A Short Summary of the Essay "On Not Answering the Telephone" by William Plomer

On Not Answering the Telephone by William Plomer

About the Author:

William Plomer was a British novelist, poet and a literary editor. He was born in South Africa, completed his education in England and lived in Japan for a short while. So, he described himself as Anglo-African-Asian. He expressed his anger against racial discrimination in his collection of short stories titled ‘I Speak of Africa’. Plomer was known for his deep sense of humour which he showed both in his writings and in his talks on the radio.

Summary of the Essay:
        The present essay is a talk given by William Plomer on BBC. In the talk, he discusses the discovery of the telephone in a comic way. He thinks that sometimes gadgets like telephone are more of a burden than a boon. He makes some real observations about mechanical devices and their users.

The writer shares his experience with mechanical devices like the telephone, the typewriter and the car. The writer does not use a telephone because he does not like the telephone. He thinks that he can work, play, eat, breathe and sleep without telephone. He thinks that telephone is a pest and a time waster. It creates unnecessary suspense and anxiety when we wait for an unexpected call that does not come. It also irritates us when we dial a number and the number is always engaged. We use telephone when we are in hurry. When people use public telephone which is kept in the box, they feel suffocated by stale and unventilated air which has smell of cheap face powder and smoke of cigarettes. When you are speaking from the public telephone, there is a long queue of people standing behind you outside the box and you feel very awkward.

Many people are not strong enough to ignore the call. Though they are busy having a meal or a conversation or bath, they rush to answer the call. They think that it is an important and urgent call but many times they are told that it is a wrong number. According to the author, all telephone numbers are wrong numbers. The writer thinks that if you do not answer the call and if the message is really important, it will reach you sooner or a latter. We must always remember that news travels fast and the truth will come out.

The writer also speaks about very strange experience of English people when they speak to a stranger on a telephone; the thing which they will never do in public. The writer calls telephone directory a book with large circulation and a successful one and reprinted many times and which is more famous than Shakespeare or the Bible. The writer thinks that any stranger, bore, intruder or criminal can engage you in a conversation which will disturb your privacy. In some cases, some reporter may take confidential information from you and may do harm to your friends or family. It all happens because your name and telephone number is available in the telephone directory.

Some people think that a telephone is necessary in an emergency like illness, accident or fire. The writer comments that in a thickly populated country like England there is no necessity of telephone even in case of emergency. a well-known actor expresses his wish to live on a lonely island where he would take telephone with him and would push the wire into the sand; so that he does not have to answer any call.

People react in different ways when the writer says that he does not use telephone. Some are surprised and some think it an eccentric act. The writer regards himself as a quiet and conventional type of character

The writer does not even use a typewriter. As a writer, the typewriter is necessary for him but he does not use it. When he was young, he thought a typewriter as necessary thing because the editors and publishers expect everything sent to them to be typewritten. So, he bought a typewriter and learnt to type and for some years he typed. But he did not enjoy typing. The writer likes the act of writing. He never could enjoy tapping the keys of a typewriter. He also does not like a bell of a typewriter. The writer is not a mechanical minded person. He has never drawn to machines. He does not like oiling, cleaning or repairing them. He does not enjoy making machines powerless. He does not get any sense of power by controlling them and even machines do not like him. They break down, get jammed, catch fire or blow up when the writer touches them.

In the last part of the essay, the writer shares his experiences of using a car. He got his driving license in South Africa at the age of 17. He learnt to drive in the rush hours in the city of Johannesburg. He needed the car for his work purpose and there was no traffic in the part of Africa where he drove the car. The driving process became automatic for him and his only idea was to go from one place to the other. He drove very fast and within a week or two the speedometer was broken. He did not repair it. He was a good driver. He did not lose control of car even on Rocky or Sandy roads. He did not kill or injure anybody but he was bored and if situation allowed, he would have preferred to walk. When there are many rules and regulations of driving, he is not interested to drive a car.

The writer is aware that he is living in machine age. He is not trying to put the clock back. He does not consider himself as an escapist, a crank or a simple lifer. He thinks it as a matter of preference not of principle. He tries to live his life as far as possible without using a telephone a typewriter and a car. He uses public modes of transportation like trains, taxis or planes. He uses lifts instead of walking upstairs. He uses moving staircases instead of unmoving ones. He does not intend to be dominated by machines. He does not want to oil them, repair them or clean them. He does not want to feed the typewriter with papers. He does not want to lose the use of his legs by travelling always by a car or to be called with or without warning by the telephone.

The writer does not mind if people conclude anything  about his nature regarding not using these machines. He justifies himself by trying to prove that what he likes is good. He thinks that many things are not necessary but people think them as necessary. He admits that if he were a businessman or a person on a death bed, a telephone is essential for him. If he were a secretary, a typewriter is essential for him. If he were a taxi driver, a car is essential for him.
        According to him English boast of two things; one is mechanical invention, the other is literature. He calls himself a literary writer who uses words. At the end, he says that he must stop now using words because somebody is asking for him on the telephone and he has to answer it because it may be an important call.