karenika - books - the phantom tollbooth

The Phantom Tollbooth

"Well," said the old lady, just as a rat scurried across her foot. "I am the king's great-aunt. For years and years, I was in charge of choosing which words were to be used for all occasions, which ones to say and which ones not to say, which ones to write and which ones not to write. As you can well imagine, with all the thousands to choose from, it was a most important and responsible job. I was given the title of 'Official Which,' which made me very proud and happy.

"At first I did my best to make sure that only the most improper and fitting words were used. Everything was said clearly and simply and no words were wasted. I had signs posted all over the palace and market place which said:

Brevity is the soul of wit.

"But power corrupts, and soon I grew miserly and chose fewer and fewer words, trying to keep as many as possible for myself. I had new signs posted which said:

An ill-chosen word is the fool's messenger.

"Soon sales began to fall off in the market. The people were afraid to buy as many words as before, and hard times came to the kingdom. But still I grew more and more miserly. Soon there were so few words chosen that hardly anything could be said, and even casual conversation became difficult. Again I had new signs posted, which said:

Speak fitly or be silent wisely.

"And finally I had even these replaced by ones which read simply:

Silence is golden.

"All talk stopped. No words were sold, the market place closed down, and the people grew poor and disconsolate. When the king saw what had happenned, he became furious and had me cast into this dungeon where you see me now, an older and wiser woman.

"That was all many years ago," she continued; "but they never appointed a new Which, and that explains why today people use as many words as they can and think themselves very wise for doing so. For always remember that while it is wrong to use too few, it is often far worse to use too many."

I can easily say that Phantom Tollbooth is one of the best books I've read in ages. My friend Zev made me read it and I absolutely adored it. It's good on so many levels that I can't even begin to talk about them. I looked forward to reading more pages of it every single day that I was reading it.