[“I don’t like remembering things.” – Ezra Pound] I’ve given up remembering. Not everything. y’know, just things I didn’t like that happened to me. There are great blanks, now. Starting tomorrow, I’m going to fill them in with memories of things that should have happened to me, new and better things. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll just go back to blanks. [Below: Back cover of my second novel, See/Saw - available on Amazon] … [Read more...]
“Killing-Time” / Memorable Fancies #220
20 September, 2016 by Leave a Comment
“Tired of just killing time? Do you really enjoy all those games of solitaire, those TV re-runs, reading those finely wrought first novels? Don’t they just make your boredom more intense, make time go by even slower? The solution, my friends, is FastForward, a simple device that turns off your brainwaves, blanks your mind for a time interval you select. The FastForward system normally sells for $149.95, but if you act now we will rush it to you for only $19.95. That’s right, just $19.95, … [Read more...]
“Never Happened” / Memorable Fancies #673
27 August, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Why do we sometimes remember events that never happened? This puts the whole concept of “happened” into question, doesn’t it? Why do we remember our shameful defeats that surely never happened? Must not have happened. Couldn’t have happened. – Could they? [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“My Memory Problem” / Memorable Fancies #1585
25 July, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“Stifling my memory lest it make a sound” – John Ashbery] I’ve seen physicians about my memory problem, read books on the subject, taken advice variously profound and silly. But my memory problem persists: I still remember her; I still remember her. [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“Glaciers of Memory” / Memorable Fancies #1581
20 July, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“the glaciers of memory” – Apollinaire] The glaciers of memory contain all the thoughts I never want to have again, frozen stiff and still, inaccessible. But even now I hear these thoughts grind slowly on the underneathing rock. They are searching for a crevasse, a way up, a way out. A way to reach the open sea. [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“Albert Hocks His Memories” / Memorable Fancies #10
1 July, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Albert hocked his memories. Since he had led a humdrum life, his memories fetched very little, only enough for two or three beers. He wandered around the city, trying to remember why he was holding a claim check and a ten-dollar bill. He decided to have a beer and think it over. Maybe two or three. [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“The Prophet’s Message” / Memorable Fancies #107
15 May, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The old prophet’s followers have begun to ignore him, although they wheel him out for public display on ceremonial occasions. He listens to their orations. His teachings, those long-ago words, have become commonplaces of folk wisdom, but simplified, distorted. Followers have added to what he said, deleted, changed. When he tries to correct them, he is hushed. “Perhaps they are right,” he says. “After all, what do I know?” … [Read more...]
“The Great Memories” / Memorable Fancies #0127
9 April, 2016 by Leave a Comment
It was exciting at first, the idea of buying someone else’s memory of – certain real-life events. After the first idealistic predictions, the trade became mostly sexual, you know? Of course we should have figured that sex would sell better than anything else. But a few scholars persisted, and founded Great Memories. Don’t have time to sit through a lecture course on Ancient Egypt? Buy a mem from someone who did! Without sitting in those hard chairs hour after hour, you could be infused with … [Read more...]
“Harold Changes His Mind” / Memorable Fancies #1510
31 March, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Harold changed his mind. It was old and he was tired of it, though he thought it still ran pretty well, for a mind that had been around for so many years, clogged with the silt of so many memories, his childhood and lovers and friends. The ads for newer minds sounded attractive, although with his old mind, Harold couldn’t quite understand what the ads were saying about nano and pico and femto and how buying one was such a great investment. Wouldn’t it be nice to understand all this new … [Read more...]
“Memory’s Delight” / Memorable Fancies #1463
9 February, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“deceit / begins as forgetting” – Louise Glück] ... and terror begins as remembering. <Buy it at amazon.com/author/terencekuch: Try Try Again – A novel of deadly U.S. political intrigue from Ashton Publishing Group (Australia).> … [Read more...]
“Full Disclosure” / Memorable Fancies #770
12 July, 2014 by Leave a Comment
[“...allowing therapists to insert thoughts and memories into the mind of the patient.” – Marina Warner] “Now Mr. Thompson, we’re going to insert some thoughts into your mind: memories, preferences, attitudes. When you awake, you’ll think they’re your own thoughts that you’ve had for years. We’ve tried other procedures, but in your case they’ve failed. “You’ll be sedated, but only briefly, and after two or three hours you’ll be ready to go home. If you do not consent to this … [Read more...]
“Forgetting the Forgettery” / Memorable Fancies #761
3 July, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Sallie went to the Forgettery. She told the them that she wanted to forget all the times she’d shamed herself in front of her friends and lovers. “Fine,” the clinician said, “we can do that.” Then Sallie had second thoughts. “Look,” she said, “those people will still have their own memories of what I did. They will look at me oddly, head-atilt, and say ‘Don’t you remember the time that you...?’ or worse, they will look at me and say nothing. Probably the latter, and I will … [Read more...]
“This Moment” / Memorable Fancies #705
8 May, 2014 by Leave a Comment
[“To recall the past is to forget the past.” – Jean-Pierre Vernant] Enjoy this moment; taste it carefully in your mind. You will never have a memory of this time again without accretions of thought, of sentiment, of self-regard and the rust of time. <END> THE THURSDAY PITCH If you liked this post, please tell your friends and share a comment here or in StumbleUpon, Reddit, Facebook, or other social websites. AVAILABLE NOW on Amazon and other outlets: “Fragments of the … [Read more...]
“Forgetting” / Memorable Fancies #690
23 April, 2014 by Leave a Comment
I have this forgetting-project, y’know? There were some awful things in my past. But if I can forget them, they’ll just be gone. The problem is, some other people know what I did and maybe they still remember. I need to make sure they’ve forgotten, too, and then I can get on with my life. I wish I’d never gone to that psychiatrist; now he knows what I did, because I told him. I know he hasn’t forgotten, because he mentions it in every session. He keeps urging me to go to the … [Read more...]
“Memories of Imaginary People” / Memorable Fancies #596
31 January, 2014 by Leave a Comment
There’s a new app that lets you create imaginary people and drag and drop your worst memories on them. I created an imaginary Ralph. Ralph did those awful things, now, not me. Ralph will be driven out into the desert. I call him my scape-Ralph. <END> If you liked this post, please tell your friends and share a comment here or in StumbleUpon, Reddit, Facebook, or other social websites. Subscriptions to this blog are available at … [Read more...]
“Pieces of Life” / Memorable Fancies #554
20 December, 2013 by Leave a Comment
I put the pieces of my life together in a different way. I learned to do this after many years of meditation, and many failures. Now there was only one piece left, that critical piece that had brought me so much grief. Where did it fit? Then it occurred to me that this – event – might never have happened at all. Why hadn’t I thought of that solution before? Now the rest of my life-pieces fit just fine! <END> If you liked this post, please tell your friends and share a … [Read more...]
“They Told Me” / A Memorable Fancy #383
25 June, 2013 by Leave a Comment
[“Might I not believe that once, without knowing it, I was taken far away from the earth – that other people even know this?” – Wittgenstein] They told me I went to another planet and came back. They insisted on interviewing me even though I didn’t have anything to say, because an accident on re-entry had wiped out my memories – they told me. I don’t remember being on another planet. At first I thought they were pulling my leg, or playing some practical joke while watching me with a … [Read more...]
“Three Memories of Love” / A Memorable Fancy / Dark and Unexpected Fiction #369
11 June, 2013 by Leave a Comment
[“I have dreamed so much of you that you are losing your reality.” – Robert Desnos] 1. I don’t remember falling in love with you. I don’t remember when it happened, or what I was thinking of just then, or what I said before or what you said after, or perhaps nothing at all was said; but somehow it – just was. 2. Every memory of you, every time I think of – us, removes that time from my mind; it’s excised scrape by scrape. I remember that I used to have memories of us. I remember that … [Read more...]
“The Forgetting-Project” / A Memorable Fancy #316
19 April, 2013 by 5 Comments
I did something so awful once, a long time ago, that I want to un-remember it, to un-know it. I went to a psychiatrist last year. He told me to face up to what happened; work through the memory; own it. Repression, he said, is not what I should be doing. But repression is what I’m looking for. The truth isn’t what I want. I don’t need to remember what I did; I’ve remembered that already, time after time. I can’t get it out of my head. Now I just want to remember something else, anything … [Read more...]
“Original Face” / A Memorable Fancy #279
13 March, 2013 by Leave a Comment
When he met her for the first time, he had memorized her face and voice, how she moved, not her appearance itself but how these features meant to him, if he thought her face pretty or striking or out of proportion, her voice high or low – because he knew that with time and accustoming he would not see her face, hear her voice in the same way, could not recapture his original thought of her unless now he noted and remembered. Much later, he is trying to recapture that memory of her from … [Read more...]
“Extinction” / A Memorable Fancy #275
9 March, 2013 by Leave a Comment
“The problem with forgetting,” said the man in the dark suit, “is that you have to remember what you’ve tried so vainly to forget – before you can forget, excise it from your mind scrape by scrape. In fact, that’s the key, isn’t it? ‘Extinction,’ we call it. Over and over and over, remember everything you can about her in the utmost detail, about how you and she were, together, and how you imagined she was when you were alone. The more you feel your pulse rising, your hands shaking, the … [Read more...]
“Our Machines Forget” / A Memorable Fancy #214
26 January, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Our machines have been forgetting. At first a few crashes, but we quickly restored from backups while we still remembered how to do it. Then severe dropouts, parity errors, corrupted backups. It was difficult to know what the machines had forgotten, since the records of what they had known had also disappeared, or become a random assortment of 1’s and 0’s. And we – what did we want the machines to do for us, when we invented them? … [Read more...]
“The Forgettery” / Memorable Fancies #208
14 January, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Today I visited the Forgettery and paid them so that I would forget about – a woman, I think – what was her name? I remember that it was a big effort to forget about her and it took the specialists more than a day or two, but it must have been worth it, right? Or I wouldn’t have done it, wouldn’t have paid the Forgettery so much. But now I’m free of her. If we were to meet at a party, now, I wouldn’t recognize her. But I might be attracted to her again – might go through the same – whatever … [Read more...]
“Grandpa Joe Tries to Remember” / A Memorable Fancy #194
18 December, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Sometimes he remarks on the weather or how the Jets or the Nets are doing, depending on the season. Not good to get them mixed up, he thinks: cause for unspoken loud derision from old ones who are not yet so far gone. Must remember that the Jets are the football team, the Nets basketball. At least he can associate a Net with a “net.” A Jet, however, could be any sport, or none. Perhaps an aerobatics team. Or an aerobics team. Is there a difference? Better not mention aerobics or aerobatics, … [Read more...]
“Holes” / A Memorable Fancy #138
19 October, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Several small holes pocked the castle’s south wall. Guidebooks (green, blue, red) led tourists there. A cantina had sprouted at the wall’s base, near blankets displaying cheap souvenirs. Ah, one said as he has always said, our brave boys were stood against the wall here and shot dead during the revolution. When was that? Oh, long ago, when we were fighting for the Republic. But why, then, are the holes so far up the wall? Bad aim, maybe. The shots that hit the men were right here, he says, … [Read more...]
“The Great Memories” / A Memorable Fancy #127
8 October, 2012 by Leave a Comment
It was exciting at first, the idea of buying someone else’s memory of – certain events. After the first idealistic predictions, the trade became mostly sexual, you know? Of course we should have figured that sex would sell better than anything else. But a few scholars persisted, and founded Great Memories. Don’t have time to sit through a lecture course on Ancient Egypt? Buy a mem from someone who did! Without sitting in those hard chairs hour after hour, you could be infused with the entire … [Read more...]
“Memory Transplants” / A Memorable Fancy #125
6 October, 2012 by Leave a Comment
“Even the most athletic, sweaty, heavily breathed sexmem could possess only one mind at a time. Some sexmems had become legendary, had been passed ten, twenty times from one head to the next, reviewed in Rolling Stone and Esquire, hoarded, agented, treasured, hocked, sold like precious gems or Dutch tulips. As the old song asked, “I wonder who’s kissing her now?”” … [Read more...]
“Kathy Remembers” / A Memorable Fancy #123
4 October, 2012 by Leave a Comment
No one paid attention to Kathy’s version of Kathy. They had their own memories of who she was, what she did. It started with her mother, who liked to tell her friends all the bad things Kathy had done at school years ago. Kathy didn’t remember doing any bad things at school, but Mom had seemed so sure – how she’d been naughty at age five, how she’d sat on Old Man Kline’s lap just before the police took him away, and later how she’d failed sixth grade English twice. Kathy put up with this from … [Read more...]
“The Memory-Transplant Lab” / A Memorable Fancy #121
2 October, 2012 by Leave a Comment
As the memlab attendant disconnected the probes from Morgan and Alex, he recalled the first and only time he’d received his own memplant, as required in the final semester of Memlab School. Each student had been assigned to select a memory and memplant it into another student. Most picked inconsequential mems they wouldn’t mind losing. His lab partner Don, however, picked a mem he definitely wanted to forget: Don’s father coming home drunk, smashing in a window after his mother had locked the … [Read more...]
“The Remitter – I” / A Memorable Fancy #110
19 September, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Rolf set himself up as an expert in deleting memories from people who longed to forget. “Sin Remitter” was his adopted title. All the terrible things you did, and your memories of them, and your memories of remembering them, and – you get the idea – all gone. Customers thronged to him. A few left without any memories of anything, their sins having been so pervasive. They wandered the city parks, wondering what terrible things they had done. A few sought forgiveness, but had nothing to confess … [Read more...]
“The Jolt” / A Memorable Fancy #109
18 September, 2012 by Leave a Comment
All we could talk about was where we were when The Jolt hit, and how it felt. Something like an earthquake, but not quite. Not a lightning strike, not a sonic boom. We agreed: The Jolt was less like those things, more like something happening in our minds. A piece taken out of a completed puzzle, that jostles all the rest so we can’t tell which piece was missing, or where it had come from, or what part of the design it had revealed to us. Something is missing from our lives, now. We don’t know … [Read more...]
“The End of Tomorrow” / A Memorable Fancy #096
4 September, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Today is Memories Day. It comes once a year and we know, from bitter memory, how this day will go. Marie comes down to breakfast, a face of despair. She sits wordless, doesn’t eat her eggs. Our children, Anne and Helene, stumble in from their bedrooms, swathed in tears. I try to comfort them. Since they are four and six years old (Anne the older), they will forget by the end of tomorrow. But Marie and I will not forget who we are. Since I’m the daddy I must be strong, not feel what the … [Read more...]
“An Ancient Contract” / A Memorable Fancy #084
26 August, 2012 by Leave a Comment
We agree to pay Kleanthos ten plates of meat from the civic feast, and not all the worst parts, or deer found rotting in the hills. And we agree to pay him fifty jugs of wine put up in harvest (but ten in a bad year), to be memory among us when our old men forget. Recall the battles of our kings, their lineage and strength! Relate our deeds of war and wealth and tell our daughters’ freshness to our listening eyes. We inscribe our names below (some of us with doubts) but if Kleanthos … [Read more...]
“The Actor Dreams – III” / A Memorable Fancy #074
13 August, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The actor dreams about the desperate gestures of the stage manager, the facial twitches of the other actors as they hint to him what his next lines are, the lines he has forgotten, the lines he never knew ... … [Read more...]
“Albert” / A Memorable Fancy #010
14 August, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Albert hocked his memories. Since he had led a humdrum life, his memories fetched very little, only enough for two or three beers. He wandered around the city, trying to remember why he was holding a claim check and a ten-dollar bill. He decided to have a beer and think it over. Maybe two or three. … [Read more...]
Memorable Fancies 