Given Enough Time, My Brain Will Sort Its Own Puzzles Out

Do you sometimes find it easier to remember something if you stop consciously trying to do so? My dad's frequently says that's the key for him. He's trying to remember the name of some Mussolini biographer, or a particular relief pitcher from the Herzog-era Cardinals, and he can't call it forth. So we move on, talk about something else, like why I was asking about Mussolini biographies, or John Costello and Ken Dayley, who were also relief pitchers for the Herzog-era Cardinals, and after a few minutes, the name (or date, or whatever) will come to him.

I don't know if there's any scientific basis for it at all, possibly something about the subconscious mind's ability to pull things from long-term memory more easily*. It happens with me too, though sometimes it takes hours (maybe even days), and other times five minutes. Two nights ago, I had this sudden image in my head of someone shouting "Shut up! Just shut your mouth before I shut it for you!" Not at all sure why that came to the forefront, but once it did, I was struggling to figure out where it was from.

I was able to get an image in my head of first a voice balloon. OK, so it's from a comic. That narrows it down. It came to me a little more, the character was a girl, great, and the image was black and white. So a manga I read, probably, but it felt wrong, and I couldn't find any volumes that had it right (mostly I couldn't find a character that looked like the one in my head). After awhile, I managed to get my mind off it, focus on the task at hand: trying to be beat Persona 3 again (I'm gonna fail to max out all the Social Links again, and it pisses me off).

Finally, when I climbed into bed, the image righted itself. A color image, a girl with black hair, wearing purple, and the style looked so familiar. Then I recognized it as Alan Davis' work, so I started to ask myself what I comics I own he drew, and almost before I finished the thought I had it: Young Avengers Presents Hawkeye #6, part of that mini-series Marvel did a few years ago to try and keep the Young Avengers active in fans' minds until Heinberg could get back on the stick again. The only issue I bought, because it was going to have Clint Barton in it, Alan Davis was drawing it, and I was pretty high on Fraction that point from Immortal Iron Fist.

I'm glad it came to me, because otherwise I know it was going to keep popping up until I figured it out.

* Like what Bruce Lee said about when the opportunity presents, he doesn't hit, it hits all by itself.