Hailed by the Christian Science Monitor as “the first political satire of the 21st century”—and by the Dallas Morning News as “Orwell meets Scrabble”— Ella Minnow Pea is an exuberant novel of language and ideas that should be of particular interest to high school and college students. As a political satire, it reflects the paranoid absurdities of both the political correctness movement and the domestic war on terror. But the book is also a dazzling linguistic performance that will appeal to anyone who enjoys the subtleties and suppleness of the English language. The 19th-century violinist Niccolo Paganini was famous for snipping three strings of his instrument in mid-concerto and playing on without missing a beat. In Ella Minnow Pea Mark Dunn goes Paganini 21 better, divesting himself of most of the letters of the English alphabet and doing so in perfect accordance with the dictates of his story. WARNING - This is MY FAVORITE book of all time, so there will be gooing, gushing and shameless pluggery! When a third tile, “J,” falls, the Council explains that it is basing its actions on the will of Nollop and that any other interpretation will be considered punishable heresy. They write that Nollop was “omniscient” because of his ability to create his 35-letter pangram—a feat like that cannot be replicated or beaten, they declare.

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn | Goodreads Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn | Goodreads

A university professor who lives in Nollopton. He becomes a key figure in pursuing Enterprise Thirty-Two and he is able to come up with a 37-letter pangram. However, when he and his assistant, Tom… How important are the love relationships in the novel–for example those between Tassie and Nate and between Rory and Mittie–to the main action? How do they enhance the plot? Mittie’s friend who has a difficult time with the Council’s ban on writing or speaking any letters that fall from Nevin Nollop’s statue. Agnes confesses to Mittie that all she can do…However, since the punishment for using illegal letters does not apply to children aged seven years or younger, the members of Enterprise 32 take advantage of this, and have the children write pangrams for them. It wasn't until I told someone, out loud, what I was reading that I realized the title, Ella Minnow Pea, really sounded like the "LMNOP" of the alphabet song. Now, of course, I have no idea how I missed it. Ella Minnow Pea. LMNOP. Obvious. So obvious I wonder what else I missed. Such a clever title. Such a clever book. Write a brief essay proving or disproving the following proposition: “The fall of tiles from the cenotaph is a clear expression of Nollop’s will and desire–namely that the letters on said tiles be eliminated from use.”

Ella Minnow Pea - Wikipedia

In a letter to her cousin, Tassie, island dweller Ella notes that it is just a funny little letter, after all. It will hardly be missed. Charming, intellectually engaging, and filled with fascinating wordplay, Ella Minnow Pea is a cautionary tale about authoritarianism, about the dangers of reading signs and symbols where there are none–and about the irrepressible human urge to speak freely. Questions and Topics for DiscussionVoland Edizioni". www.voland.it. Archived from the original on 29 July 2010 . Retrieved 13 January 2022.