The Memory-Traffic Rotary

I like this quote, and found it particularly interesting.

The thing you about remembering is that you don't forget. You take your material where you find it, which is in your life, at the intersection of past and present. The memory-traffic feeds into a rotatry up on your head, where it goes in circles for a while, then pretty soon imagination flows in and the traffic merges and shoots off down a thousand different streets. As a write, all you can do is pick a street and go for the ride, putting things down as they come at you. That's the real obsession. All those stories.

- Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried.

I really enjoyed this book, and was re-reading some passages from it today for my Literature class. I found that passage especially interesting, because it explains some of the way I wrote my short story earlier today. There are some factual things in my writing, and I know some people might find that weird, Lauren particularly thought it was strange I used our engagement as a setting. But I just cant help it, its like O'Brien puts it here, you remember those things, and they give you a street for imagination to flow down, they get the story moving.

All those stories...