This brief passage dates from the early 1930s, but it was written to be heard, not skimmed.
The humor lies less in the situation than in the phrasing: the rhythm of address, the casual irony, the way modernity is viewed from an unexpected angle. These stories assumed an audience attentive to language itself — to tone, diction, and attitude — not merely to plot.
Tomorrow’s podcast introduces the Language Room — and a way of listening to early speculative fiction that modern reading habits tend to flatten.
