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The Brave Little Toaster (novel)
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The Brave Little Toaster (novel)
The Brave Little Toaster is a 1980 novella by American writer Thomas M. Disch intended for children or, as put by the author, a "bedtime story for small appliances". The story centers on a group of five household appliances—a tensor lamp stand, an electric blanket, an AM radio alarm clock, a vacuum cleaner and a toaster—on their quest to find their original owner referred to as the Master.
The story opens with a description of five members of a family of minor home appliances left in the cottage, listed from oldest to youngest. They are each given a personality. As the oldest, the vacuum cleaner is steady and dependable, the plastic AM radio alarm clock, the yellow electric blanket (cheerful), the tensor lamp stand (somewhat neurotic whether it, as an incentive from a savings bank, was better than a store-bought equivalent) and the Sunbeam toaster (bright). The cottage itself is on the northernmost edge of an immense forest and the appliances have grown used to seasonal use, with some of the master's other appliances (such as the black and white television set, the blender, the oral irrigator, the telephone, the stereo system and the world clock) annually returning to the city with their master each Labor Day.
One spring day, after "two years, five months, and thirteen days" without the master, though, the appliances begin to suspect they have been abandoned. A few months later, the toaster tells the others "We need people to take care of, and we need people to take care of us" and retells the story of an abandoned dog who had accidentally been left behind in a summer cottage, like themselves, but still "found his way to his master, hundreds of miles away". The appliances plan to do the same as soon as they can all travel safely together. Although the Hoover, while being strong and self-propelled, could take the other appliances, it still needed a source of power other than the wall outlet.
But before any of the small appliances who may be listening to this tale should begin to think that they might do the same thing, let them be warned: ELECTRICITY IS VERY DANGEROUS. Never play with old batteries! Never put your plug in a strange socket! And if you are in any doubt about the voltage of the current where you are living, ask a major appliance.
Their transportation needs are solved by fitting an old metal office chair with casters from the bed upstairs and rigging it with an old automotive battery from the Volkswagen Beetle to power the hoover, who will tow the other appliances. Suitably equipped, they set out through the woods since, even though the highway would otherwise be faster, "whenever human beings are observing them they must remain perfectly still".
During their first afternoon in the woods, the appliances stop to rest in a meadow after a brief rainstorm. The toaster is surprised by a daisy who speaks only in verse ("daisies, being among the simpler flowers, characteristically employ a rough sort of octosyllabic doggerel") to declare its love for the toaster, having fallen in love with its reflection in the toaster's chrome side. As the toaster excuses itself to rejoin its appliance friends, the daisy begs the toaster to "Pluck me and take me where you're bound. / I cannot live without you here: / Then let your bosom be my bier". Shocked, the toaster leaves the daisy in the ground and returns to the appliances, where the blanket folds itself into a tent to shelter the others.
The next night the appliances run into Harold and Marjorie, married squirrels. The squirrels and appliances have an awkward encounter when the squirrels first ask what gender the appliances are (they aren't), followed by an exchange of inappropriate jokes which neither group find funny. During the night, another rainstorm blows the blanket into the trees above, where it is stuck until the squirrels help it down the following morning. To thank the squirrels for their help, the toaster roasts some nuts, and the blanket plugs into the battery to dry out and warm the squirrels.
After leaving the squirrels, the journey of the appliances comes to an abrupt stop at the unexpected obstacle of a wide river. The hoover suffers a panic attack and starts chewing its own cord, calming down only after the toaster led the hoover back and forth across the grassy bank of the river in regular carpet-sweeping swathes. The appliances consult a map and discovering how close they are now to the city where their master lives, excitedly hatch a plan to follow the river until they find a bridge to cross it and then, as the toaster explains, "when it's very late and there's no traffic, we can make a dash for it!" Once they begin their search for a crossing, the chair overturns after one leg gets stuck in mud and one caster comes off.
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The Brave Little Toaster (novel)
The Brave Little Toaster is a 1980 novella by American writer Thomas M. Disch intended for children or, as put by the author, a "bedtime story for small appliances". The story centers on a group of five household appliances—a tensor lamp stand, an electric blanket, an AM radio alarm clock, a vacuum cleaner and a toaster—on their quest to find their original owner referred to as the Master.
The story opens with a description of five members of a family of minor home appliances left in the cottage, listed from oldest to youngest. They are each given a personality. As the oldest, the vacuum cleaner is steady and dependable, the plastic AM radio alarm clock, the yellow electric blanket (cheerful), the tensor lamp stand (somewhat neurotic whether it, as an incentive from a savings bank, was better than a store-bought equivalent) and the Sunbeam toaster (bright). The cottage itself is on the northernmost edge of an immense forest and the appliances have grown used to seasonal use, with some of the master's other appliances (such as the black and white television set, the blender, the oral irrigator, the telephone, the stereo system and the world clock) annually returning to the city with their master each Labor Day.
One spring day, after "two years, five months, and thirteen days" without the master, though, the appliances begin to suspect they have been abandoned. A few months later, the toaster tells the others "We need people to take care of, and we need people to take care of us" and retells the story of an abandoned dog who had accidentally been left behind in a summer cottage, like themselves, but still "found his way to his master, hundreds of miles away". The appliances plan to do the same as soon as they can all travel safely together. Although the Hoover, while being strong and self-propelled, could take the other appliances, it still needed a source of power other than the wall outlet.
But before any of the small appliances who may be listening to this tale should begin to think that they might do the same thing, let them be warned: ELECTRICITY IS VERY DANGEROUS. Never play with old batteries! Never put your plug in a strange socket! And if you are in any doubt about the voltage of the current where you are living, ask a major appliance.
Their transportation needs are solved by fitting an old metal office chair with casters from the bed upstairs and rigging it with an old automotive battery from the Volkswagen Beetle to power the hoover, who will tow the other appliances. Suitably equipped, they set out through the woods since, even though the highway would otherwise be faster, "whenever human beings are observing them they must remain perfectly still".
During their first afternoon in the woods, the appliances stop to rest in a meadow after a brief rainstorm. The toaster is surprised by a daisy who speaks only in verse ("daisies, being among the simpler flowers, characteristically employ a rough sort of octosyllabic doggerel") to declare its love for the toaster, having fallen in love with its reflection in the toaster's chrome side. As the toaster excuses itself to rejoin its appliance friends, the daisy begs the toaster to "Pluck me and take me where you're bound. / I cannot live without you here: / Then let your bosom be my bier". Shocked, the toaster leaves the daisy in the ground and returns to the appliances, where the blanket folds itself into a tent to shelter the others.
The next night the appliances run into Harold and Marjorie, married squirrels. The squirrels and appliances have an awkward encounter when the squirrels first ask what gender the appliances are (they aren't), followed by an exchange of inappropriate jokes which neither group find funny. During the night, another rainstorm blows the blanket into the trees above, where it is stuck until the squirrels help it down the following morning. To thank the squirrels for their help, the toaster roasts some nuts, and the blanket plugs into the battery to dry out and warm the squirrels.
After leaving the squirrels, the journey of the appliances comes to an abrupt stop at the unexpected obstacle of a wide river. The hoover suffers a panic attack and starts chewing its own cord, calming down only after the toaster led the hoover back and forth across the grassy bank of the river in regular carpet-sweeping swathes. The appliances consult a map and discovering how close they are now to the city where their master lives, excitedly hatch a plan to follow the river until they find a bridge to cross it and then, as the toaster explains, "when it's very late and there's no traffic, we can make a dash for it!" Once they begin their search for a crossing, the chair overturns after one leg gets stuck in mud and one caster comes off.