In one scene, Leonard burns several of his wife’s belongings, including teddy bear, brush, underwear, and a book. We see short flashback for each object. We see his wife taking off her bra. We see his wife brushing her hair. Then we see her reading a book, which is followed by a dialogue:
Leonard: How can you read that again?
Leonard's wife: It's good
Leonard: You've read it hundred times.
Leonard's wife: I enjoy it.
Leonard: Yeah, but the pleasure of a book is in wanting to know what happens next..
Leonard's wife: Don't be a prick. I'm not reading it to annoy you, I enjoy it. Just let me read, please.
I thought this dialogue was very interesting, because it parallels with Leonard’s own situation in the present. Leonard says “the pleasure of a book is in wanting to know what happens next-“, and the wife responds “I’m not reading it to annoy you, I enjoy it. Just let me read, please”. I felt like this conversation really relates to the current situation Leonard’s in. In a way, Leonard wants to know whether he will find the murderer and finally get his revenge. At the same time, he is afraid of losing the only motivation in his life. To compromise, he repeats the cycle of murder over and over again.
We get to see the text from the book for maybe 2 seconds, but it is enough to figure out the content.
Chapter OneTwo years have gone by since I finished writing the longstory of how I, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germani-cus, the cripple, the stammerer, the fool of the family, whomnone of his ambitious and bloody-minded relatives consid-ered worth the trouble of executing, poisoning, forcing tosuicide, banishing to a desert island or starving to death which was how they one by one got rid of each other howI survived them all, even my insane nephew Gaius Caligula,and was one day unexpectedly acclaimed Emperor 41 A.D.by the corporals and sergeants of the Palace Guard.In fact, it is text from an actual book called Claudius the God and his Wife Messalina, which is written by Robert Graves. It is a sequel to “I, Claudius”, a critical acclaimed historical novel which was also made into an award winning television series. The book is narrated by Roman Emperor Claudius, who was born crippled but also with an intelligence and brilliant insightfulness. However, his intelligence was always understated because of his disability. I never read the book, but I have watched the entire episodes of “I, Claudius”. I realized that the story of Emperor Claudius creates a parallel with the story of Leonard. According to “I, Claudius”, Claudius was always deemed weak and useless because of his disability. However, because his family assumed that he is a harmless idiot, he survives the murderous dynasty while many of his relatives are killed. He eventually becomes the emperor. In Memento, Almost all characters in the movie deem Leonard worthless and try to take advantage of his condition. However, despite his limitations, he does not just let them manipulate him. For example, Natalie fails to achieve her goal because Leonard does not kill Dodd. For Teddy, his lies ultimately come back to him and kill him. I think this is possible because Leonard creates his own world (simulacrum) in which he subconsciously controls everything. Everything he believes becomes the truth, and therefore the end result will always favor him.
Leonard: I have to believe in the world outside my own mind… I have to believe that when my eyes are closed, the world's still there.
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