fiction files redux discussion

Since Maureen sent this story to a bunch of us on Facebook, I thought I might as well start a thread for the discussion, in case we have one, and so that the folks who aren't on Facebook can join in. Here is the link.

http://www.101bananas.com/library2/mi...

hi patty! thanks for posting a discussion link... i didn't actually think anybody would pay attention -- i just wanted to share.

i love that story. it was written in 1957 but it still feels very fresh to me (except for the cash denominations) probably because i relate so well to the alienation that the main character feels, the yearning for something a little simpler, and a lot happier.

i just read it and loved it! i commented over in facebook how it reminds me of a shirley jackson story. i could totally go for living in a place like that.

Good story. I've read several stories from the '50s that have this "yearning" Twilight Zone feeling of being stranded or left out. An undercurrent in the zeitgeist? It reminded me of "The Tenants," written in 1954 by William Tenn. His story is funny, then it grows more frantic, and abruptly ends with the cage slamming shut.

The Tenants

adrian! that story gave me anxiety! i am glad i was not managing that building or i would have driven me bonkers before i ever got up to the 13th floor. :P

i would definitely agree that the finney story was part of a fifties trend toward that yearning -- agreed it is manifest in many twilight zones... but i would suggest that that it's began to build since the '50s and hasn't gone away -- now the more pragmatic people just talk about living off the grid instead of dreaming of life on another planet, or the way it used to be. :)