The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
My rating: 5/5 cats
JULY
as part of my personal reading challenges for 2017, once a month i will be revisiting a favorite book from when i was a little bitty karen and seeing if it holds up to my fond memories and determining if i can still enjoy it as an old and crotchety karen.
fingers crossed.
so: first things first. in answer to the question ‘does this book hold up?’ here’s what’s weird. i have no memory of reading this book as a kid. i know i read it – i remember all of jules feiffer’s illustrations and i have strong memories of taking it off the library shelves and adding it to my stack on a number of occasions, and i also remember it being read to me in elementary school in my AT program (that’s ‘academically talented,’ thank you very much). however, reading it for this project, it was completely unfamiliar to me – i had no nostalgic shiver of recognition, nor any anticipation of what was to come. the only explanation i have for this blank is that while reading this book as a child, i also witnessed an unspeakable crime, after which i was kidnapped and had my memory wiped, accounting both for the lack of memory and the simultaneously strong memory of borrowing it from the library multiple times.
which is fine – i have no interest in remembering unspeakable crimes, and the memory wipe allowed me to experience this book as though for the first time.
baby-karen review:
adult-review:
adults-only this time, i guess. this book is beyond delightful – silly, yes but also genuinely funny and smart. full of puns and paradoxes and wordplay and wonderland-logic, but more sophisticated and less loopy than wonderland – it’s a clever kind of humor that appeals to both kids and adults and also happens to be full of truths:
…you can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and still come out completely dry. Most people do.
sure, there are lots of lessons, like the importance of choosing your words with precision, and the necessity of common sense and imagination in learning, as it contributes more lasting value than rote memorization, which is basically the point of this book – milo is a smart enough kid, but he is bored by school, because he has no framework for applying his learning:
”I can’t see the point in learning to solve useless problems, or subtracting turnips from turnips, or knowing where Ethiopia is or how to spell February.”
but once he passes through the magical phantom tollbooth, he begins to actually apply his brain and creativity towards problem-solving adventures both linguistic and numerical, meeting many crazy characters along the way, taking some on as traveling companions, like the wonderful watchdog. who is a dog and a watch at once.
like the watchdog, the lessons milo learns revolve around the ideas of what is possible – broadening his educational perspective, transcending the limited brainbox of formal education and embracing a less structured, more experiential approach to learning.
”one of the nicest things about mathematics, or anything else you might care to learn, is that many of the things which can never be, often are.”
this is one of those revelations that can change a person, and juster reinforces it in a number of ways:
”so many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible.”
which is a reasoning that brings to mind that alice in wonderland quote:
Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
but it’s a different treatment – in alice, the tone is just a giggle; it’s silliness in a vacuum. juster’s take is more encouraging and ultimately more useful as a life lesson, fostering self-confidence:
”…you had the courage to try; and what you can do is often simply a matter of what you will do.”
that is not to say that this is a through-and-through feel-good book. some of the realizations are very sobering slaps:
”But if all the roads arrive at the same place at the same time, then aren’t they all the right way?” asked Milo.
“Certainly not!” he shouted, glaring from his most upset face. “They’re all the wrong way. Just because you have a choice, it doesn’t mean that any of them has to be right.”
this is an amazing insight and i wish i DID remember this book from my childhood days, because lord knows it is a useful lesson and it’s one that many adults haven’t figured out.
of course, we’ve figured out some of the other lessons the hard way:
”You’ll find,” he remarked gently, “that the only thing you can do easily is be wrong, and that’s hardly worth the effort.”
indeed.
the last thing i want to call out is this illustration of the terrible trivium, which looks like nothing less than an early version of slender man:
the terrible trivium is just as insidious as slender man – he doesn’t make kids stab their friends, but as the demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs, ogre of wasted effort, and monster of habit, he definitely brings his share of struggle to us all with his outlook:
”If you only do the easy and useless jobs, you’ll never have to worry about the important ones which are so difficult. You just won’t have the time. For there’s always something to do to keep you from what you really should be doing…
which is interesting to me, because i encountered a similar philosophy recently in Arbitrary Stupid Goal, and when i read it there, i applauded it:
A goal that isn’t too important makes you live in the moment, and still gives you a driving force. This driving force is a way to get around the fact that we will all die and there is no real point to life.
But with the ASG there is a point. It is not such an important point that you postpone joy to achieve it. It is just a decoy point that keeps you bobbing along, allowing you to find ecstasy in the small things, the unexpected, and the everyday.
What happens when you reach the stupid goal? Then what? You just find a new ASG.
i recognized and appreciated this way of thinking, completely forgetting about juster’s version of it until i sat down to write this review and noticed the parallel. which makes my theory about some sort of book-related memory wipe implanted by hypnotic suggestion in my formative years more or less fact.
so, if you haven’t read this one yet, or if you have had your own memory of having read it wiped, get on it. and if you have bred children, make them read it. and do not let them anywhere near unspeakable crimes. which should go without saying, but still.
JANUARY: wait till helen comes
FEBRUARY: the little gymnast
MARCH: zucchini
APRIL: something queer at the library
MAY: good-bye pink pig
JUNE: the girl with the silver eyes
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shark week was so much later this year than usual that it threw me off, so i’m reading this one just under the gun, and trying to finish two more shark books before the week of festivities ends. YEESH!
