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Monday, May 11, 2015

Not a Memorable Conversation

At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? Occasionally 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.


Question Mark, Note, Duplicate, Request

What if you could make someone forget their conversation with you? Not that they saw you or talked to you, necessarily, but just what was said.

10 comments:

Huntress said...

Changing the past, a dangerous idea.

If I could take back something I've said, it might fix a bad impression but what if by doing so I left a rift in the fabric of time?

Anonymous said...

Interesting. I think it would bother the other person, especially if they remember the conversation happening, but not the contents of it. It'll be sort of like if you black out and know something happened, but not what.

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

Hmm. I think making someone forget a conversation with you would come in useful at times, but it could also make you a poor communicator because you might be tempted to use it as a crutch for communication. A "do over" thing if you will.

Huntress said...

To Phantom Reader's interesting comment: an unscrupulous person might take advantage of this ability and verbally assault another person for their own satisfaction. Knowing, they could erase the memory of that conversation and suffer no ill-will.

M.J. Fifield said...

I do agree with Michael, but boy, it would be tempting to take advantage of that. Especially if I could combine it with some sort of time machine, so I could go back and alter practically every conversation I had in high school.

Charity Bradford said...

Um, I think I already have this power. I can't tell you how many times my husband swears I didn't ask or tell him about something. Granted there is always the possibility I had the conversation with him in my head. I do that occasionally, but sometimes I have two or even all four of my kids backing me up (so I don't think I'm the one going crazy!). Unless of course my kids are doing it just to be funny. We mess with each other all the time like that.

Wait, what were we talking about?

Neurotic Workaholic said...

I think that some of my students forget what I tell them, which explains why they often e-mail me to ask about things we already discussed in class.
If I did have the power to make people forget what I told them, I'd use it when I wanted to ask out a guy. That way, if he rejected me, he'd never remember that I even asked him; then there wouldn't be any awkwardness or embarrassment.

Liz A. said...

Huntress, leaving a rift in the fabric of time? I hadn't considered that...

betty said...

I had to laugh at what Charity said in her comment because the same thing happens here :) I think my kids have been known to forget conversations I had with them too, especially when it came to something I said "no" to that they decided they must have heard a "yes."

betty

Yvonne Ventresca said...

I would prefer an un-forgetting spell when I ask some family members to do chores.

:)
Yvonne