Please Hold Flashcards
‘This is the future, my wife says. We are already there, and its the same as the present’
Repetition and monosyllabic language of the opening portray the wife to be almost robotic. Her confusing and contradictory language suggests technology eliminates elements of our humanity, and forces us to become unthinking robots.
‘Wonderful says the robot’
‘Great says the robot’
‘wonderful telephone number’
‘greater account number’
Empty and distorted language. Technology corrupts language and meaning.
‘(which is really the robot’s account)’
Parenthesis - representing the truth behind this facade of politeness.
‘Yes or No’
‘Repeat or Menu’
‘Or you can say Agent’
Repetition of conjunctions - illusion of choice and helpfulness. Reality is technology restricts and disempowers us under ‘the guise of countless alternatives’ We really have no options.
‘I scream Agent!’
Emphasises speaker’s escalating frustration and anger - disempowered.
‘Please hold.’
Repetition of the title in an imperative tone - robot’s voice - robot has agency, ‘please’ promotes false politeness. Speaker lacks authority.
‘Eine Kleine Nachtmusik’
Repetition, translating to ‘a little night music’ - reiterates how technology erodes our humanity, human accomplishments ultimately serve technology, corrupts something beautiful - art
‘And the robot transfers me to himself’
Technology is an endless, illogical cycle.
‘the only way you can escape is by looting’
Image of the future as violent and dystopian. Technology has such a strong grip on society that the only way it can be overthrown is via violent rebellion.
Final stanza:
‘Please hold’ ‘Please grow cold’ ‘Grow old’
Monosyllabic language and internal rhyme - reiterates speaker’s lack of agency and choice as pretend politeness disappears.
Structure?
Single, long stanza - almost a maze of suffocating, inescapable technology.
The final tercet breaks this structure and, in the voice of the robot, reasserts the authority of technology.
