In Through the Looking-Glass, the second adventure in Wonderland, Carroll tells of a frustrating conversation between Alice and the White Queen. The Queen, it seems, claims to live backwards. “Living backwards!” Alice says, “I never heard of such a thing!” The great advantage in it, the Queen replies, is that “one’s memory works both ways.” When Alice counters that her memory only works one way, the Queen says, “It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.” She was right. Memory works both forward and backward. Forward, or anterograde memory, is the ability to form memories going
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