The Rememberer — by Aimee Bender
Interpretive Questions:
1) Do the different animals Ben becomes (baboon, sea turtle, salamander) have symbolic significance, or are they simply a way to dramatize the steps of reverse evolution?
2) Annie talks to a scientist who gives her a timeline for Ben’s transformation that quickly proves inaccurate. Why does Bender include this detail in the story? Does it help readers to suspend their disbelief of Ben’s transformation?
3) Annie mentions her limits several times—when Ben reaches for her as an ape, when she finds that he’s turned into a salamander. How are the ideas of limits and violations of limits important to the story?
4) Annie regularly thinks about wishing. She wishes as she kisses Ben’s neck and as she looks for a star no one has wished on before. She even thinks about the people on the beach wishing. Why is wishing important to her?
5) Before Ben begins to change, he says “Annie, don’t you see? We’re all getting too smart. Our brains are just getting bigger and bigger, and the world dries up and dies when there’s too much thought and not enough heart.” Why do you suppose Ben devolves while others remain the same? Is there evidence that Ben might want to change into a simpler creature?
6) “The Rememberer” blends surreal and fantastic elements with realism. Where does the story employ fantastic events, images, or choices by characters? Where is the story more rooted in the ways and rules of the world as we know it? Are there any points at which the realistic and the fantastic blend?
7) What is the significance of the story’s title? How could it apply to Annie? How could it apply to Ben?
8) Annie says she and Ben would “sit together and be sad,” and that this “was a large reason why [she] loved him.” Are there signs of other reasons why Annie is attracted to Ben or Ben is attracted to Annie? Can a relationship based on shared sadness be successful? What is Annie sad about?
9) What do you think might have happen to Ben now that he is in the sea? Why does Annie release him there?
Craft Questions:
1) “The Rememberer” is only about 1400 words long. What limitations do short-short stories have (besides the obvious—length)? What can short-shorts do that longer stories cannot?
2) “The Rememberer” covers a relatively long time period. What techniques does Bender use to write through so much time without making the story feel rushed?
3) How might the story change if it were told from Ben’s point of view rather than Annie’s?
4) “The Rememberer” has a retrospective narrator—Annie is looking back at events that happened in the past. Why did Bender choose this sort of narrative voice rather than one that has less temporal distance from the events?
5) Do you think Annie copes with Ben’s transformation in a way that feels emotionally honest and probable? How else could she have reacted?
