Don't hang up

[shewhomust]

Via the Guardian, a project called Crossed Lines "explores the ways that the telephone has been conceived by writers from the 19th century to the present day". Some of the material goes beyond the capacity of my phone: Dial-a-Poem requires me to download an app, which my dumbphone will not do (and then presumably to listen to a poem over the phone, which isn't my preferred means of delivery). However:

I've been enjoying browsing the Online Exhibition, a crowdsourced selection of literary references to telephones: a bit of Good Omens here, a Robert Frost poem there, plenty of good stuff ...

The gallery is still open to contributions. Naturally, as soon as I start to think about it, my mind goes blank. All I have right now is the Bob Newhart monologue in which Walter Raleigh, at the far end of the phone, attempts to describe the riches of the New World (video or text): the telephone as a means of not communicating.

ETA: Likewise, Alan Bennet sends a telegramme -

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[cmcmck]

Will Willie tinkle Tilly on the telephone tonight? (Late 19th century music hall song)............

[shewhomust]

That's a fine example, and new to me ...