Saturday, April 05, 2008

PierXanthOny

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I like the word 'catastrophe.' I like hearing it, I like reading it, I like saying it, I like writing it. Catastrophe, catastrophe, catastrophe. It always makes me giggle inside, and this is due to Piers Anthony, who at one point in his Xanth series, has a character find a trophy made out of a cat's ass.

Reality in Xanth is constantly skewed by the magical power of puns; every part of every story is driven by some sort of word play. I think we fail to appreciate them -- I don't hear people refer to "good puns" a lot. "Bad pun" is a construction like "killed him dead" or "corrupt and incompetent Bush Administration official," in which the modifiers are totally optional.

If you're over 12, it's probably too late for you to fully appreciate Xanth. But, try to make some puns!

4 comments:

Brad said...

Ah, Piers Anthony. Ogre, Ogre was the book, I think, that also featured the dangerous drinks of Boot Rear and Injure Jail.

Brad said...

Oh, yeah -- and "soft drinks" made you go weak in the knees and fall over.

Anonymous said...

terrier word play. russel. jack. terrier. small. shepherd. labrador. large. make sense? not really. stream-of-conscious-lock-ness.

Rionn Fears Malechem said...

I can confirm it was, in fact, Ogre Ogre.