Thursday, October 16, 2014

Night Caller, Twilight Zone ~ Voice on the Wire, Inner Sanctum Radio episode…updated

…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.