That person is (excuse the pun) bound to make the same mistakes over and over, allowing those that still remember to abuse their power. If an individual is bound they cannot remember, but those that are around them still do. What Collins is exploring in The Binding, in the shape of De Hallivand and trade publishing, is how the vulnerability of truth can be exposed and used by those in power.Īnother interesting point which was picked up on was collective versus individual binding. The therapist, like the binder, is now the keyholder for your memories, and by carrying them their weight is lessened. To speak about your trauma, as those who are being bound speak about theirs, in many ways relieves you of it. Some QRC members cleverly related Serdaith’s form of binding to therapy. Seradith sees her binding as a cure for trauma. “Binding-our kind of binding-has to be done, sometimes. But, in the world of The Binding, it is also used for good – Seradith assures Emmett that binding is a kindness. Most prominently, it is used as a power-play by men in the novel – Nell is abused and her memories are wiped in order for her abuse to continue, Lucian’s mother must ignore her husband’s infidelities to avoid being bound, Honor Ormonde must plead with Lucian to be kind and let her keep her memories. To bind one’s memories causes all manner of psychological shackles. If you could remove all of your traumatic memories, would you? Reminiscent in part of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Collins explores the positives and negatives of the process in this novel.īinding is a metaphor for a lot of things, each of which Collins explores with subtlety and finesse. Once their stories have been told and are bound between the pages of a book, the slate is wiped clean and their memories lose the power to hurt or haunt them. We follow Emmett, a farmer suffering from an unknown sickness, on his journey of self-discovery. It’s a world in which people visit book binders to rid themselves of painful memories. That’s all books are.”īooks are dangerous things in Collins’s alternate universe, a place vaguely reminiscent of 19th-century England. We take those memories and put them where they can’t do any harm.
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