The Other Side of Plato’s Wall

Abstract

In a powerful short story published in 1924, ‘The Wish House’, Rudyard Kipling puts into the mouth of one of his Sussex characters the term ‘Token’ as a synonym for ghost. ‘Token’ has not yet made it to the OED with this particular definition, but we can assume that Kipling had picked up a good local word. ‘Token’ is rich in meanings, not least in suggesting that the ghost offers us something which is likely to prove of fleeting value (like token thanks) but can possibly be traded in for a minor benefit if we can find the right slot (like a geton for a hot shower at a French camping site or Monopoly money for a hotel in the Old Kent Road). But what, in fact, is the market value of the ghostly coinage? Does it amount to more than that token promise written on each banknote by the Chief Cashier to the Bank of England to pay the bearer on demand a certain sum in pounds, a promise the attempted enforcement of which will certainly lead either to the issue of further faery gold in the form of token paper or token discs, or to the summoning of a police officer? Why have these tokens been passed from hand to hand (from mouth to ear) for millennia past in all societies for which we have records? Why have so many writers of the greatest fiction decided to give them currency?