Mockingbird

by Walter Tevis

I see her with the trees and ferns in their glass cases behind her, holding the plastic fruit out to me.

I think if I had not learned how to read I would not have been interested in her. Only frightened.

If I cannot read and learn and have things that are worth thinking about, I would rather immolate myself than go on living.

So that corporations could grow, and so a few people could become incredibly rich, and have servants, and live in mansions. It changed the life of mankind more radically than the printing press.