Date of Publication, 2083 a. D

Name: Date of Publication, 2083 a. D
Author: Joseph Samachson

Carrie Samason sends her eleven-year-old son James to collect The Perfect Hostess from the library, then forgets about the book amid domestic concerns. Soon strange outbreaks of irrational behavior occur: policeman Reardon plays baseball with children he normally chases away; visiting educators attack a school; Bill’s office is put to sleep for a workday; Carrie’s bridge group gossips about its own secrets; and Barbara reports that a college basketball team began throwing balls at spectators. A television program also becomes grotesquely distorted, with performers seeming to resemble people in the audience and acting out mismatched scenes. Carrie eventually finds the supposedly missing book hidden under James’s pillow. It is not The Perfect Hostess but The Perfect Hypnotist by William Haskins, published in 2083 by the U.S. Government Press. Reading its advanced chapters, she realizes that James has learned to hypnotize people directly and indirectly, influencing Reardon, Bill, Carrie, Barbara, and others, even through television. When James tries to hypnotize her, interruptions and Carrie’s sudden resistance allow her to bind him. Using the future book, Carrie studies methods of erasure, protects herself from James’s influence, and removes his hypnotic knowledge and directives. She then hypnotically instructs Barbara to destroy James’s letter, erases Bill’s memory, and performs autoerasure on herself. She burns the book completely, ensuring that everyone forgets the events. Weeks later, a library overdue notice for The Perfect Hostess puzzles Carrie, and James denies ever having fetched it, confirming that the dangerous episode has been erased from their memories.

By Joseph Samachson · First published 2083 · Genre: Science Fiction, Psychological Science Fiction, Time-Travel Fiction · 5,826 words

First lines

_Hypnotism, as anyone who has ever watched a snake charm a bird knows, is far older than homo sapiens. Yet only since the eighteenth century days of Dr. Mesmer has it emerged from priestly mumbo-jumbo into the realm of science. Even today, despite its wide medical usage, hypnotism is not wholly accepted. But in a hundred years...._

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Date of Publication, 2083 a. D is listed on Textopian as a short story by Joseph Samachson, dated 2083 CE.

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Work type: Short story
Author: Joseph Samachson
Date: 2083 CE
Language: English
Genres: Science Fiction, Psychological Science Fiction, Time-Travel Fiction, Satirical Science Fiction, Dystopian Fiction
Length: 5,826 words
Structure: 1 section, 126 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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Genres

Science Fiction — The story centers on a book published in 2083 that arrives in the present and contains advanced, scientifically framed techniques of hypnosis, including electromagnetic and mass-hypnotic effects.
Psychological Science Fiction — Its main speculative concern is the manipulation of consciousness, behavior, memory, obedience, and perception through increasingly sophisticated hypnotic methods.
Time-Travel Fiction — The anomalous future-dated hypnosis manual is implicitly displaced backward through time, and its unexplained arrival drives the plot.
Satirical Science Fiction — The narrative satirizes suburban domestic life, social manners, education, entertainment, bureaucracy, and the supposedly sensible adults who are easily controlled.