Speculative Grammarian Podcast

Review of John Stuart Mill and the Temple of Doom; by Vervet Vandiver Vanlandingham-Vanderveer; From Volume CLXVII, Number 3, of Speculative Grammarian, June 2013 — This weekend I went to see the new high-spectacle action-adventure film, “John Stuart Mill and the Temple of Doom”. While the special effects were noteworthy, I was most impressed by the reflorescence, if not recrudescence, of Hollywood linguistics. Intended as a high-brow response to the recent Sherlock Holmes movies, this film begins with the hero recovering from his once-famed nervous breakdown by defeating Tennyson in a poetry slam during the Great Exhibition; while the rest of the audience thrilled to the CGI recreation of the Crystal Palace, I was enthralled by the fast-paced exchanges of Cockney and Geordie in iambic pentameter—truly a treat for our culturally denuded age! (Read by Mark Brierley.)