Ella Minnow Pea

I bought it because of a comment on Pinterest and it didn't leave me disappointed. At. All.

Muy bien pensado, es bonito ver cómo según evoluciona la historia el uso restrictivo de las letras va limitando las comunicaciones

N/a

Me encanta como evoluciona la historia, pero sobre todo el lenguaje para compensar las letras que se van eliminando.

The Story…Off the coast of America is an Island called Nollop. Named for the revered Nevin Nollop (deceased), creator of the pangram "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."Nollop is not an advanced nation - it's not even keeping up with the rest of the world. But what Nollop lacks in technological advancement, it's makes up for with the adoration of language. The Nollopian's adore words - especially Ella. They adore words, and they idolise the aforementioned Nevin Nollop. A monument to his linguistic prowess stands proud for all to see - tiles with individual letters spelling out the famous pangram.One day, a tile falls from the monument - the letter Z. The governing body of Nollop - being so fanatically devoted - declare the falling of the tile to represent an instruction from Nollop himself! The message is interpreted to mean the Nollopians should never used the letter Z again. Not in speech, not in writing...and those who break this divine law are severely punished.The book is written as a series of letters from various Nollopians. As more tiles fall from the aging monument, the Nollopians are forced to abandon the variety of words they adore so much, until they can take no more...What I liked…The book itself is an example - albeit a very strange one - of totalitarian government, fanatical religious leadership and censorship. As the letters fall from the monument, so too are they removed from the book. Dunn writes very cleverly, managing to keep as much variety and love of language in each letter, despite the every increasing pressure caused by the rapidly decrease pool of usable letters. It is clever, not just because it is a physically difficult task, but also because Dunn manages to express so much emotion in so many ways, and when Ella's heart breaks, my heart broke too.The format itself, a series of somewhat connected letters, is a very novel and highly effective form of delivery. It was not just a gimmick - it brought the story to life. It took me a little while to get my head around it, and might have been irritating if the story wasn't so engaging.Finally, I loved the variety of 'authors' for the letters. The letters are written by many different characters; all with different views and ways of dealing with an incredibly difficult situation. Perhaps one of the most difficult, but most rewarding things about this book is that you find yourself questioning which of the characters approaches you think you would follow if you were in their place. Questions like this are what usually make books about totalitarianism very difficult, and often soul crushing to read - but the admittedly bizarre situation allows you to consider these ethical dilemmas, something which I find really important.What I disliked…Nothing. I loved it.Final thoughts...This book seems really strange. The premise is strange, the way it uses an ever decreasing pool of letters is strange. The use of letters instead of 'normal' prose is weird. BUT it is beautiful. It is challenging. It is insightful. It is art.This book may be better suited to those with an appreciation for linguistic acrobatics, and the art of words, rather than the casual reader - but I would still encourage the casual reader to try it and see. It's more than worth the effort.

At a mere 208 pages, Ella Minnow Pea is a lexically delicious little book. It’s also a wonderful allegory (or perhaps a satire?) of fascism, censorship, the corruption of absolute power, theocracies, and the apathy (or fear) that allows evil to triumph over good."We are a nation of letter-writers, who, in the absence of reliable telephone service or the existence of electronic mail, have cultivated our hardship far beyond all expectation."The novel takes the form of letters from the inhabitants of an independent little fictional island called Nollop. It takes its name from the founding father Nevin Nollop, who is credited with discovering the wonderfully succinct sentence, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” in which each letter of the alphabet appears. This sentence is Nollop (the island)’s claim to fame, and it is proudly displayed in the town square. However, one night the letter ‘Z’ crashes to the ground. The council takes this as a sign from Nollop himself that the letter Z is unnecessary anyway – well, we hardly use it, after all – and so they decide to ban its use. Anyone caught using the aforementioned forbidden letter will be placed in the stocks, whipped, exiled or executed. This of course means that all the books should be destroyed. As more letters fall, they too are excised, until the task of saving the beloved island of Nollop’s people from incommunicable oblivion falls to Ella. And she is running out of both time and letters."Not only does it cripple communication between islanders, it builds rock walls between hearts."As a society of letter-writers who leave lengthy essays rather than notes and who will never say in five words what could be said in fifty, the novel can be a bit wordy… But that’s the point. As letters are stricken from the vocabulary of the Nollopians, the letter-writers must find ever more roundabout ways of expressing themselves, leading to some fantastic word-creating and lexical acrobatics. I particularly enjoyed the new words for expressing days of the week in the wake of the loss of ‘D’: Monty, Toes, Wetty, Thurby, Fribs, Satto-gatto and Sunshine. Thus, despite the overly complex and abnormally formal way that the Nollopians speak, the whimsy of it grew on me until I wished that everyone talked like they did, always and forever. And as the letters become more and more scarce, their spectacularly creative ways of expressing themselves are limited more and more, until they cannot speak except through language such that you might find in a teenager’s text messages – the horror!"In the sanctuary of my thoughts, I am a fearless renegade. Yet in the company of the children I cringe and cower in a most depreciating way."While the progressively lipogrammatic form and verbose style of the novel are more than enough to make me fall madly in love with it, the plot itself is effective and complex. The characters are distinct and lovable, as their relationships and the effects of their actions and the loss of their very identities filter out through the letters. From the man who must rename himself Prince Valiant-the-Comely to avoid a forbidden letter in his name, to a woman who decides to cover herself entirely in paint, to a family that march into the council house dressed as ducks and waving Quaker oats over their heads as they quack to protest the loss of the letter Q, the characters make this engrossing. Furthermore, the ever-growing power-madness of the Council is chillingly similar to theocratic/ideocratic dictatorships such as ISIS, Nazi Germany and the second Bush Administration. Neighbours turn on neighbours and any sense of privacy is obliterated by censorship and spying."Today we queried, questioned, and inquired. Promise me that come tomorrow, we will not stop asking why."The novel, while dazzlingly clever and scrumptiously linguistic is a treat to read. The characters are just mad enough to be utterly realistic and the moral implications are profoundly engaging. It’s a small, whimsical and wonderfully intelligent book, and a pleasure to read. I wish it had been longer, but not a word (or letter) was wasted.

Il libro è un tantino rovinato ma comunque in ottime condizioni per un prodotto usato. Spero di poterlo leggere subito.