…either he was creative or ignorant of the culture…
Telephone Dream 59 – Sex and Dreams – Wilhelm Stekel
a deprecating glance at me and asks whether I do
not read the daily papers. I answer, saying that
I probably do not do so with sufficient attentiveness
and ask what that has to do with the telephone.
The brother-in-law tells me that the whole telephone
system is now undergoing a radical change and since
the stupid, unreliable telephone girls have been replaced
by men belonging to the best educated circles
who have volunteered to take up the service in hourly
rotation, there is no more ground for worry or hardships.
There is not a decent family in the whole
of Vienna without its own telephone and since there
are so many subscribers, the cost to each has materially
decreased. I perceive at once the advantages
of the telephone service and I am enthusiastic about
securing it at once. "A fool, whoever has no telephone,"
I exclaim very eagerly and ask about the
charges. "Only one hundred kronen per year,"
says my brother-in-law. "Ridiculous, so small a
charge," I declare, convinced, as I am already, and
miraculously extract from my pocketbook, usually
empty, a banknote of the required denomination.
I press impatiently for the prompt acceptance of
my subscription. My brother-in-law takes the
money and I hear him negotiate over the telephone.
A gentleman appears, beardless, dark, smatt, with
a repulsive exterior and threatening loud voice.
He introduces himself as a bass singer of the Court
Opera and states that he is the man in charge of
60 Sex and Dreams
my telephone number. My brother-in-law takes me
aside and advises me to be very courteous with
tlfc man and to invite him occasionally to an eve"
ning meal and I will then be treated with better consideration.
I told him frankly that I cannot bear
that terrible man's voice and I would rather give up
the telephone than have that horrible fellow shout
into my ears in the future.
