000 02402cam a22003733u 4500
001 77316
003 UtSlPG
005 20260610134806.0
006 m
007 cr n
008 260607r20251956utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d
040 _aUtSlPG
041 7 _aen
_2iso639-1
050 4 _aPS
100 1 _aWells, Basil,
_d1912-2003
245 1 0 _aMemorium
264 1 _aSalt Lake City, UT :
_bProject Gutenberg,
_c2025
300 _a1 online resource :
_bmultiple file formats
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
490 1 _aProduced from Fantastic Universe, March 1956 (Vol. 5, No. 2.).
500 _aRelease date is 2025-11-24
508 _aSean/IB and Tom Trussel
520 _aMemorium 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.)
534 _pOriginally published:
_cNew York: King-Size Publications, Inc., 1956
653 _aScience fiction
653 _aShort stories
653 _aMemory -- Fiction
700 1 _aHunter, Mel,
_d1927-2004
830 0 _aProduced from Fantastic Universe, March 1956 (Vol. 5, No. 2.).
856 4 _uhttps://archive.org/details/Fantastic_Universe_v05n02_1956-03/page/n3/mode/2up
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77316
999 _c118036
_d118036