Remembrance of Logos Past

The following excerpt is from Remembrance of Logos Past by Ben Shakey. It will be published by Ollendorf Press in October, 2009

Marcel needed food for his hypoglycaemia.

He scanned the menu for something equal to the cash on him.

“I’ll have a happy meal” he said.

Biting into the meat, the salt, the grease, the imported German onions, Marcel was flooded with 7 volumes of memories.

He recalled his first Happy Meal. It was an identical MacDonald’s except maybe Constable Big Mac still existed but that detail wasn’t as powerful as the involuntary recall of Ketchup scraped off cardboard cartons.

The memory invoked others:

Final episodes of Cheers and Seinfeld. His first walkman, then Diskman, then iPod, then cellphone, then blackberry, and then wanting something next. The grunge, rave, gangsta rap, swing kid, indie beard fashions he had rotated through.

Reminiscences rushed past so quickly he saw his television size grow, its thickness shrink, while his SUV’s volume doubled like a Pillsbury oven croissant.

Marcel saddened. His memories were decided by various marketing teams. Had he ever made a choice freely?

But then the final taste of sweet white hamburger bun lifted from his tongue. He decided to order a sundae and see the new movie based on the cartoon that was based on a toy he once got for Christmas.




Afternote: this excerpt was also entered in Canada Writes on CBC Radio's Go with Brent Bambury. It's a fun contest and if you want to enter here is the link