The Enormous Radio, By John Cheever (1947)

 The Enormous Radio, By John Cheever (1947)

7/10


I sometimes have a strange paranoid horror about what would happen if someone near me could read my mind. So just in case, I intentionally think “I know you are reading my mind, get out.” so the possible mind reader would be terrified and run away or whatever. I know this is stupid, but I guess that’s how much people prize their privacy. I actually think this privacy is what keeps the human society together. If everyone knew what kind of person everyone else exactly were, we would be so disgusted of this world. The ability to know exactly what kind of people others are may be considered a gift to some, but for most people, it would just make every single social exchange painful.

Considering how this story was written in the 1940s, the idea of a magical radio could have been interesting when it was published. I suppose people who read this story before magical machines became a cliché would have found this story more interesting.

I felt I read countless stories similar to this one, but since this one is probably one of the originals of the kind, I rated it seven out of ten.(198 words)

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