When we tell stories, and I feel confident saying we, because this is one, and so am I, well, we leave people out, don’t we? Not out of malice…not always, anyway, really just because the truth is fond of getting in the way of itself. Most people, they’re extraneous. Not meaningless, just liable to detract from the meanings of those around them. Killing their memories is the necessary cost of communicating others. Without their sacrifice, every story would be the same- a list of everyone who had ever lived, spiralling outward from a protagonist.
And no one is forgotten.
And nothing is said.
Now, because these are characters, not people, even in those cases where we…pretend they can stand for the living, there is nothing to be gained by remembering them. They are objects. They do not care, and they will not do us the same kindness. So if these objects are indifferent then we only need to concern ourselves with those objects which, when placed in the context of a field of other objects, communicate meaning: