Once there was a story about a faerie, and the story had to be very, very careful, because the story was not aware whether or not it might be safe to suggest that the faerie was short.
For the story lived in times during which what you said was important. And this was good, because without speech, it would be difficult to create stories without it, and the story had a certain desire to exist.
On the other hand, different weights and measures apply to different time periods, and at this time, the import of a given word mostly assigned benevolence or complicity. That is, it is often remarked that some people do not wish to be called ‘short’. The story happened to live in a time when that particular pain was considered quite important.
If the story called the faerie ‘short’, the faerie might be upset, and the story‘s life would be unpleasant.
If the story were to be short, the story would have to be…short.
The story‘s most viable alternative was simply to lie. This left the faerie without a story, the story without a core, and the entire experience was a loss instead of a gain.
It did make people angry.
If that helps at all.
