Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close : Telephone Answering Machine

Oskar bought a new TAM so Sandra wouldnt hear Toms messages.
In a real situation, wouldnt you notice a new TAM all nice and shiny and straight out of the box?

And the TAM would have been quite a few years old - however long they had been living in that apartment - would that not have been superseded by a newer model? That is, the old model not available anymore?

Not necessarily, it's the sort of item which could be easily overlooked unless you're the sort of person who would notice a difference in that area. You also have to consider the idea that she was too distracted by other things to notice.

FourFiveEight:

I dont know what you mean by "in that area".

But if someone replaced, say a 3yo TAM with a shiny new TAM in your house, you wouldnt notice it?

I know i'm being pedantic but you replied - which is appreciated - so i'll persist on being pedantic.

I would probably notice but I'm not representative of everyone so you can't really think, "Well I'd have noticed so anyone should've noticed". If you take the answering machine for granted then you probably aren't going to pay attention to any differences especially if it's just a little newer looking. The film is on Netflix in fact so I went and had a look and it's not as if the old machine was beat up or anything it's just the colour had some slight yellowing. The average person isn't really going to notice a difference like this on such a trivial item. I'd probably notice for any number of reasons one being the discolouration of a beige phone bothers me so I'd notice the difference between an old machine and a new machine and I have an interest in tech which means I'd be more likely to notice it.
It's the sort of person who'd pay attention to the answering machine beyond pushing the play button to hear the days messages.

Ok fair enough