02402cam a22003733u 4500 77316 UtSlPG 20260610134806.0 m cr n 260607r20251956utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d UtSlPG en iso639-1 PS Wells, Basil, 1912-2003 Memorium Salt Lake City, UT : Project Gutenberg, 2025 1 online resource : multiple file formats text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier Produced from Fantastic Universe, March 1956 (Vol. 5, No. 2.). Release date is 2025-11-24 Sean/IB and Tom Trussel Memorium by Basil Wells is a science fiction short story written in the mid-20th century. It imagines a future where every person’s thoughts and memories are recorded for posterity, probing how universal transparency reshapes intimacy, ethics, and history. An aged Vance Norall, living in a comfortable Antarctic dome, reminisces with his great-great grandson, Ronnie, in a world where “memorium tapes” preserve a life’s inner truth. Through the posthumous playback of his three wives’ minds, he learns that Elsie’s public brilliance masked loneliness and infidelity born of hurt; Vivian’s dutiful propriety hid trauma, illness, and a recoil from affection; and Eldris, whom he long suspected of marrying for comfort, had in fact loved him deeply. Framed by a brief history of the memorium system—evolving from authoritarian screenings to a universal deterrent—Vance cautions Ronnie not to judge earlier generations, who lived without knowing their private selves would be laid bare. After the boy leaves, he turns again to Eldris’s tapes, choosing solace in the shared memories that correct his lifelong misreadings. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Originally published: New York: King-Size Publications, Inc., 1956 Science fiction Short stories Memory -- Fiction Hunter, Mel, 1927-2004 Produced from Fantastic Universe, March 1956 (Vol. 5, No. 2.). https://archive.org/details/Fantastic_Universe_v05n02_1956-03/page/n3/mode/2up https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77316 118036 118036