Two doctors walk into a bar, but the bartender did not know what to do with the paradox. The two short stories “The Best Place” by A. F. Oreshnik and “The Alchemist’s Secret” by Arthur Gordon are stories about two white-collar criminals. In The Best Place, Dr. Jason Whitney is a criminal, he steals money from villains with money stashed away in offshore bank accounts. In the short story The Alchemist’s Secret, Dr. Maximus is an alchemist that owns an herb shop, and in that time, 1890’s, Alchemists were notoriously known for doing shady things. Dr. Maximus, he never killed anyone, however, he did provide the means to kill many people. Although the two doctors have the same interest in money, they have very different ways of obtaining it, Dr. Whitney has patients that he Hypnotizes and steals from while Dr. Maximus has clients that will pay large sums of money for an elixir, to kill someone.
The two doctors differ in the way they obtain their money. Dr. Whitney will be told about criminals that have money hidden in offshore bank accounts by Campbell. When Dr. Whitney goes to perform a medical checkup with the criminal he first makes sure everyone is on break, so he is alone to perform the examination. While performing the examination the Doctor will subtly hypnotize the patient and he will tell the doctor where and how he can get the money. “Be as quiet as you can. I want the lowest possible reading. Relax as much as you can and try not to think of anything in particular” the doctor said this over and over until Hammond was hypnotized (Oreshnik). When Dr. Whitney goes home he will transfer the money to his own bank account. Dr. Maximus’ way to make money is different, he does not hypnotize people into giving him their bank information. The Alchemist makes his money by selling poison to clients who will pay considerable amounts of money. All his clients learn about his ‘work’ by word of mouth, since he is unable to advertise his illegal activity. As well as having different clients b...
