The quicksand of forgetfulness: semantic dementia in One Hundred Years of Solitude

This multidisciplinary article compares the pattern of memory loss described in Gabriel Garca Mrquezs One Hundred Years of Solitude to that exhibited by patients with semantic dementia (SD). In his renowned novel, Garca Mrquez depicts the plight of Macondo, a town struck by the dreaded insomnia plague. The most devastating symptom of the plague is not the impossibility of sleep, but rather the loss of the name and notion of things. In an effort to combat this insidious loss of knowledge, the protagonist, Jos Arcadio Buenda, marked everything with its name: table, chair, clock, door, wall, bed, pan. Studying the infinite possibilities of a loss of memory, he realized that the day might come when things would be recognized by their inscriptions but that no one would remember their use. The cognitive impairments experienced by Macondos inhabitants are remarkably similar to those observed in SD, a clinical syndrome characterized by a progressive breakdown of conceptual knowledge (semantic memory) in the context of relatively preserved day-to-day (episodic) memory. First recognized in 1975, it is now considered one of the main variants of frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Writing within the realm of magical realism and investigating the power of language as a form of communication, Garca Mrquez provides beautiful descriptions of the loss of the name and notion of things typical of the syndrome. He further speculates on ways to cope with this dissolution of meaning, ranging from the spell of an imaginary reality to Jos Arcadios memory machine, strategies that resonate with attempts by semantic dementia patients to cope with their disease. Remarkably, Garca Mrquez created a striking literary depiction of collective semantic dementia before the syndrome was recognized in neurology. The novel also provides an inspiring and human account of one towns fight against the quicksand of forgetfulness.