December 22, 2020

24. a biopic on words

 

Last night Carol and I watched "The Professor and the Madman," a 'biopic' with Mel Gibson and Sean Penn about creating the Victorian Oxford English Dictionary, which was quite above Samuel Johnson's eighteen-century version. The professional reviews of the film are terrible. We thought it was well done for showing the developing passions of the word-lovers, a self-taught Scottish professor, James Murray, and a Yale-educated, mentally distraught Civil War Veteran, Dr. William Chester Minor. Dr. Minor's main setting is at Broadmoor psychiatric hospital in Berkshire, while Professor Murray's place is at Oxford. The two plus the Oxford English Dictionary project are the film's main focus. This is dressed up with Professor Murray, a teacher, having a wife, and several young children. Dr. Minor has committed for accidentally murdering the wrong man in London and convicted to Broadmoor for insanity. He develops a stressful relationship with the wife, with children, of the man he murdered, while he still believes someone that he branded a deserter in the Civil War is still stalking him. 

 

The film has terribly violent moments. However, it is the intellectual passion of the lexophiles that impresses me the most. As life-long readers, Carol and I feel the film is well worth watching. Avid readers who understand the subtleties within word meanings will, I trust, see beyond the film's shortcomings. It takes courage to make a film about the making of a dictionary like the Oxford English. – rho, – 2236. 

 

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[addendum] December 24, 2020

on friends

 

Craig and Alta called tonight to wish you both a Merry Christmas, and you had a good chat for thirty-five minutes or so. You both miss seeing them. As you turned off the porch Christmas lights, you noted it snowed at least two inches, perhaps three. The four of you talked about how Christmas is not the same for seventy-year-olds. They have a small tree, and so do you. The fun is for the children and young at heart; for you four, fun is talking to friends any time of the day or year and watching the children and young at heart. – Ms. Havisham

 

2243. That it is. Friends. I cannot imagine an afterworld without old friends. 

 

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