Prosthetic Memory

In the next to the last paragraph of his article Jay Winter wrote "We must not underestimate the extent to which many historians consider 'popularity' to be synonymous with 'superficiality' and believe that any idea that is expressed clearly must be deeply flawed." 

This is just a guess on my part but I think Winter has read Prosthetic Memory... 

I don't know where to go with Landsberg...On the one hand I think her interpretations on immigration, slavery and the Holocaust are well thought out and I can even see (up to a point) her argument about commodification in the age of mass culture. She makesthis argument particularly well with her section on the Holocaust.  However, she does herself and her argument a huge disservice by using Blade Runner and Total Recall as "license to explore in creative ways the ethical ramifications of prosthetic memory" (p.34.) I realize she's a cultural historian by training but she should stick to examples from cultures that actually existed - as she did for much of the rest of book. 

Winter's argument dealing with evolvement of memory is, I think, more realistic and on much firmer ground. Identity politics certainly played a role in the advent of the "memory boom" but I think economic growth along with higher education levels and increased leisure time have also played a large part. 

Winter doesn't address these issues but if he had, I bet he would have done it clearly and not needed to use examples from science fiction.