
In a tightly packed city where four walls feel more like a cage than a home, a new kind of screen promises to turn confinement into illusion. Harry, eager to savor the latest “Full‑wall” technology, sees it as a doorway to a richer, borderless life, while his partner Flora clings to the fading dream of fresh air, gardens, and simple freedom. Their cramped apartment becomes a testing ground for a device that projects life‑sized scenes onto every surface, blurring the line between observation and participation.
As the Full‑wall flickers to life, the couple is drawn into a hyper‑real world of vivid colors and relentless motion that seems to fill the emptiness around them. Yet Flora’s yearning for actual space and quiet moments begins to clash with Harry’s optimism, raising unsettling questions about whether a synthetic vista can ever replace genuine experience. The story unfolds as they grapple with the allure of technology against the lingering ache for a world beyond the walls.
Language
en
Duration
~28 minutes (27K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
New York, NY: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, 1962.
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2023-12-14
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1925–1993
Best known for the witty Retief stories and the long-running Bolo tales, this American science fiction writer mixed sharp humor with big-idea adventure. His work helped shape military and diplomatic science fiction, and it still feels lively and inventive today.
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