Memory is a subject that has long been of interest to science fiction writers, but naturally it is becoming much more topical with artificial memory extensions available via data files (notes and recordings) and the Internet. We’re not at the stage yet where actual memories can be preserved, transmitted, or uploaded, but those processes do seem likely to arise eventually. However, at that point, all sorts of moral and societal questions arise, such as, who gets control over those memories? In much of North America and Europe, the answer would likely be a combination of corporations and government. In Yiming Ma’s 2025 novel, These Memories Do Not Belong to Us, the Party that rules Qin (and apparently most of the world) decides what memories are appropriate for upload to the network of everyone’s Mindbanks, and what memories should be deleted, with their holders destined for punitive re-education; however, quite a few people hold onto memories that they suspect may be borderline, and some choose defiance, however ephemeral.
These Memories Do Not Belong to Us is structured as a set of short stories, framed with interstitial messages from one such rebel, who found a trove of unauthorized memories upon his mother’s death, experienced them, and decided to share them with the world despite the punishment he’s sure he’ll face. They’re not all his mother’s memories, not even most of them, but rather memories she somehow gathered from other sources throughout history, from what seems to be the past or present, to a near-future war, to shortly after the war, to a far future.
Some of the memories are men’s, some are women’s, and a few aren’t stated. Some seem almost like fables, and are referenced in other people’s memories; some are wide-ranging, gritty tales of immigrant experiences, or war; others are intensely personal but still reveal interesting background details throw interesting light on how the Party controls information and shapes expected behaviors. A few include Mindbanks as a new phenomenon that only the rich can afford, but in many of them, Mindbanks are thoroughly established in society, and people worry about whether their borderline-inappropriate thoughts will be detected and judged; some just worry about how much they can get away with, and for how long.
The characters in these stories, and the challenges they face, are generally interesting and engaging. The worldbuilding is equally interesting; the totalitarian power of the Party is daunting, but for at least some people, hope (or at least defiance) abides. Some of the characters constantly exhort themselves to believe in the good intentions of the Party, and some even pray to it, but the very vehemence of their self-admonishments reveals their inner doubts.
Obviously, we here today don’t have to worry about the privacy of our inner thoughts, but expressing them in public and on social media seems increasingly risky, as criticisms from pundits and influencers grow ever more virulent, implicitly urging and even explicitly inciting violence against people who think or feel differently, plus those with readily identifiable different ethnicities, religions, or nationalities.
Moreover, the mutability of memory is a problem even now, without direct mental manipulations. In George Orwell’s 1984, Winston’s job is to alter photographs and documents in accord with the Party’s version of history; these days, deletions of official archives are accompanied by oft-repeated Big Lies that become truth in the minds of half the population; formerly undeniable facts have become debate topics. These Memories Do Not Belong to Us, but rather, apparently, to the government that gets the final say on them, at least in Yiming Ma’s book.
These Memories Do Not Belong to Us is the 2025 debut novel of Yiming Ma, although at least some of the stories in it have appeared elsewhere; for instance, “Swimmer of Yangtze” won the 2018 Guardian 4th Estate Story Prize. I look forward to seeing whatever he writes next.
Content warnings: War, death, privation, epidemics, deletions of memories, autocratic dystopia, gender-based discrimination, family disputes.
Disclaimer: I received a free eARC for review from the publisher via NetGalley.
