#dictionopolis

[book--brackets]

CW Preliminary Round: Poll 7

The Hundred Acre Wood from Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne

Earthsea from Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. LeGuin

Ember from Book of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

Kingdom of Wisdom from The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Dictionopolis from The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Digitopolis from The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

see results

Voting ended onApr 29, 2024

[ohtheylovetolietoyou]

She'd been to Narnia, Wonderland, Hogwarts, Dictionopolis. She had tessered, fallen through the rabbit hole, crossed the ice bridge into the unknown world beyond

Anne Ursu, Breadcrumbs

[speaking-of-stevie]

meet tock, my watchdog

[theartassignmentresponses]

Sorted Books and Histories| The Art Assignment

[memeengine]

"When the boys grew to young-manhood, the king called them to him and said: 'I am becoming an old man and can no longer go forth to battle.  You must take my place and found new cities in the wlderness, for the kingdom of Wisdom must grow.'

And so they did.  One went south to the Foothills of Confusion and built Dictionopolis, the city of words; and one went north to the Mountains of Ignorance and built Digitopolis, the city of numbers.  Both cities flourished mightily and the demons were driven back still further..."

Chapter 6 of Norton Juster's "The Phantom Tollbooth" reads like an epic poem, except that it's so clearly fraught with metaphorical commentary.  Equally fantastic are the names taken by the two young princes:

"When the old king finally died, the kingdom was divided between his two sons... One son went south and became Azaz the Unabridged, king of Dictionopolis, and the other went north and became the Mathemagician, ruler of Digitopolis."

[worldofpollux]

When I was a kid, I enjoyed reading The Phantom Tollbooth, but I always thought that Dictionopolis would have been a nicer place to visit than Digitopolis.  Dictionopolis had a vibrant marketplace and seemed more like a traditional city. 

It’s not just that that I like words more than numbers.  It’s just that Digitopolis just sounded like one enormous mathematical gulag, a numbers mine with countless workers chipping away at the rocks in search of valuable integers.  Did Digitopolis have any parks?  Any shops?  Any places to get a cup of cylindrical coffee and a slice of apple Π?

[kristinhoppe]

Lizzie Nichols