This is Mytheos Holt, your (at least for another week) resident epic troll, and welcome to a new column I like to call “the DeAnimator.” And yes, it is a column. Lewis's Narnia chronicles or ''The Phantom Tollbooth'' by Norton Juster, ''The Brave Little Toaster'' is a wonderful book for a certain sort of eccentric adult. Sort of octosyllabic doggerel, but more evolved species, especially those in the tropics, can produce sestinas, rondeaux, and villanelles of the highest order''? Besides, most of the jokes are too good for children. The publisher optimistically says ''forīoth children and adults,'' but what would the average 10-year-old make of the information that flowers can speak only in verse and that ''daisies, being among the simpler flowers, characteristically employ a rough It is much too long and too sophisticated for preschoolers, and perhaps a little too fantastic and subtle for some older children. While the appliances find their master, this book may be looking for an audience. '' 'You will never, never, never get away,' whisperedĪ mad old cassette player in a cracked voice,'' but they do. Never play with old batteries! Never put your plug in a strange socket! And if you are in doubt about the voltage of the current where you are living, ask a major appliance.''ĭuring their journey the appliances are kidnapped by the keeper of the city dump, where they are horrified to find themselves among discarded hair dryers, water heaters and the like. That mode of transportation is accompanied by a strong disclaimer: ''But before any of the small appliances who may be listening to this tale should begin to think that they might do the same thing, let them be warned: ELECTRICITY IS VERY DANGEROUS. Pulls them all along on an office chair, using power from a car battery. Plays easy-listening music and quotes Karl Marx (''From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs,'' he tells the other appliances when they are thinking of stealing a rowboat) the vacuum cleaner The blanket is a bit of a hysteric and threatens to go to bed when upset the radio The toaster, whose idea of a good time is to daydream about making English muffins, leads a Tensor lamp, an electric blanket, a radio and a vacuum cleaner on their search. Quite simply, it is the story of five small appliances, living in a summer cottage, who set off to find their missing owner. If you love the concept, you will love Thomas Disch's book. While that is not exactly the way it works in publishing, it is the way it works with ''The Brave Little Toaster.''
A writer described an idea,Īn editor smacked his desk blotter and shouted ''I love it!'' and money changed hands.
' ve always had a ridiculous fantasy that book contracts were made on the basis of sudden bolts from the blue.
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