Amemory hole is any mechanism for the deliberate alteration or disappearance of inconvenient or embarrassing documents, photographs, transcripts or other records, such as from awebsite or other archive, particularly as part of an attempt to give the impression that something never happened.^{[citation needed]} The concept was first popularized byGeorge Orwell's 1949dystopian novelNineteen Eighty-Four, wherethe Party'sMinistry of Truth systematically re-created all potentially embarrassing historical documents, in effect, re-writing all of history to match the often-changing state propaganda. These changes were complete and undetectable.

InNineteen Eighty-Four, the "memory hole" is a small chute leading to a largeincinerator used forcensorship:^[1][2]

In the walls of the cubicle there were three orifices. To the right of the speakwrite, a smallpneumatic tube for written messages, to the left, a larger one for newspapers; and in the side wall, within easy reach of Winston's arm, a large oblong slit protected by a wire grating. This last was for the disposal of waste paper. Similar slits existed in thousands or tens of thousands throughout the building, not only in every room but at short intervals in every corridor. For some reason they were nicknamed memory holes. When one knew that any document was due for destruction, or even when one saw a scrap of waste paper lying about, it was an automatic action to lift the flap of the nearest memory hole and drop it in, whereupon it would be whirled away on a current of warm air to the enormous furnaces which were hidden somewhere in the recesses of the building.^[3]

Nineteen Eighty-Four's protagonistWinston Smith, who works in theMinistry of Truth, is routinely assigned the task of revising old newspaper articles in order to serve the propaganda interests of the government. In one instance, the weekly chocolate ration was decreased from 30 grams to 20. The next day the newspaper announced that the chocolate ration had not been reduced to 20 grams per week, butincreased to 20 grams. Any previous mention of the ration having been 30 grams per week needed to be destroyed.

The memory hole is referenced while O'Brien tortures Smith; O'Brien produces evidence of a coverup by the Party, exciting Smith that such documentation exists. However, O'Brien then destroys the evidence in the memory hole and denies not only the existence of the evidence but also any memory of his actions. Smith realizes that this isdoublethink in action, as O'Brien has actively suppressed his memory of both a politically inconvenient fact and his action taken to destroy the evidence of it.^[4]

• /dev/null – Device file that discards all data written to itPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Ash heap of history – English phrase
• Bit bucket – Lost data in computing
• Blue wall of silence – Informal rule that American police do not report misconduct by other officers
• Book censorship in the United States – Censorship of books in the United States
• Burn bag – Bag used to contain classified items for burning
• Censorship of images in the Soviet Union
• Cover up – Attempt to conceal evidencePages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Damnatio memoriae – Exclusion of a person from official records and accounts
• De-commemoration
• Historical revisionism – Reinterpretation of a historical account
• The Memory Hole (web site) – Web archivePages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets, a website whose goal was to preserve documents which were in danger of being lost
• Motivated forgetting
• Pact of forgetting – Political decision in Spain to intentionally ignore the political legacy of FrancoPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Postcolonial amnesia
• Retcon – Revision of existing facts in succeeding works of fictionPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Selective omission
• Spiral of silence – Political science and mass communication theory
• Truth-seeking

Notes

• Phelps, Richard P. (2020, Summer)Down the Memory Hole: Evidence on Educational Testing, Academic Questions.

Sources

• The dictionary definition ofmemory hole at Wiktionary

• Fictional elements introduced in 1949
• English phrases
• Historical negationism
• Nineteen Eighty-Four
• Political catchphrases

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