Kyrie
Retrospectively, I'm pretty sure it was The Phantom Tollbooth that cemented my perpetual annoyance at puns. Puns are easy - everyone can, and will, make puns. Puns are only funny when the person making the pun acknowledges how painful the pun they're making is.
Wordplay, though...that is a thing of beauty. And Phantom Tollbooth is nothing but wordplay.
There's the Whether Man, the Terrible Dynne, and the Senses Taker. In Dictionopolis you have to eat your own words. There's a forest where children grow down so that their perspective never changes. You can get to the Island of Conclusions by jumping...the list just goes on and on.
“I don't think you understand,” said Milo timidly as the watchdog growled a warning. “We're looking for a place to spend the night.”“It's not yours to spend,” the bird shrieked again, and followed it with the same horrible laugh.“That doesn't make any sense, you see—” he started to explain.“Dollars or cents, it's still not yours to spend,” the bird replied haughtily.“But I didn't mean—” insisted Milo.“Of course you're mean,” interrupted the bird, closing the eye that had been open and opening the one that had been closed. “Anyone who'd spend a night that doesn't belong to him is very mean.”“Well, I thought that by—” he tried again desperately.“That's a different story,” interjected the bird a bit more amiably. “If you want to buy, I'm sure I can arrange to sell, but with what you're doing you'll probably end up in a cell anyway.”“That doesn't seem right,” said Milo helplessly, for, with the bird taking everything the wrong way, he hardly knew what he was saying.“Agreed,” said the bird, with a sharp click of his beak, “but neither is it left, although if I were you I would have left a long time ago.”
“It has been a long trip,” said Milo, climbing onto the couch where the princesses sat; “but we would have been here much sooner if I hadn't made so many mistakes. I'm afraid it's all my fault.”“You must never feel badly about making mistakes,” explained Reason quietly, “as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.”
much
Retrospectively, I'm pretty sure it was The Phantom Tollbooth that cemented my perpetual annoyance at puns. Puns are easy - everyone can, and will, make puns. Puns are only funny when the person making the pun acknowledges how painful the pun they're making is.
Wordplay, though...that is a thing of beauty. And Phantom Tollbooth is nothing but wordplay.
There's the Whether Man, the Terrible Dynne, and the Senses Taker. In Dictionopolis you have to eat your own words. There's a forest where children grow down so that their perspective never changes. You can get to the Island of Conclusions by jumping...the list just goes on and on.
“I don't think you understand,” said Milo timidly as the watchdog growled a warning. “We're looking for a place to spend the night.”“It's not yours to spend,” the bird shrieked again, and followed it with the same horrible laugh.“That doesn't make any sense, you see—” he started to explain.“Dollars or cents, it's still not yours to spend,” the bird replied haughtily.“But I didn't mean—” insisted Milo.“Of course you're mean,” interrupted the bird, closing the eye that had been open and opening the one that had been closed. “Anyone who'd spend a night that doesn't belong to him is very mean.”“Well, I thought that by—” he tried again desperately.“That's a different story,” interjected the bird a bit more amiably. “If you want to buy, I'm sure I can arrange to sell, but with what you're doing you'll probably end up in a cell anyway.”“That doesn't seem right,” said Milo helplessly, for, with the bird taking everything the wrong way, he hardly knew what he was saying.“Agreed,” said the bird, with a sharp click of his beak, “but neither is it left, although if I were you I would have left a long time ago.”
“It has been a long trip,” said Milo, climbing onto the couch where the princesses sat; “but we would have been here much sooner if I hadn't made so many mistakes. I'm afraid it's all my fault.”“You must never feel badly about making mistakes,” explained Reason quietly, “as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.”
much