Ronell...releases the ways we look at ordinary objects- the phone, the book- and encourages us to question our assumptions about the way things are. This thinking sets us up for an appreciation of the freakiness of the telephone, an object that P.T. Barnum felt uneasy about having in his freakshow because a limb without a human subject, as opposed to humans without limbs, would be too scary for his audience.' -Boston Reveiw