Chapters 24 - 25 Summary

Halyard is accompanying the Shah of Bratpuhr to a doctor to treat the Shah's head cold. On the way, the Shah picks up a woman off the street. She has resolved herself to sell her body to the Shah, but she breaks down and starts crying. She tells the Shah her story. Her husband is a writer, and he's just finished his first novel. It was rejected by the committee, not because it was badly written, but because it was too long, because the language was too difficult, and because it was anti-machine. Only novels that will be popular with the masses that will fit in one of the twelve book clubs, and that support the system will be published. Paintings are produced in a similar manner, mostly copies of famous art.

The writer doesn't want to be made happy by...