By the 1960s, Mr. Lorayne was best known for holding audiences rapt with feats of memory that bordered on the elephantine. Such feats were born, he explained in interviews and in his many books, of a system of learned associations — call them surrealist visual puns — that seemed equal parts Ivan Pavlov and Salvador Dalí.
"surrealist visual puns"
Several participants noted the occasionally surreal quality of Wordcraft's suggestions.
Wordcraft's hallucinations can create interesting and creatively surreal suggestions.
How might one dial up or down the ability to hallucinate or create surrealism within an artificial intelligence used for thinking, writing, etc.?
But she had already forgotten Hennie. I was forgotten, too. She was trying to remember something... She was miles away.
This drives home the surrealist tone of the entire story. Reality is warped in this space and Mansfield emphasizes the connection between physical distance and emotional distance here with "remember" and "miles away". It's reminiscent of Alice at Mad Hatter's tea party - the whole affair is chaotic, and it is difficult to ascertain whether the here and now is real.