Book & TV - The Worthing Saga by Orson Scott Card, and Dollhouse

So, when watching the two part season finale of Dollhouse, I was inspired to re-read The Worthing Saga by Orson Scott Card, because of some similarities. Both stories involve taping people's memories and/or personalities and then replaying them into themselves or others. More after the jump.
The Worthing Saga is one of my favorite books of all time. I've probably read it six or seven times, and every time, I'm surprised at how much I love it every time. It's a very involved story; it's not called a saga for nothing. It's got three separate main worlds that the saga takes place in, separated by thousands of years AND thousands of light years. But the most compelling thing for me, in the entire saga is the use of a drug called somec. Somec is a drug that allows the people in this society to basically hibernate. The drug is used as a social status symbol. People with a lot of money, power, talent or intelligence are given somec and allowed to use it at high levels, like spending five years sleeping and one year awake. That way, they can live five times longer than they would have otherwise. The ruler, an empress-like woman called Mother, wakes for one day every ten years.

But that's not really the part that interests me. What interests me is that prior to taking the drug, a person's mind is taped into a bubble, and then it is played back into their head when they wake. There's a short story about a woman who was in love with a very powerful man. She had invalid parents who desperately needed her to take care of them. The man she loved wanted to marry her, but she couldn't leave her parents. So he offered to put her on somec until they passed away. He would make sure that they were taken care of, but she wouldn't have to do it herself, and she wouldn't get any older. She was conflicted, but she agreed, so he took her to the place to have her mind taped. But after her mind was taped, and before they gave her the drug, she changed her mind. She couldn't leave her parents. So he took her home and she stayed with her parents. They lived five more years, in which she became reclusive and bitter. After they died, the man returned, and still wanted to marry her. She couldn't do it. She was too unhappy, to bitter, and she couldn't move forward. So, he offered to put her to sleep and then play the old tape back into her head. She wouldn't remember the past five years, so she wouldn't be the bitter, sad person that she was, but he would tell her what had happened, so she could know that she had done the right thing. So, they did that, and they were happy for a short period of time, but slowly, it started happening that she couldn't live with herself. She couldn't remember taking care of her parents, so for her it was like it had never happened. And she couldn't live with that, because it wasn't the decision that SHE would make. It made her crazy to feel as though, and to remember that she had not taken care of her parents, even though she was told that she had. And she couldn't live with remembering having made a decision that isn't the one she would make.

On Dollhouse, there are dolls, or actives, who come in "voluntarily" and have their memories wiped so that they become blank slates. That way, they can be imprinted with different personalities. However, there is a character named Alpha. Before he became an active, he was a criminal. He had kidnapped a woman and had slashed her face with a knife. He would have killed her if he had not gotten caught. After his mind is wiped, when he is in the doll/"blank slate" phase, he slashes the face of another doll.

These two situations have a shared idea behind them. They both suggest that even if our minds can be wiped, our memories erased, and possibly different ones put in, there is still something that makes you you. There are still things that you simply wouldn't do, because of who you are, even if you can't remember why. Or, in Alpha's case, there are still things that you will do, even if you have no memories or personality which should make you want to do them. Neither The Worthing Saga, nor Dollhouse specifically addresses the idea of a soul, but I think that is what they are both implying.

It's also a strong comment on the nature/nurture debate. They both indicate that there is a very strong nature component. I don't think either requires the belief that people's personalities and decisions are 100% due to nature, but it suggests that there are major components of who we are which are ingrained, and removing our memories won't eliminate those.