THE TALLY HO

No.93 Confesses Disharmony

                  by our own reporter

     “They’re right of course, quite right. I’m inadequate, inadequate, disharmonious. I’m truly grateful, believe me, believe me, believe me!” They say that confession is good for the soul, and does seem to have done No.93 some good. But is it a true confession? No.93 is certainly under some duress after having gone before the Committee, yet he has to be told what to say by a voice over the loudspeaker. We have seen this man before, as one of the two prefects in ‘The General,’ his number then was 250 which is fairly low in the pecking order as a guardian. But then his current number 93 suggests he was promoted, promotion which seems to have turned him disharmonious, suggesting he was with them but then he went and gone! And yet he confessed his disharmony, his inadequacy and it seems to have done him a power of good, because the next time we hear this man’s voice he will be one of the delegates of the Assembly, having regained his former sense of authority. You can’t miss him, he’s easily identified by that big bushy beard poking out from beneath his mask as he reads out the charge against No.48.

                   No.61 FOR FURTHER INVESTIGATION
    During No.6’s interview with the Committee, although the tape player is switched on by the Chairman, it is suggested the voice emanates from the machine and yet seems to be independent. In other words the voice reacts to what No.6 says, or is it the other way around, seeing as No.6 appears to be speaking to the voice of the machine, rather than to the members of the Committee which begins “I take it you’ve checked my file…regarding hostility.”
    Voice on the tape “Your files are no concern to us. Any information is with Number Two.”
    “Really.”
    No.18 Committee Chairman “It is the duty of this Committee to deal with complaints.”
    “Complaints?”
   Voice on the tape “Your complaints.”
    “Your complaints.”
    “Well done, I have several!”
    During that interview with No.6 the striking of a bell, presumably in the Bell Tower, can be heard, and yet the domed chamber is well below ground, how then is it possible for the bell to be heard? There can be only one possible answer, the voice on the tape was recorded {if it is a recorded voice we hear} somewhere out of doors. And there’s one other matter. At the beginning of the interview with No.6, the Chairman presses a button on a control panel effectively switching on the tape recorder, yet the voice, which is suggested to come from the tape recorder, is heard to speak before the tape recorder is switched on. It appears the tape recorder is a blind, the disembodied voice emanating from another source. Because it’s impossible for a recorded voice to react to what No.6 is saying. The tape recorder is doing what the disembodied voice said, recording everything No.6 says. So where does the voice emanate? There is no black loudspeaker on display. Perhaps the voice is a live feed via a microphone, but because of the sound of the chiming of the bell it means the man must be somewhere outside in The Village. But why the need for that voice at all? Because the voice says nothing the Committee Chairman could not say!
   Having left the Town Hall, No.6 encounters No.61 “Beautiful day Number Sixty-One” but for some reason she ignores his greeting, why should she do that? He’s not been posted as being unmutual yet. In the same way No.42 is accused of ignoring No.10’s greeting when she was composing poetry, such was her excuse. But No.61 deliberately ignored No.6’s greeting, and because of that she should have faced the Committee for investigation, as No.2 carried out his “witch-hunt” against any and all those disharmonious unmutuals amongst us.

Be seeing you