Amnesia In Litteris Patrick Süskind Summary

Patrick Süskind, a person who is fond of reading books, notices that he forgets every book he has read in his lifetime. He can hardly remember the details of his favorite books. Even worse, Süskind notices that he forgets the beginning of the book he is reading before he gets to the end, and he also often forgets the previous paragraph he has read. In looking at Süskind’s “Amnesia in litteris,” one must examine the questions Süskind asks while undermining the memory span of the human mind, as well as the rhetorical strategies he uses to get his point across. We will find that Süskind comes to a conclusion that readers’ consciousness often undergoes changes by their readings without even noticing it. Süskind asks questions in order to demonstrate

I read them all, at some point. What do I know about Alexander the Great? Nothing. At the end of the next shelf I see several tomes about the Thirty Years 'War. Like a good little boy, I read them one and all. What do I know about the Thirty Years ' War? Nothing. The shelf below that is stuffed with books about Ludwig II of Bavaria and his times. I not only read these; I slogged my way through them for more than a year and sub- sequently wrote three screenplays about Ludwig II. I was practically an expert on him. What do I know about Ludwig II and his times? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” Süskind keeps undermining his mind by saying, “What has re- mained in my memory of the fifteen-volume col- lection of Alfred Andersch? Nothing. What about the Bolls, the Walsers? Nothing. The ten volumes of Handke? Less than nothing. What do I still know about Tristram Shandy, about Rousseau 's Confessions? Nothing, nothing, nothing.” All the examples that Süskind provides cause his readers to wonder about their own mind’s memory span and possibly question their minds as well.

Süskind uses logic and reason well to propose his own description about what reading and amnesia in litteris are and the impact they leave on the human mind. He states:

“Maybe reading is an act by which consciousness is changed in such an imperceptible manner that the reader is not even aware of it. The read- er suffering from amnesia in litteris is most defi- nitely changed by his reading, but without noticing it, because as he reads, those critical faculties of his brain that could tell him that change is occurring are changing as well.”

Süskind then continues to talk about the bright side that amnesia of litteris has got to