The Obsolete Man
- Episode aired Jun 2, 1961
- TV-PG
- 25m
In a future totalitarian society, a librarian is declared obsolete and sentenced to death.In a future totalitarian society, a librarian is declared obsolete and sentenced to death.In a future totalitarian society, a librarian is declared obsolete and sentenced to death.
- Subaltern
- (as Josep Elic)
- Board Member
- (uncredited)
- Narrator
- (uncredited)
- …
- Board Member
- (uncredited)
- Subaltern
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaA year and a half after Time Enough at Last (1959), Burgess Meredith has a Twilight Zone character defined by his relation to books.
- Quotes
Narrator: [closing narration] The chancellor, the *late* chancellor, was only partly correct: He *was* obsolete; but so is the State, the entity he worshiped. Any state or entity becomes obsolete when it stockpiles the wrong weapons: when it captures nations, but not minds; when it enslaves millions, yet convinces nobody; when it dons armor and calls it faith, when in the eyes of God it is naked, having no faith at all. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of humanity... That state is obsolete. A case to be filed under "M" for Mankind -- in The Twilight Zone.
- ConnectionsEdited into Twilight-Tober-Zone: The Obsolete Man (2022)
Because if people think it is preachy, it means that its message is obvious. But it's a message that has frequently NOT been obvious to people, in many times and places in human history. The theme of the individual versus the state is an absolutely timeless one, and the message is one that needs to be told again and again in every generation.
And the story *is* told timelessly. As much as one is tempted to see it from the cold-war context of its time as being a thinly-veiled anti-communism fable, the truth is that The State as presented here is any tyrannical totalitarian regime, be it Marxist, Nazi, or any other statist ideology.
The one flaw, for which I took off a star, is the invocation of religion. Religion is an ideological detail, not a fundamental to the theme. The State's outlawing of religion in this tale serves as too-concrete a connection with the Soviet Union of the era. It also excludes The State from potentially representing any kind of theocratic totalitarianism (which is just as bad).
But it's such a good episode, and the message so important, that I'm willing to cut it a lot of slack for that flaw.
- Qanqor
- Jun 14, 2009
Details
- Runtime25 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1