosopher Giulio Camillo, to it's extension in philosophers Giordano Bruno, Georg Hegel, and the lesser-known Frances Yates. By the end, Critchley himself becomes in enthralled by the prospects of the memory theater, a concept which appears increasingly less hypothetical...
