memory and Suzanne (offshot of Typhon's nature)

Jerry Friedman · 23 Oct 2011, 05:25 · from 2011-October.txt.gz

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From: jerry_friedman at yahoo.com (Jerry Friedman)
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2011 22:25:28 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) memory and Suzanne (offshot of Typhon's nature)
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>From: Marc Aramini <marcaramini at yahoo.com>
>? He isn't even sure it's spanish influenza, which is WEIRD.

Oddly enough, Spanish influenza has been called "the forgotten pandemic".? And mortality caused by it varied a lot from place to place.? For instance, the early form was less deadly, and where a lot of people got that, they were immune to the second, deadlier wave.? See <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_influenza>.? So it's not necessarily weird.

> His memory is faulty about events concerning her; his story
> of her being in the pie club and not knowing her friends doesn't add up considering the wife of his friend says of course
> you know whose she is, don't you etc etc.

I'm reminded of someone from my town--let's call him Steve B., since that's really his name and initial--who was a grade after me.? However, I went to a private high school, so I didn't know him from our one public high school.? My mother worked closely with his mother on a community organization.? He then went to the same college as me.? One of his roommates was one of my best friends in high school--but though we still enjoyed a chat if we ran into each other on some quad, we were in different social circles in college.? He worked at the campus radio station, as did one of my roommates--but I was seldom at the station.? Another of my roommates helped referee a simulation of corporate takeovers for an economics class that Steve participated in (and I told my roommate Steve's mother's name so my roommate could announce that the result of a tender offer was "Only Mrs. X. B. of Ourtown, Ohio, sold any shares at this price").? So someone who knew all
 this could have said, "Of course you know who he is"--but I've never met him.

I have no reason to think meeting him would have made any significant difference in my life, and I imagine I could find a photo of him if I looked--in fact I think I've seen one--but I think our narrator's story can add up.

(I can't find a picture of him on the Web, though.? Hm...)

>But once again, if he forgot the extraordinary event (its in a fantasy collection remember) HE CAN'T REMEMBER IT NOR BE TRUSTED ABOUT WHAT IT REALLY IS, HE IS ONLY GUESSING ACCORDING TO THE PREMISE OF THE STORY, and incorrectly.
>?
>You tend not to believe in supernaturally unreliable narrators so let's just agree to disagree, I can't convince you of
> this, it is implied by the premise and the title that this story is about the unreliability of memory and the repression of > supernatural events.? Doesn't it suck more as a mundane story in which he never met a girl, though?? Is that why he > alludes to a text all about the power of forgotten memories to transform everything you believe? 

I'm inclined to think that supernatural agencies, which there's no point in speculating about, have prevented him from meeting the woman who would have changed his life.? What he's forgotten is there was a person who he came so close to knowing but never met.

(Why supernatural?? The missing pictures are too much.? And it's from an sf collection.)

Jerry Friedman

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