Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Lapse of Memory


At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements ;)  

For the record, I came up with this week's question before I had even thought of this previous question. I knew there was something about it. But, alas, by the time I realized I sort of repeated myself, that Tuesday had passed. I think the two questions are different enough...

What if there were beings that went around and deliberately made people forget things?  

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

This letter available for the giveaway

32 comments:

  1. I can't help but think of the neuralyzer featured in "Men In Black." Maybe watching (or rewatching) this movie will help prepare us?

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    1. Yeah, I thought of MIB too. But what if there were people with that power, rather than those that had a gadget that did it?

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    2. Hmmm... Aluminum foil hats? No, wait, that's for protection against mind-reading, at least according to an episode of "Futurama." If we can't protect ourselves, I guess one consequence would be a massive increase in funds going toward dementia research.

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    3. That's a thought. Of course, aluminum foil hats might work...

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  2. I think I would like that if they made us forget the bad things, maybe that could be a good way to wipe evil out of the world.

    betty

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  3. If there were beings going around making people forget things none of us would remember it. ;)

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    1. This is true. They could be with us right now...

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  4. They could well be out there, we'd never know because they'd make us forget them. Perhaps they're at work in those moments when you walk into a room and then forget what you went in for!

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    1. I read about why that happens once. It was about restarting your mind when you enter a room. Or something like that.

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  5. Sometimes you have to wonder........

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  6. I'm with Alex! I believe it too!

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  7. It would be awesome if they were selective in either sanding off or removing total selective memories.

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  8. Then, we could blame 'the beings' for our forgetfulness. :-)

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  9. Then they could make us forget that we saw them!

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  10. Oh they would be pranksters! I could see this be some sort of lesson for them-we are the mice. Some things are good to forget

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  11. I think there ARE people walking around making all of us forget things. And they pay particular attention to us as we get older.

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  12. That would make so many things in my life make sense. I remember as a child loving a series of books "The Borrowers" that provided (at the time at least) a very plausible explanation why small things disappeared.

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  13. Then I think those beings could get away with doing some pretty nefarious things.

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  14. Sometimes, I do want to forget things and just go to bed, nothing in my overactive brain to keep me up. So, I'd welcome those beings.

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    1. I used to have that problem. But then I discovered melatonin, and now I no longer have things keeping me up. (Which can be a problem, because that used to be prime plotting time.)

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  15. Sometimes I think the world is infested with such beings.

    Stephen Tremp
    A to Z Cohost
    M is for Movies

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  16. I like Chrys' comment. How do we know it's not already happening?

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I appreciate your comments.

I respond to comments* via email, unless your profile email is not enabled. Then, I'll reply in the comment thread. Eventually. Probably.

*Exception: I do not respond to "what if?" comments, but I do read them all. Those questions are open to your interpretation, and I don't wish to limit your imagination by what I thought the question was supposed to be.