After Dinner Conversation Magazine: After Dinner Conversation Magazine, #37

By Ciaran McCarthy, Allison Padron, Donna Tracy and 4 more

Delight in intriguing, thought-provoking conversations about ethics, philosophy, and social issues! After Dinner Conversation is a monthly literary magazine publishing short fiction. Each issue features both established writers and up-and-coming authors who contribute fascinating philosophical insights on controversial topics like marriage equality, assisted suicide, the meaning of death, animal rights and defining your "purpose." It's time to go deep in search of truth! If you love reading imaginative short stories on hot topics that make your brain think deeply but also have you laughing out loud... then this magazine is for you!

 

"After Dinner Conversation" Magazine - July 2023

• Conveyor: Arthur Montague is on trial for genocide and war crimes...again, and again, for eternity.
• The Things We Give: Martha sells years off the end of her life to help her mother and make ends meet. 
• The Greater Good: A court is asked to rule on erasing a convicted criminal from ever having existed.
• The Free Will of Professor Sturmhauser: A depressed philosophy professor is a deep believer in the lack of free will.
• Leave A Message: The instigator of a relationship breakup keeps calling his ex, but should he?
• Pandora's Dreams: A new technology allows the recording, playback, and sale of dreams.
• The Library of Gromma: A young boy must protect the machine that preserves the memories of his grandmother and his community.

 

After Dinner Conversation believes humanity is improved by ethics and morals grounded in philosophical truth. Philosophical truth is discovered through intentional reflection and respectful debate. In order to facilitate that process, we have created a growing series of short stories across genres, a monthly magazine, and two podcasts. These accessible examples of abstract ethical and philosophical ideas are intended to draw out deeper discussions with friends, family, and students.

 

★★★ If you enjoy this story, subscribe via our website to "After Dinner Conversation Magazine" and get this, and other, similar ethical and philosophical short stories delivered straight to your inbox every month. (Just search "After Dinner Conversation Magazine")★★★

• Language: English
• Publisher: After Dinner Conversation
• Release date: Jul 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223606314

Book preview

After Dinner Conversation Magazine – July 2023

This magazine publishes fictional stories that explore ethical and philosophical questions in an informal manner. The purpose of these stories is to generate thoughtful discussion in an open and easily accessible manner.

Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The magazine is published monthly in print and electronic format.

All rights reserved. After Dinner Conversation Magazine is published by After Dinner Conversation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the United States of America. No part of this magazine may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher. Abstracts and brief quotations may be used without permission for citations, critical articles, or reviews. Contact the publisher at [e-mail].

ISSN# 2693-8359      Vol. 4, No. 7  

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Copyright © 2023 After Dinner Conversation

Editor in Chief: Kolby Granville

Story Editor: R.K.H. Ndong

Acquisitions Editor: Stephen Repsys

Cover Design: Shawn Winchester

Design, layout, and discussion questions by After Dinner Conversation.

https://www.afterdinnerconversation.com

After Dinner Conversation believes humanity is improved by ethics and morals grounded in philosophical truth and that philosophical truth is discovered through intentional reflection and respectful debate. In order to facilitate that process, we have created a growing series of short stories across genres, a monthly magazine, and two podcasts. These accessible examples of abstract ethical and philosophical ideas are intended to draw out deeper discussions with friends, family, and students.

Table Of Contents

From the Editor

Conveyor

The Things We Give

The Greater Good

The Free Will of Professor Sturmhauser

Leave A Message

Pandora’s Dreams

The Library of Gromma

Author Information

Additional Information

* * *

From the Editor

WHAT STARTS A PERSON down this path? What makes us want to understand ethics, justice, or, for lack of a better term, rightness? Because it’s clear, for some people these questions never seem to concern them. Literally, they never think about it. Life and choices just happen, like water falling off a leaf.

For myself, Star Trek is what got me started. That’s embarrassing to say, but I’m sure Spock’s death in Star Trek II was the first time it really occurred to me a person could make a sacrificial right choice. I’m convinced Next Generation was mostly Greek morality plays disguised as science fiction.

And yet, this isn’t something I talk about to others or express fully, except in this magazine. Saying it out loud feels (I imagine) like coming out of the closet in the 1980s. I know this is the way I am, but do I have to tell people? Am I going to be judged? Do other people feel the same way?

It’s weird to think a person could be closeted about having an interest in Truth, or what it means to be a good person. But if I’m being honest, it’s how I really feel. I also don’t like to admit that I know what a twenty-sided die is...

Maybe this is what it means to age. Only with age do we unabashedly become who we truly are? Hell if I know. I do know I love this magazine, love the stories we publish, and love the venue we provide for like-minded ethics nerds like you.

Kolby Granville – Editor

Conveyor

Ciaran McCarthy

I’M SITTING UPRIGHT in a chair in a bright, white room that makes me think of a clinic. I don’t know where I am nor how I got here. Two people, strangers, stand in front of me. One is wearing a pale blue uniform with a yellow badge on his chest. He steps forward.

Arthur Montague? he says.

I tell him, I don’t know who that is.

He sighs. C’mon Montague. Don’t draw this out for longer than it has to be.

He must be mistaking me for someone else, for I’ve never heard of that name before in my life. My name is... and I realize that I cannot remember. All my memories from before are gone. What is happening here? I look at the other person in front of me. This one is wearing a sharp gray suit. He’s holding a folder close to his chest. His face is unreadable.

This sometimes happens, says a third person. I can only see her head and shoulders as she’s sitting behind a device with many cables flowing out of it in different directions. A finger twirls through her long hair. She is the youngest of the three.

But that’s him, right? says Blue Uniform.

Oh yeah, that’s him, all right.

Long Hair stands up and comes to me. She starts carefully removing cables that are attached to little pads, which in turn are suckered to my hands, my forearms, my face. They make tiny popping sounds, and I think of leeches. I start ripping them off too. Don’t break them, chides Long Hair. I console myself with the fact that I’m fully clothed, albeit in a shabby brown suit that must have had several owners before me. Then Long Hair removes a strange kind of hat that was on my head. It’s made of metal and covered in a web of little blue wires. I hadn’t noticed it was there until she removed it. I run my hands through my hair, then over my face. Long Hair holds a small mirror in front of me.

See anyone you recognize? she asks.

The face I see is middle-aged and healthy, though gray has started creeping into the brown hair. It has green eyes.

Is this me, I wonder. I shake my head.

Don’t worry. Your memories should return soon, says Long Hair.

Gray Suit clears his throat. Mr. Montague, I am your defense attorney. Your trial will start shortly and should take no longer than half an hour. By law, I’m required to provide you with a statement of the charges against you, as well as a summary of the evidence to be presented.

He hands me the folder. I want to read it immediately, but Gray Suit says, We must go now. Please follow me. Thanks, Clarissa.

This is apparently Long Hair’s name. She gives him a friendly smile and continues to gather up the cables. I don’t understand what’s happening, and my memories still haven’t returned, but there’s little I can do here. I decide to go along with them until I can figure out what’s going on.

My legs are stiff, weak, and I stand a little unsteadily. Blue Uniform takes my arm, and the three of us walk down a narrow corridor. It’s dimly lit, but the door at the end is outlined by a bright light coming from within. The only noise is our footsteps on the tiled floor. Suddenly I think of churches, of holy places, of hellfire, and I feel an overpowering sense of dread coming from inside that door. I stagger backward; Blue Uniform holds me and jostles me forward.

At the door, Gray Suit asks, Ready? and then opens it without waiting for my reply. The light dazzles me for a moment; then I come to see that it’s a near-empty courtroom. I’m led to a desk near the front. Almost directly before me is a projector screen. At another desk, twin to mine, is a short woman in a green dress suit. She gives me a sour look, and I dislike her immediately. The judge, waiting at his dais to