Project Gutenberg 2016-03-27 Public domain in the USA. 102 Van Scyoc, Sydney J. 1939 2023 Brown, Sydney Joyce Scyoc, Sydney Van Scyoc, Sydney J. Van West Shatter the Wall Produced from Galaxy Magazine February 1962 Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "Shatter the Wall" by Sydney J. Van Scyoc is a science fiction novel written in the early 1960s. The book explores themes of identity, love, and the consequences of societal obsession with media and celebrity, set against a backdrop where real human interactions have largely been replaced by artificial experiences through a technology known as the Wall. The narrative focuses on a mother and her daughter, who are both deeply affected by the presence of the Wall and its characters, particularly the actor Bass McDowall. The story revolves around Amanda, a mother who confronts her daughter Kathryn, the youngest person in a city devoid of children, about the dangers of obsessing over the artificial lives portrayed on the Wall. Kathryn idolizes the fictional characters, primarily Bass, and rejects the idea of marrying anyone else. As the story progresses, Amanda's desperation leads her to drastic actions against the characters she sees as problematic to humanity's survival. After committing murder in a misguided attempt to save the human race, Amanda confronts the uncomfortable reality that the characters she sought to erase are mere illusions, and that her actions cannot alter the underlying societal issues. Ultimately, the novel serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of escapism and the importance of human connection in a world increasingly defined by screens and simulations. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 87.7 (6th grade). Easy to read. en Science fiction Short stories Manners and customs -- Fiction PS Text Science Fiction Browsing: Literature Browsing: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Browsing: Fiction Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Category: Novels 51662 2025-06-20T15:53:07.450497 text/html 28016 2024-10-23T00:15:19 text/html 202526 2025-06-20T15:53:09.524471 application/epub+zip 201362 2025-06-20T15:53:07.896506 application/epub+zip 78924 2025-06-20T15:53:07.649493 application/epub+zip 238511 2025-06-20T15:53:10.939515 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 231548 2025-06-20T15:53:09.294556 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 109293 2022-09-23T13:24:49.397859 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 44519 2023-09-22T10:05:43.563795 text/plain 24796 2024-10-23T00:15:19 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 16969 2025-06-20T15:53:11.086455 application/rdf+xml 28778 2025-06-20T15:53:07.736453 image/jpeg 4825 2025-06-20T15:53:07.692512 image/jpeg 182706 2025-06-20T15:53:07.462480 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia