I wrote a big long response to this but it was boring even for me so I'll cut it short.
I think that's a great question, but I don't think I can defend Joel's attempt to preserve his memories of Clementine as a mistake. I think he reacted too strongly to her impulsiveness when he signed up for the procedure in the first place, and that regret was going to be the inevitable reaction should he ever realize what he did. Unfortunately for him he got to watch the consequences play out as it was happening, which has to be the most agonizing perspective to have on any of one's own poor decisions.
That said, I recognize selective forgetting along with selective remembering as an essential part of character-building. That's what made early Don Draper such a strong character - his ability to shed his skin and move beyond his past transgressions, including those from just last night...
I don't like the tech because the pruning of memories should happen organically. Just like Clementine empowered Joel to reconfigure himself through his past, future experiences would have allowed him to integrate a conception of her as part of his story. I agree that these would be biased toward the positive because people build themselves out of their positive experiences - at least when trauma or other psychological obstacles don't get in the way.
There were moments where I considered telling my ex that I wished I'd never met her, but I don't think I've ever had even a second where I really, genuinely felt that way. In fact my favourite self was the one that was with her, that's what makes this so hard. If I deleted my memories I'd be a lot less miserable but I'd miss the experience of building myself up through what I accomplished with her to move beyond her and my dependency on my life with her (which isn't to say dependency is always bad).
You could say that Joel needed to delete Clementine because otherwise he'd be pulled back into an unhealthy relationship that wasn't good for him, but I'd say he needed to do that on his own and stop running away from himself. His whole relationship with Clementine was a shift out of his comfort zone where he was compelled to explore and communicate. To accept the "magic pill" solution is to go back against all of that progress.
Skipping back through it I definitely think the "reconfiguration" perspective is ambitious, but I can't demonize either Joel or Clementine enough to say that either should have deleted the memory of the other. And they did kind of get back together at the end didn't they? If only I could be so lucky
God I could write that so much better but I don't want to put it off any more lol.
EDIT: Actually - fuck it - I'm sticking with the reconfiguration thing, and here's why: remember how Clementine insists a couple of times that she's "not a concept"? Well too bad, she's wrong. And in fact the version of her who leads the way through Joel's mind is exactly the concept of her that exists to him (no wonder it's so much better than the real her). Joel's development into someone able to (subconsciously) think through problems with her perspective included is part of what makes the film so great.
I haven't, but it did come up as a suggestion based on these other ones I've been reading about. Other than
The Green Hornet I hadn't heard of anything else directed by Gondry.
