obsolete man
한물간 남자, 퇴물이 된 남자
In a future totalitarian society, a librarian is declared obsolete and sentenced to death.
C1 not in use any more, having been replacedby something newer and better or morefashionable:
Gas lamps became obsolete when electric lighting was invented.
obsolete
no longer used or needed, usually because something newer and better has replaced it:
Typewriters have been rendered obsolete by computers.
obsolete
not in general use any more, having beenreplaced by something newer and better or more fashionable:
Payment by cheque will soon be obsolete.
become/be rendered obsolete
Traditional retailing is in danger of being rendered obsolete by the internet.
We need to replace some obsolete equipment.
obsolete
to make obsolete by replacing with something newer or better; antiquate:
Automation has obsoleted many factoryworkers.
The Obsolete Man" is episode 65 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on June 2, 1961 on CBS. The story was later adapted for The Twilight Zone Radio Dramasstarring Burgess Meredith as Romney Wordsworth.
"The Obsolete Man"
Burgess Meredith as Romney Wordsworth in "The Obsolete Man"
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Reviews & Commentary
I can understand why people consider this episode preachy. And in some sense, I think that's a wonderful thing. Not wonderful that the episode is preachy, wonderful that people *think* so.
Because if people think it is preachy, it means that its message is obvious. But it's a message that has frequently NOT been obvious to people, in many times and places in human history. The theme of the individual versus the state is an absolutely timeless one, and the message is one that needs to be told again and again in every generation.
And the story *is* told timelessly. As much as one is tempted to see it from the cold-war context of its time as being a thinly-veiled anti-communism fable, the truth is that The State as presented here is any tyrannical totalitarian regime, be it Marxist, Nazi, or any other statist ideology.
The one flaw, for which I took off a star, is the invocation of religion. Religion is an ideological detail, not a fundamental to the theme. The State's outlawing of religion in this tale serves as too-concrete a connection with the Soviet Union of the era. It also excludes The State from potentially representing any kind of theocratic totalitarianism (which is just as bad).
But it's such a good episode, and the message so important, that I'm willing to cut it a lot of slack for that flaw.