The Princess Bride . . . again!!

Ah, spring! That magical time of year when a young man's fancy turns to . . . the Princess Bride. At least, if the young man is me, it does. II showed this to my lovely students last week and had them write papers on a few related topics. Here are some choice comments from their writings.

As you may be able to guess, the prince was unversally loathed. "Prince Humperdinck was a rude and flabby man," said one, and others decried his unsavory actions toward the poor lovers: "The prince tortures Westley and kills him away from Buttercup."

Inigo was quite a favorite. His famous saying was somewhat garbled, but still pretty scary, really: "He loves his father, he likes to say 'I'm Inigo, you bring me life and killed my father. And now, I'm kill kill you.'"

Little Fred Savage always seems to evoke squeals of delight, especially when he protests the contents of Grandpa's book -- "I like the active boy. His grandfather always said 'kiss.' He thought this thing didn't suit his age. He was sensitive to 'kiss.'"

Several of the descriptions of Westley were . . . interesting: "He wants to save Buttercup, so he is intrepid and warlike. Westley's traditional martial arts was good." They also swooned at his defense of the titular princess. Said one, "when the big mouse aggressed the Buttercup, Westley almost protected her." This was meant as a compliment.

I'm always surprised at how many students like the R.O.U.S. To me, it looks like a big floppy rat suit. To them . . . well, you can see for yourself. "The big mouse is a interesting negative character. And it's hardly for a person to crawl on the ground and fighting with a man, so it's my favorite character."

And, invariably, there are some instances of AEDS -- Acute Electronic Dictionary Syndrome; it's also called Talbert's Disease. Symptoms include handing in homework at the last second and always choosing the first definition listed, even if there are fifty of them. "The important man role is a courageous man. He gets the important woman role at the end. I liked this movie, because the simplex and beautiful gut."

Sure. That's what I was going to say.

Dave