O, No

The Wonderful O, a fairy tale by James Thurber, was published in 1957. Written ostensibly for children, the story follows the nefarious activities of the two evil pirates Black and Littlejack and the actions that result from their loathing of the letter O.

The pirates arrive with their crew on the island Ooroo aboard their ship the Aeiu in the pursuit of treasure. Not immediately finding it, they create chaos as they take over the island and its inhabitants and set about installing a new rule based on the banning of the letter O, leading to its removal from all objects, actions and emotions that contain it. With the resulting words contracted to nonsense, the people of Ooroo, or R as it has become, can no longer communicate in a meaningful way.

To illustrate how the English language copes without the use of one of its more frequently employed letters, the story proceeds with lists of words and how they change meaning without all of their letters. Thurber groups the words into topical sections creating a coherent exercise for the developing reader. Animals, different kinds of food, and body parts are just three of the many word clusters that form an integral part of the story.

Thurber’s further use of literary techniques such as word play and poetry-like phrasing, as well as bookish allusions likely to go over the head of the average eight-year-old, ensure the story is funny for adults as well as for children.

Underlying the fairy story, various subplots turn The Wonderful O from a child’s-own romp through fantasy and language to a comment on totalitarianism and the underground movements that develop in order to fight it. All of them are illustrations of the relatively recent realities of life as lived during the second world war, directed at the adult but allowing an introduction for some of its young readers in the older age bracket.

Complementing the political subplots, Thurber relays a message through his underground characters as they work out the importance of the meaning of words such as Honour and Valour, and their final conclusion of which constitutes the greatest of all possible words.

Although Thurber was also a cartoonist and often illustrated his own work, by the time The Wonderful O was published he was no longer able to see well enough to draw. Various editions have had different artists depict the story, with the first edition illustrated by his friend and colleague Marc Simont and a later edition by Ronald Searle.

…