Sunday, December 16, 2012

Rashmi bookmarks “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”


I have seen one of the two film adaptations of this short story by Philip K. Dick. I liked 1990’s Total Recall a lot, however, barring the starting ideas of the protagonist’s desire to go to Mars, his botched procedure at Rekall (Rekal) - the company specializing in vacation memory implants, and police officers out to kill him, the two stories follow completely different paths.

The very long title of We Can Remember It for You Wholesale is the very short story of Douglas Quail, an ordinary clerk, and the curious events that unfold once he decides to follow up on a long-held desire to go to Mars. Without giving anything away, I will say that the best feature of this story was the fact that the two most fantastic desires that Quail had, proved to be true! Moving quickly from dream to reality, from fantasy to fact, this power-packed story made for a very interesting read.

I wonder, though, when all is said and done, were Quail’s two alternate memories recalled or ‘rekal-ed’? And if he were to go back a third or a fourth time, would more secrets emerge? The imagination flies!

No comments:

Post a Comment