"'. . . If you don't simply know how many people can sit in the Cleveland Municipal Stadium, you have no real reason for choosing one number over another, assuming you can make a choice at all -- do you understand? But if you have some Knowledge of the World you may be able to say, "Seventy-seven thousand, seven hundred," just like that. No choice is involved'

"'Well,' I said, 'you'd still have to choose whether to answer the question or not, or whether to answer it correctly, even if you knew the right answer, wouldn't you?'

"The Doctor's tranquil stare told me my question was somehow silly, though it seemed reasonable enough to me.

"'One of the things you'll have to do,' he said dryly, 'is buy a copy of the World Almanac for 1951 and begin to study it scrupulously. This is intended as a discipline, and you'll have to pursue it diligently, perhaps for a number of years. Informational Therapy is one of a number of therapies we'll have to initiate at once.'"

--John Barth, The End of the Road (1967), ch. 6. ( )