What’s with the title?

This question comes in response to two pieces of writing, one an article from The New Yorker, the other from a collection of writings from an author/neurologist. The first, “Persia on the Pacific,” details, through the lens of Parshaw, an Iranian-American, the nostalgic attachment of first generation immigrants to Iran, a country many of them have never set foot in. Set as a background is Irangeles, a community of Iranian ex-patriots that have made LA their home. The title itself locates the story before any background is given, displacing a culture from its home country to the edge of the Pacific ocean. However, aside from the obvious appeal of alliteration, the use of the word “Persia” also points to the efforts of many Iranian-Americans to distance themselves from Iran by calling themselves Persians. Not only does this distance themselves from the negative image most Americans have of Iran, but also characterizes their own disillusionment with their country of origin. A disillusionment that is not felt by their children, many of whom have grown up hearing stories about a better Iran than the one their parents fled, surrounded by fragments of a culture they embellish and cling to.

The second piece of writing takes the form of a short story, told by Oliver Sacks, and pulled from his own experiences as a neurologist. Titled “The Lost Mariner,” it centers around a 49 year-old Jimmie G., a man whose mind has become fixed at some point in 1945. Suffering from short term memory loss, he can only remember his life up until the age of 19, and has lived the rest of his life stuck at that mental age, unable to remember anything except for a past that ended long ago. The title serves to define Jimmie at a glance. He is a mariner because he served in the navy during World War II, and lost because he wanders through life with only the present, unable to have a future because he cannot remember his past. But the title of mariner seems to be a bit of a misnomer. Sure, he was assistant radio operator on a submarine, but it only occupied a small part of his life and a distant part at that. I suppose it has a poetic ring to it that is certainly appealing, but I think a deeper meaning exists here. No, Jimmie is no longer a mariner, or radio operator, or Navy recruit. However, he lives up to the title in that he, like a man at sea, is mired in the unknown. The people he loves and the life he had on land exists far behind him, and the only connection he has with them is memory. And what separates them but an endless sea of waves, indistinguishable from one to the next, moments he has forgotten.

Question from Spencer