Memory
Jazz is an incredibly important theme in Constructing a Nervous System. The main character in Jefferson's book is a lover of jazz and listen to its often. Her life also mirrors that of a jazz song: it rhymes, sometimes contradicts itself, and is occasionally fragmented. And like the jazz song which mirrors her life, the book's main character ultimately creates an album filled with jazz. After all, her deepest and most abiding passion in her life is jazz. Memory plays a significant role in Constructing a Nervous System. Because author Margo Jefferson's book is a memoir, it deals with her memories surrounding her life, her family, jazz, authors, other artists, and similarly important figures. Jefferson's book considers how memory transforms over time and how memory influences how we as human beings view the world and what it means to be human. Memory is what differentiates humans from other mammals (and animals more broadly). The human memory and brain are one of the most unique structures on the Earth. Similarly, the structure of Jefferson's book reflects humans’ memory. Also like the jazz music which inspired Jefferson's book, human memory is fallible and prone to being wrong. Jefferson's recounting in the book is similar; it is correct in parts and incorrect in others.
Jazz
Jazz is an incredibly important theme in Constructing a Nervous System. The main character in Jefferson's book is a lover of jazz and listen to its often. Her life also mirrors that of a jazz song: it rhymes, sometimes contradicts itself, and is occasionally fragmented. And like the jazz song which mirrors her life, the book's main character ultimately creates an album filled with jazz. After all, her deepest and most abiding passion in her life is jazz.
The nervous system
When author Margo Jefferson set out to write Constructing a Nervous System, she attempted to write a book which would include all of the vital aspects of a human's nervous system—including the brain, spinal cord, and heart. A human's central nervous system is what makes a human being truly human. And what it is like to be human is the essence of Constructing a Nervous System. The novel, through the metaphor and theme of the nervous system, examines what it truly means to be human—in both good times and in bad times. Ultimately, when you take out a human's nervous system (their heart and their brain and their spinal cord), you take away their humanity.
