Tuesday, March 03, 2020

The Knowers

The Knowers is a science fiction short story by Helen Philips. You can read it online here. It begins,
There are those who wish to know, and there are those who don’t wish to know. At first Tem made fun of me in that condescending way of his (a flick of my nipple, a grape tossed at my nose) when I claimed to be among the former; when he realized I meant it, he grew anxious, and when he realized I really did mean it, his anxiety morphed into terror.

“Why?” he demanded tearfully in the middle of the night. “Why why why?”

I couldn’t answer. I had no answer.

“This isn’t only about you, you know,” he scolded. “It affects me too. Hell, maybe it affects me more than it affects you. I don’t want to sit around for a bunch of decades awaiting the worst day of my life.”

Touched, I reached out to squeeze his hand in the dark. Grudgingly, he squeezed back. I would have preferred to be like Tem, of course I would have! If only I could have known it was possible to know and still have been fine with ignorance. But now that the technology had been mastered, the knowledge was available to every citizen for a nominal fee.

Tem stood in the doorway as I buttoned the blue wool coat he’d given me for, I think, our four-year anniversary a couple years back.

“I don’t want to know where you’re going,” he said. He glared.
To honor T Stands for Tuesday I'm offering this quote from the story and a public domain illustration:

We sat drinking coffee in rocking chairs on the front porch of a bed-and-breakfast on a hill in the chill of early spring. Tem was generous to me; it was his least favorite day of the year, but he managed to pretend; we’d stroll. We’d eat ice cream. The silly little band-aids.

My life would seem normal — bland, really — to an outside observer, but I tell you that for me it has been rich, layered and rich.

14 comments:

  1. Maybe I can read this while I'm at the dentist this morning. And we may break a record high today. I might be able to have tea in the sun room! Happy T Day!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've just read the story and enjoyed it. I'm definitely one of the ones who doesn't want to know!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good morning, perfect post for T
    Thanks for introducing us to different literature
    Enjoy your day Happy T Kathy

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for sharing the story and the quotes - perfect 😀. Wishing you a very happy T Tuesday! Hugs, Jo x

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great illustration of the story. Happy T-Day!

    ReplyDelete
  6. ...few people know much about anything these days!

    ReplyDelete
  7. This sounds very good! Happy T Day and thanks for sharing, Valerie

    ReplyDelete
  8. The words really draw one in wanting to read more... love the photo too! before i read that it was a "found' image i thought you were sharing a photo of yourself with us:) Happy T day!

    ReplyDelete
  9. This was interesting. I'm a seeker of knowledge, but . . . . Thanks for sharing the story AND the image, which was perfect for the story with us for T this Tuesday.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I don't want to know ~ Thanks for sharing ~ Enjoy your week!

    ReplyDelete
  11. P.S. Angel On My Shoulder can be watched here, too:

    https://archive.org/details/angel_on_my_shoulder

    I need to add that link to my blog. I created pages/tabs for my blog, so my movie links are now under the "Movies" page/tab at the top of my blog.

    I also recently added a link for Rebecca, which is one of my favorite movies.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks for sharing the story and the quotes - perfect!

    Happy T-day! Eileen xx

    ReplyDelete
  13. Sounds like a good day to me. The perfect T day. Hope yours was a good one. Hugs-Erika

    ReplyDelete
  14. Well, I guess that must be the point. We still don't know and never will?
    I wouldn't want to know. anyways...but was disappointed to be left hanging. ;)

    ReplyDelete