01. The Obsolete Man

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of
sight and sound, but of mind, a journey into a
wondrous land whose boundaries are those of imagination. Your next
stop the Twilight Zone.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
God, you haven't answered my question, no questions, but it's
a simple one, a very simple one. Where are you
taking me?

Speaker 3 (00:49):
You'll find out?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
You come before down with no arrest warrant.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
We don't need a warrant, but of course you do,
not for a hearing.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Oh is that what this is about? An investigative hearing?
Such an hour?

Speaker 4 (01:01):
Chancellor's orders?

Speaker 2 (01:02):
You mean the Chancellor himself wants to see me? Why
on earth?

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Inside?

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Is this the Chancellor's office? Inside?

Speaker 5 (01:19):
Hello?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Hello, Oh, you'll forgive me. But it's so dark and
here my eyes.

Speaker 5 (01:25):
There's a bench along the wall. Why don't you sit down?
And you are Mary Lampert Wordsworth?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Lampert Lampert? Do you work in the Central Registry?

Speaker 5 (01:36):
I don't work anywhere at all now. But it wasn't
in the registry. I was an English teacher.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Oh, yes, yes, you requested some books from me last semester.
But what are you doing here?

Speaker 5 (01:48):
The same as you? I'm afraid, mister Wordsworth.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
You were summoned for a hearing. We all were. No,
I beg your pardon. I didn't see you. I'm used
to that.

Speaker 4 (01:56):
Hello there, Hello, mister Wordsworth.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Your teacher's something even less useful. A poet, A published poet.

Speaker 6 (02:05):
A few small press volumes.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Oh, we have a lot of those in the stacks,
quite a number. Actually, your name, John Brodsky, Yes, let
me see the Fire Inside and other poems.

Speaker 6 (02:18):
You're the only person outside of a few friends who's
ever heard of it.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Oh no, no, you were very well reviewed the mid
Atlantic Prize, wasn't it?

Speaker 5 (02:27):
It was?

Speaker 2 (02:28):
But they don't exist anymore, and the rest of you.
I don't mean to be rude. After a certain age,
the eyes just don't adjust very quickly, even with glasses.

Speaker 7 (02:38):
Jack Cameron, I taught philosophy at the university.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
How do you do?

Speaker 8 (02:43):
John Albert from the theology department? Another lost cause?

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Oh no, don't say that. Vital subjects all in a
liberal arts education. I'm sure you're here for some sort
of a reassignment.

Speaker 5 (02:55):
Put out a pasture is more like it. They're closing
the Humanities wing.

Speaker 8 (02:59):
Are you sure it's already done? The Chancellor signed it
into law yesterday to be replaced.

Speaker 7 (03:05):
By what business, law, medicine, computer sciences, perhaps something more practical.

Speaker 6 (03:11):
The word is, they're not going to use human teachers
at all anymore.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
I see. And what of books?

Speaker 5 (03:18):
They'll be obsolete too, what with the standardized software.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
In other words, we'll all be obsolete. That's the handwriting
on the wall. But that's absurd. What will they do
with us, pay us not to work?

Speaker 7 (03:32):
I think they have in mind something a bit more efficient,
such as Lambert.

Speaker 5 (03:43):
Yes, this way, Yes, of course, I'm ready.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
I'll go first.

Speaker 5 (03:48):
Please, that's not necessary, Lampert, Mary.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Now, now wait a minute, where are you taking her?

Speaker 5 (03:54):
Goodbye, mister Brodsky, mister Cameron, mister Albert, and you, mister Worth.
I've enjoyed meeting you, however briefly.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Well, we'll talk more later. When will I see you?

Speaker 5 (04:05):
Why on television? Perhaps I'll hold a good thought for
you for all of you.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Wait, where are you taking her?

Speaker 1 (04:20):
You walk out of this room and into the next
at your own risk, because it leads to the future,
not a future that will be, but one that might be.
This is not a new world, brave or otherwise. It
is simply an extension of what began in the old one.
It has patterned itself after every dictator who ever planted

(04:40):
the ripping imprint of a boot on the pages of
history since the beginning of time. It has refinements, technological advances,
and a more sophisticated approach to the destruction of human freedom.
But like every one of the superstates that preceded it,
it has one iron rule. Reason is an enemy and

(05:01):
truth is a menace. This is mister Romney Wordsworth in
his last forty eight hours on Earth. He is a
citizen of the state, but will soon have to be
eliminated because he is built out of flesh and because
he has a mind. Mister Romney Wordsworth, who very shortly
will draw his last breath into.

Speaker 9 (05:22):
The Twilight Zone. And now the Twilight Zone and our
story The Obsolete Man, starring Jason Alexander with Stacy Keats
as your narrator.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
Who's next Wordsworth Romney Wordsworth? Ah, Yes, you should have
the file on your desk, Chancellor.

Speaker 10 (05:54):
M Field Investigation finding obsolescence.

Speaker 11 (06:00):
Yes, time agreed, it occurs.

Speaker 4 (06:02):
Correct send him in, Yes, sir, guard.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
This way, Thank you.

Speaker 3 (06:12):
You may approach the desk if you like.

Speaker 10 (06:16):
You know why you're here.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
Mister Wordsworth, not entirely.

Speaker 12 (06:21):
No, ask him to speak up.

Speaker 10 (06:23):
I'd ask you to speak up if you will.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
In general terms, yes, sir, but I do have a
few questions.

Speaker 10 (06:30):
Your questions will be answered in due course. Now, then
you've been under investigation, mister Wordsworth, I have for the
mandatory period of one year.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
And eleven months. I was never notified of any investigation.

Speaker 10 (06:44):
Notification is not required under the new edicts.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Really, I have the results before me.

Speaker 10 (06:50):
The determination is that you're obsolete.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
That's an interesting word you use.

Speaker 10 (06:55):
Therefore, the purpose of this hearing is to make a
finding in the matter and sentence you accordingly.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
You understand that, Yes, sir, I suppose I.

Speaker 10 (07:05):
Do your occupation, mister Wordsworth, librarian.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
I don't even have those anymore. A what a librarian? Sir?
Has this man had counsel?

Speaker 3 (07:19):
Yes, sir, he has.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Are you sure he knows his rights?

Speaker 3 (07:21):
He's been given orientation, Sir.

Speaker 10 (07:25):
I'm told that you've had counsel and been given orientation,
mister Wordsworth.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
Well, in a manner of speaking. Just prior to entering
this room, I did have a brief conversation with someone
or other. He was wearing a uniform very much like
your own. That would be one of the subalterns.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
So you've been instructed.

Speaker 10 (07:46):
However, I'm still not sure in my own mind that
you understand.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
The purpose of this hearing. I'm doing my best, sir.

Speaker 10 (07:54):
The field investigators and your sector have classified you as obsolete.
Carries with it serious implications legally speaking.

Speaker 13 (08:04):
Do you understand that, mister Wordsworth, serious implications?

Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yes?

Speaker 10 (08:10):
Now I ask you again your occupation.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
I am a librarian. I could lie to you and
say curator of records or a historian or data manager.
But that's my occupation, my profession. It's an honorable tradition.
If you people choose to call it obsolete.

Speaker 4 (08:28):
Ask him to clarify.

Speaker 3 (08:29):
Yes, clarify. Request clarification of the term.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
The term, mister Wordsworth. You people, you make reference to
the state. I make reference to the state, and you.

Speaker 10 (08:40):
Persist in declaring your occupation as being that of a librarian.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
That is correct, sir, A librarian having to do with books, Yes, sir,
books of all types of description.

Speaker 10 (08:55):
Since there are no more books, mister Wordsworth, there is
scant need for libraries.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
Oh but there are books, some going back decades, even centuries.
The older ones are in constant need of repair. Even
the newer ones require preservation. Or do you know that
books printed on paper containing wood pulp are in danger
of deterioration, a kind of oxidation or slow burning? You
might say, if there's so much is stored on wooden shelves,
not to mention the effects of light and moisture, please,

(09:24):
mister Wordsworth. No, no, no. The only safe method is to
keep them in metal cabinets in absolute darkness, if possible,
in a temperature controlled environment. Of course, rag or hemp
paper doesn't deteriorate at the same rate. That's why some
ancient volumes are unyellowed and still quite usable.

Speaker 10 (09:40):
What sort of books are you talking.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
About, oh, anything printed before the nineteenth century. The older
the better. The Gutenberg Bible is a famous example.

Speaker 10 (09:50):
To close the subject, with no further need of libraries,
it follows that there is little call for the services
of a librarian.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Now I must ask for clarification. Did you say no
further need? Case in point a priest or minister.

Speaker 10 (10:07):
He would claim that his function is preaching the word
of God. But of course, since the state has proven
that there is no God that would make the function
of such a person somewhat academic as well, academic meaning
theoretical without practical function.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
But there is a God.

Speaker 10 (10:28):
You're in error, mister Wordsworth.

Speaker 6 (10:30):
There is no God.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
You know that the state has established it, established it how.

Speaker 10 (10:37):
By scientific proof or the lack thereof.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
You cannot erase God with an edict. This is not
a debate. It's not a matter of laws and proclamations.

Speaker 10 (10:47):
You are obsolete, mister Wordsworth.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
A lie. No man is obsolete. You have no function.

Speaker 10 (10:54):
You are an anachronism, a ghost from another time.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
I'm nothing more than a reminder to you that the
state can't destroy words and the concepts they represent by
burning pages.

Speaker 10 (11:03):
You're a bug, mister Wordsworth, a crawling insect, a bookworm,
an ugly, misshapen little creature that has no purpose here,
no meaning.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
I am a human being, as are you a human being?
Is that what you lay claim to?

Speaker 10 (11:22):
You're a librarian, mister Wordsworth. You're a dealer in books
that no one reads, and.

Speaker 14 (11:28):
Two sent fines and pamphlets, enclosed stacks, and the musty
insides of a language factory that spews out meaningless words
on an obscure assembly line called the printing press, whose time.

Speaker 10 (11:41):
Has long passed.

Speaker 15 (11:43):
Words, mister Wordsworth, that have no substance and no dimension,
like air, like the wind, like a vacuum, that you
may believe has an existence by scribbling index numbers on
little cards.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
I don't care what you say.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
Don't approach the bench until you're told too.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
And I tell you I don't care. I'm a human being.
I exist, And if I speak one fault aloud or
in writing, that thought lives even after I'm shoveled into
a grave. This I know, beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Speaker 16 (12:14):
Delusions, mister Wordsworth, Delusions that you inject into your veins
using a negle filled with printer's inc The narcotic you
call literature, the Bible, poetry essays, all of it, just.

Speaker 10 (12:28):
An opiate to make you think you have strength when
you have no strength at all. You're unfit. You have
nothing but spindly limbs and a dream, and the state
has no use for your kind.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
You waste our.

Speaker 10 (12:42):
Time, mister Wordsworth, and you're not worth the waste. I agrendless.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Now then you've made your point, instruct.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
Him, Romney Wordsworth. You will return to detention?

Speaker 2 (12:56):
Is that where I was? What a polite euphemism. Cell
is more like it.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
To await the finding of this board.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Very well this way, One more question? What happened to
miss Lampert? Who the school teacher?

Speaker 10 (13:11):
Her case has been decided. The results will be on
this evening's telecast.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
I'm sure it will be, But I'm asking you what
was your decision?

Speaker 10 (13:19):
Take him away?

Speaker 2 (13:23):
Eric? No function?

Speaker 4 (13:26):
No function at all, mister Wordsworth, how did you hear

(13:52):
him go?

Speaker 2 (13:53):
You know, I'm not honestly sure, but I have a
pretty good idea.

Speaker 7 (13:57):
At least it hasn't been decided yet.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
I don't know, not yet, but I don't think it
will take them very long.

Speaker 6 (14:02):
Ambiguity the devil's playground and my stock in trade.

Speaker 2 (14:08):
Miss Lampert hasn't come back yet.

Speaker 4 (14:10):
That means her case has already been decided.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
That's what they said. Where would they take her in
that case?

Speaker 8 (14:16):
Back to her living quarters? I imagine, to await the
carrying out of the sentence.

Speaker 7 (14:20):
As for myself, I'd rather carry it out alone.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
I'm thinking about hemlock. Are you don't tell me you are?

Speaker 8 (14:29):
That's not what they use nowadays. Too hard to measure
the dosage.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
Get me a bottle of good scotch.

Speaker 6 (14:36):
I'd like to go out on a bender.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Just give me a pen and paper, But they'd only
burn it.

Speaker 6 (14:42):
Not if it's televised, I can recite to the camera
a public reading.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
At last, some of.

Speaker 6 (14:48):
It has to get through before they cut off the sound.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
They can't cut it off.

Speaker 8 (14:52):
It's an official edict, the equivalent of the condemned man's
last words.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
No matter what those words are.

Speaker 6 (14:59):
Oh, denounce the statement as soon as it hits the airwaves.
But until then, for one shining, glorious moment, I'll have
an audience, and someone somewhere may hear my words and understand.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
Gentlemen, you're dooming yourselves as if you believe in the
superiority of the system, in its right to exist at all.

Speaker 7 (15:22):
But it does with or without moral justification.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
Do not go, gentle into that good night, Dylan Thomas.
But rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
We can rage all we like.

Speaker 8 (15:38):
No one's going to hear it, No.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
Think about it.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
What are you driving at?

Speaker 2 (15:45):
I wonder if they've reached a decision yet.

Speaker 10 (15:55):
How do you find, gentlemen half fully ah.

Speaker 4 (16:01):
Asleeve absolete?

Speaker 3 (16:04):
Obsolete?

Speaker 2 (16:05):
I concur.

Speaker 10 (16:09):
In the matter of Wordsworth Romney, the board has made
a finding. Bring him before me so I can pronounce sentence.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
Escort him from the detention room right.

Speaker 17 (16:18):
Away, approach the desk, Citizen Wordsworth, Yes, sir.

Speaker 10 (16:41):
In the matter of your finding, the board declares you obsolete.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
Your rights are as follows a comment Chancellor the lights
it's my eyes. Can some of the lights be directed
at the desk so that I can see who I'm addressing?

Speaker 10 (16:56):
Your rights are as follows, mister Wordsworth. You are to
be liquidated within a period of forty eight hours.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
They still use that word liquidated.

Speaker 10 (17:06):
But you have an option as to method and precise time.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
Could you be more specific?

Speaker 10 (17:12):
There are several prescribed methods, mister Wordsworth, including pills, gas, electrocution,
lethal injection. It can be done immediately or an hour
from now, or any other time that you request.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
Are there any other options?

Speaker 10 (17:29):
The most popular, mister Wordsworth, assassination at a time unknown.
This way, the subject is not aware of either the
method or the time. Psychologically, it is somewhat easier in
terms of one's mental state.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
It's the most humane, And.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
I have to say, I'm a very rich man.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
A louder plice, and step into the light.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
I was merely saying I'm a rich man. I have
such a luxury of choices. A few lines come to mind,
Perhaps you will indulge me. Cowards die many times before
their deaths. The valiant never taste of death. But once.
Of all the wonders that I have yet heard, it

(18:17):
seems to me most strange that men should fear seeing
that death unnecessary. End will come when it will come.
That's from Shakespeare, Julius Caesar. So since you've given me
the luxury of choice, I choose the following to be

(18:40):
given an assassin, whom I will tell the method of execution.
I don't understand. What does he mean? He will tell
jorlie he can't.

Speaker 17 (18:50):
Please save mister Wordsworth, please clarify the nature of the request.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
You will assign me an assassin, Chancellor, just as you stipulated,
but only he and I will know the way in
which I'm to die. I take it that's acceptable.

Speaker 10 (19:06):
That will be acceptable, mister Wordsworth, so long as your
your sentence is accomplished within the forty eight hour period
required by law.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
And one final request, Chancellor, what's that I should like
to die with an audience? I would like my death
to be televised.

Speaker 10 (19:25):
That too can be arranged, mister Wordsworth.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
Thank you.

Speaker 10 (19:30):
It's not infrequently that we televise executions. It has an
educative effect on the population. I have no doubt now
as to the time of the liquidation, mister.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
Wordsworth, midnight tomorrow and the place in my room.

Speaker 10 (19:47):
Gentlemen agreed, mister Wordsworth. We will choose your liquidator and
send him over to you, and he will be duty bound,
just as you prescribed, not to divulge the method you've
decided upon.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
Done, Thank you, Chancellor. Whoever said, whoever said, the state
doesn't have a heart?

Speaker 3 (20:19):
An odd one, yes, indeed, and with some very bizarre requests.

Speaker 10 (20:24):
Bizarre, but to our advantage. He wants his death televised.
All right, we'll oblige him. By midnight tomorrow he'll be
crawling up the walls with fear and will televise every
moment of it, his horror, his fright, and I dare say,
his belly crawling supplications for mercy.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
What an example.

Speaker 10 (20:48):
We'll televise a gentleman all over the country. We'll show
the people, will show them how this obsolete man, this.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
Librarian eyes.

Speaker 12 (21:12):
Yes, words words, Rodney, I am I'm here to install
a television camera. Oh yes, come in, Come in, bring
the equipment in, please, guard, then wait outside, Yes, sir,
I'll call you when i'm finished. Very good, sir, I'll
be in the hall.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
Forgive the close callers. A librarian can't afford more than
a studio apartment these days.

Speaker 12 (21:34):
Librarian, sir, never mind.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
Would you care for some tea?

Speaker 12 (21:38):
Bill?

Speaker 2 (21:38):
Thanks? I'm on a schedule, Oh of course, yes, other installations? Output?
Is that one? How about Cameron? And the other? What
was his name? Brodsky? The poet?

Speaker 12 (21:48):
I don't know. The guard has a manifest.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
Oh oh yes, I see. Is this all the equipment
you need? It's not very much.

Speaker 12 (21:55):
It doesn't need to be. It's miniaturized.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
See.

Speaker 12 (21:57):
All I do is mount this lines on the wall
in the corner, and that as long as it gets
a white angle of the whole room.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
Impressive, I must say. And what about sound, sir? There'll
be a microphone, won't they built.

Speaker 12 (22:08):
Right in full frequency broadcast quality splendid.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
Well, don't let me get in your way. Do whatever
you have to do.

Speaker 12 (22:15):
Good idea. Not a lot of time left?

Speaker 2 (22:17):
Oh, a couple of hours more?

Speaker 12 (22:19):
I mean you probably want some time to yourself for whatever. Yes,
I'll be out of here in twenty minutes.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
Wonderful, I mean, very professional of you. Do you happen
to know what happened to the school teacher?

Speaker 12 (22:34):
School teacher a friend of yours?

Speaker 2 (22:36):
Not really, I hardly knew her.

Speaker 12 (22:38):
Not on my list. You ought to turn on a
TV that'll tell you.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
Why didn't I think of that? You know I spend
every evening reading these things?

Speaker 12 (22:46):
Are your books?

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Huh? You mean you haven't seen anything before.

Speaker 12 (22:49):
I remember when I was a kid they had pictures
in them.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
Oh, they have much more than that. And with my
collection grown so large, there hasn't been time for television
in years.

Speaker 12 (22:58):
Even the state broadcast.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
The state brook. Oh you mean the Chancellor's speeches and
so forth.

Speaker 8 (23:05):
And on the domestic front, the economy is on an upswing,
with unemployment virtually nil. Corporations are tightening their belts in
preparation for higher productivity next quarter when the trade deficit
reaches zero. The government is purging thousands of obsolete personnel,
with tens of thousands to go before years end?

Speaker 2 (23:23):
Did he say tens of thousands?

Speaker 8 (23:26):
One example is Miss Mary Lamport, who was terminated early
this evening. For those who missed the lie broadcast, here
is her final statement.

Speaker 5 (23:34):
I'd like to quote Saintic Zupery what is essential as
invisible to the eye. And it was a Welshman named
Dylan Thomas who wrote of the force that through the
green fuse drives. Well, I've spent my best years nurturing
that live force, helping it break through the concrete and
steal that seal us away. And I now know that

(23:58):
there is no force in the universe that can crush,
can crush.

Speaker 12 (24:08):
It's the drugs kicking in drugs her choice. She wanted
to go out painless. They gave her an injection. Sure
kept talking for a while, though, didn't she all those words?

Speaker 2 (24:18):
She almost made it made what I've seen. Enough, go
on with your work. I don't mean to distract you.
All done, surely not there?

Speaker 12 (24:28):
Go ahead, turn your TV back on. See there's you,
there's me.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
You're right? Isn't that amazing? Shop and clear for all
the world to see?

Speaker 12 (24:40):
Fiber otics some picture?

Speaker 2 (24:42):
Huh, yes. I don't know how to thank you. What's
the cost?

Speaker 12 (24:46):
No charge?

Speaker 2 (24:46):
A tip? Then I considered a kind of bonus one
of my books. Perhaps no thanks? You can take your
pick anyone at all. They'll only be burned afterwards.

Speaker 12 (24:55):
I don't have time to read. Thanks anyway, Guard trouble,
No trouble. I'm finished, is all. Let's go take it easy,
mister Wordsworth. Don't fight it, okay.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
I'll do my best.

Speaker 12 (25:08):
It'll be easier that way.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
Well, no, nothing left to do, but wait one hour
and fifteen minutes. I'll set the clock and lie down
and wait. It won't be long now.

Speaker 13 (25:38):
Mister Wordsworth, come in, Chancellor, So this is our a
librarian lives.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
Have a seat please. I'm sorry there's only the one chair,
but with so many books. Thank you for coming.

Speaker 16 (25:58):
Very irregular, Wordsworth?

Speaker 2 (26:01):
Is it highly irregular that you came at all? Do
you know why I came? Do you?

Speaker 10 (26:08):
I invited you by all means you invited me, But
why would I honor such an invitation? A cryptic note
from a condemned man asking me to visit him during
the last.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Hour of his life? Not normal?

Speaker 10 (26:23):
I take it hardly the norm, mister Wordsworth. Hardly what
I'm accustomed to, and somewhat suspect too.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
How do I know I.

Speaker 10 (26:32):
Wasn't invited here for a for a last pitiful gesture
of vengeance on the part of the condemned vengeance. After all,
I am more or less responsible for the finding in
your case, your demise in less than an hour.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Forty five minutes. Actually, it can.

Speaker 10 (26:50):
Be attributed at least in part to my decision.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
Nonetheless, that was the finding.

Speaker 3 (26:56):
Do you mind if I smoke?

Speaker 2 (26:57):
No, not at all. You're my guest.

Speaker 18 (27:03):
I'll tell you why I came, mister Wordsworth, please, perhaps
to prove something to you, and that is to prove
to you that the state has no fears, none at all.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
Well, you'll forgive me, Chancellor, but that has the elements
of a joke. How so, well you come here to
my room to prove that the state isn't afraid of me?
What an incredible burden that must be to prove that
an obsolete librarian could have any effect at all on
the state. I'll tell you why you came there. I'll
tell you the reason that you won't even admit to yourself.

(27:41):
And what might that be? I don't fit your formula.
Somewhere along the line there's been a deviation from the norm.
Your state has everything categorized, filed and tagged. You are
strength people like me represent weakness. You control and order
and dictate. My kind merely follows and obeys. But something's

(28:06):
gone wrong. I don't fit, do I?

Speaker 3 (28:09):
Oh, you fit, mister Wordsworth.

Speaker 10 (28:12):
In a few moments you'll be cringing and pleading, just
like they all do.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yes, indeed you fit.

Speaker 10 (28:19):
You've got a miserable, worthless little life. But you've also
got an instinct for survival. And very soon now, when
you know that life is slipping away, when your survival
is just a question of minutes, we'll see which is stronger,
the state or the librarian. All the country will.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
See, Yes, they will.

Speaker 10 (28:43):
I take it you've had a discussion with whoever is
assigned to your liquidation.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Whom ever, what whom? Object of the preposition midnight, isn't
it mere forty minutes from now? That's the camera lens
up there on the wall, see it. They brought that
in earlier this evening. Very efficient. One man set it
up in less than ten minutes. We're being televised. Now.

Speaker 10 (29:04):
That's not unusual in the mass executions.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
Last year we televised around the clock.

Speaker 10 (29:10):
Thirteen hundred people were put to death in six hours.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
You never learned, dear history teaches you nothing quite the contrary.
It teaches us a great deal.

Speaker 10 (29:22):
Our predecessors, mister Wordsworth, had the beginnings of.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
The right idea Hitler. Of course, Hitler stalin him too.

Speaker 10 (29:31):
But in contrast with popular opinion, their error was not
of excess.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
It was simply that they did not go far enough.

Speaker 10 (29:40):
Too many undesirables were left around, and undesirables eventually form
a core of resistance. Old people, for example, clutch at
the past and.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
Won't accept the new.

Speaker 10 (29:53):
The sick, the maimed, and deformed. They fastened themselves on
the healthy body and damage it. So we eliminate them.
Just like that, or people like yourself that can perform
no function for the state, so.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
We do away with them. Only makes sense.

Speaker 10 (30:13):
What a charming room, mister Wordsworth, small but functional, lived
here long.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
For over twenty years. I built the bookcases myself, so.

Speaker 10 (30:24):
I understand that incidentally has kept you alive that particular talent.
Carpentry is a skill, and the state provides considerable leeway
for workers who possess certain skills. This chair, for example,
you made it.

Speaker 2 (30:41):
I would have made more furniture, but there wasn't enough
space with the books.

Speaker 10 (30:46):
Unfortunately, you went as far as you could go, which
was insufficient. So in a little while it will be
the end of a rather fruitless life as mister Romney
Wordsworth goes to his own private nirvana.

Speaker 4 (31:01):
That's what they call it in your books.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
Isn't it in some books.

Speaker 10 (31:06):
You're not facing the camera, mister Wordsworth. You're cheating the audience.
They'll want to see how you die. Sorry, Please, mister Wordsworth,
show the lens your best side, and don't stifle your emotions.
If you feel like crying, go ahead and cry, Or
if you want to plead, why don't you do so?

Speaker 3 (31:26):
Let it all out.

Speaker 10 (31:28):
Perhaps a high state official might take.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
Pity on you. You'd appreciate that, wouldn't you a little
chest snumping, handwringing, some moaning, sobbing history, honest, suit yourself.

Speaker 10 (31:42):
Unfortunately, I don't have the time to be enthralled when
they do come, I have another appointment this evening, Chancellor.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
Make it brief, mister Wordsworth. You have plenty of time.
Smoke as many more of your cigarettes as time allows.
How's that I haven't been entirely fair with your Chancellor?
I invited you here for a very special reason. Would
you like to know the method I've chosen for my liquidation.

(32:09):
I've had a bomb placed in this room and as
a time fuse set to go off at midnight a
few minutes from.

Speaker 10 (32:15):
Now, thoughtful mister Wordsworth. A relatively quick and painless death.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
Isn't it, though? And yet knowing that you're going to
be blown to smithereens is not the happiest of thoughts,
is it? That depends on the individual. Yes, it does. Indeed,
I'll bid you goodbye. Then what kind of idiocy is this?
You've locked the door, Yes I have. You're not going anywhere.

(32:42):
You're staying here with me. Open this door at once.
I'm not sure I remember where I hid. The key question,
how does a man react to such a situation? Answer?
It depends on the individual. As for myself, I shall
sit down and read my Bible. This is insane hidden

(33:04):
for over twenty years, but the only possession I own
that has any value at all to me now, and
I intend to sit here and read it until the
moment of my death.

Speaker 7 (33:14):
Let me out of here, God, anyone.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
Don't waste your breath. There's no one out there. It's
one of the rules. You isolate the person to be liquidated,
so there's simply no one around. Why don't you face
the camera, Chancellor, it's important. You know you're cheating the audience.

Speaker 4 (33:31):
What are you talking about?

Speaker 2 (33:32):
You wanted the whole country to see the way a
librarian dies. Why not let the whole country see how
an official of the state dies too? Will they see
a contrast, Chancellor Wordsworth?

Speaker 8 (33:43):
I order you'd let me out of this room.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
Turn to the camera. Let the people see the strength
of the state, the resilience, the courage. Let the people
see how a man of steel faces death.

Speaker 10 (33:57):
I've underestimated you, mister Wordsworth.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
Sit down, Chancellor. You have a novara coming up too,
so let's have a chat.

Speaker 3 (34:06):
Ah.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
Isn't it how equal we have become? Death is an
exceptional equalizer. It takes a strong and handsome man like yourself,
uniformed the meddled, and it places you alongside a skimpy
thing like myself. But in the eyes of God, there's
precious little to distinguish us. We are flesh, blood, muscle, limbs,

(34:31):
and we are the same. Understand, Chancellor, we are the same.
We are not the same.

Speaker 10 (34:42):
A man of the state dies with dignity.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
We shall see that is, they will see. The Lord
is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside
the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me

(35:07):
in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. Yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil. Thou art with me, Thy
rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a

(35:27):
table for me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou
anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely,
Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of
my life, and I will dwell in the house of
the Lord forever. Please please, there's only one mint in left.

(35:51):
Let me out, in the name of God. Let me out, Yes, Chancellor,
in the name of God, I will let you out.
Here's the key.

Speaker 11 (36:08):
Goodbye, Chancellor, this way, take your hands off of me.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
What is the meaning of this, you may approach.

Speaker 2 (36:30):
I don't understand what's going on.

Speaker 3 (36:32):
You all know me, no further stand where you are.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
It's been a misunderstanding.

Speaker 4 (36:37):
I've served the state for years.

Speaker 10 (36:40):
In fact, I'm the one who created the current edicts
and passed them into law.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
I am the new Chancellor.

Speaker 4 (36:46):
You have been removed from office.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
But why the field investigators have declared you obsolete.

Speaker 4 (36:52):
You have disgraced the state. You have proven yourself a coward.

Speaker 3 (36:56):
You therefore have no function.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
I must protest speak.

Speaker 8 (37:00):
Return the prisoner to the detention room while we determine
his sentence.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
The finding of this hearing is that he is obsolete.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
No wait, hear me out haste.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
No, the time is the future, not a future that

(37:37):
will be, but one that might be. Not just this
story's lesson, but a lesson for all time, so long
as men would speak their mind, and so long as
tyranny would seek to muzzle them. File this case under
m for mankind. In the Twilight.

Speaker 9 (37:55):
Zone more from the Twilight Zone.

Speaker 3 (38:02):
After this, you.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
Are about to enter another dimension, a dimension not only
of sight and.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
Sound, but of mind.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop,
the Twilight Zone. Hi, this is Stacy Keach. I'd like
to take a moment to tell you about our Twilight
Zone website at twilight Zone Radio dot com. At twilight
Zone Radio dot com you'll find the latest information on
these Twilight Zone radio dramas, including behind the scenes photographs,

(38:30):
plus the newest product releases, trivia contests, ways to contact us,
other Twilight Zone related info and merchandise, plus links to
other fascinating websites. So make your next stop twilight Zone
Radio dot com.

Speaker 19 (38:43):
Visit twilight Zone Radio dot com to purchase these Twilight
Zone radio dramas on cassette and CD, or call toll
free one eight six six nine eight nine Zone That's
one eight six six nine eight nine nine six six three.

Speaker 9 (39:10):
The Obsolete Man, starring Jason Alexander with Stacy Keach as
your narrator, was adapted for radio by Dennis Etchison and
based on a script by Rod Serling. Heard in the
cast were Christian Stolty, Joe Forbrick, Meg Falcon, Rick Plastina,
Doug James, rob Riley, Lynn Foley, Carl Lamari, Roger Wolski,

(39:33):
and Vince Omari. To learn more about the Twilight Zone
Radio dramas and to obtain audio cassettes and CDs of
these programs, visit our website at twilight Zone Radio dot com.
The producers of the Twilight Zone wished to thank CBS
Enterprises Carol Serling Dennis Etchison, Dick Bresha Associates, Claire Simon Casting,

(39:53):
Paul Patch, Terry Jennings, the American Forces Radio and Television Service,
Our sponsors, and our radio affiliates for helping make this
series possible. This copyrighted radio series is produced and directed
by Carl Lamari and Roger Wolsky for Falcon Picture Group.
Doug James Peaking,