Stark Naked is a book of humor written by Norton Juster

Norton Juster

Norton Juster is an American architect and author. He is best known as an author of children's books, including The Phantom Tollbooth and The Dot and the Line.- Biography :...

, an American architect and author. It was published by Random House

Random House

Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...

 in 1969, Library of Congress Control Number

Library of Congress Control Number

The Library of Congress Control Number or LCCN is a serially based system of numbering cataloging records in the Library of Congress in the United States...

 71-85568. It is currently out of print. The illustrator was Arnold Roth

Arnold Roth

Arnold Roth is an American freelance cartoonist and illustrator for advertisements, album covers, books, magazines and newspapers.Novelist John Updike wrote, "All cartoonists are geniuses, but Arnold Roth is especially so."...

. The book is a series of names, each of which is play on words. Juster himself, talked about the funny fake names he would invent as a child. The title is unusual, the word Paronomastic means "play on words" or "punning". The misspelling "Paranomastic" might be intentional, but this spelling is often used.

Plot summary

Emotional Heights is a town where everybody's name is a play on words. The hero, Stark Naked, is a naked (except for a beret and a large 1930's-era motion picture camera) film-maker who wanders about the town seemingly amazed and perplexed by the unusual names of the townspeople. He walks in from the highway and makes his way past the town's distinguished and not so distinguished citizens. Some of the names are in lists, other names are illustrated by Roth, in a melancholy, yet humorous style. He marvels at the school ("Get High" with principal Martin Nett), the business district (home of Walter Wall Rugs) and the university (where he finds the intellectual Noel Lott). He finishes up at a restaurant (Chef Al Dente), the hospital (Carson Oma, M.D.) and finally the town cemetery (Last resting place of Dustin Toodust).

Main characters

• Stark Naked, an unclothed cartoon-figure cameraman, the main character. He is a polite, unobtrusive and quiet observer.

• Emotional Heights, is the town where the cameraman makes his incredulous journey.

Minor characters

• Arnie Swa, husband of K. Molly Panse. This husband and wife team on the back cover give the point of the book. Their names are based on Honi soit qui mal y pense
  Honi soit qui mal y pense
  "Honi soit qui mal y pense" is a French phrase meaning: "Shamed be he who thinks evil of it". The phrase is sometimes rendered as "Honi soit quy mal y pense", "Hony soyt qe mal y pense", "Hony soyt ke mal y pense", "Hony soyt qui mal pence" and various other phoneticizations. It is the motto of...
  
   which is the motto of the English Order of the Garter
  Order of the Garter
  The Most Noble Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, is the highest order of chivalry, or knighthood, existing in England. The order is dedicated to the image and arms of St...
  
  . It means literally "shame upon he who thinks ill of it" or in American vernacular
  Vernacular
  A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
  
  : "Evil to he who thinks evil".

• Ellis Dee, a drugged-out bearded college student seen floating above the University Groove U.

• Yetta Nother, a haggard mother with about twelve children.