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Thank You for William Goldman
My senior year in high school, I took College English with Father Dibble. He only taught four days a week, and on the fifth day we had a study hall. One day I decided to bring in a book for pleasure, The Princess Bride by William Goldman. The movie is funny, but the book is even funnier. I sat there reading, trying to stifle my giggles. My guffaws. My out-loud laughter.
Each time I burst out, I looked up and caught the eye of Fr. Dibble staring at me. I muttered apologies and slid down in my desk to keep reading. Finally I let out a loud shout of laughter, and Fr. Dibble walked over to me with a stern look on his face and a pad of paper and pen in hand. Leaning over, in a whisper he asked me, “What are you reading? If it is only one-half as funny as you think it is, I want to read it too.”
William Goldman died today. A friend of mine also died today. God bless both of these men for the joy they brought into this world, and the pleasure and laughter they gave to me and so many others. Thank you Lord for both of these men. Thank you Lord for each other.
Published in General
Well? Did Father Dibble like it?
My opinion of him hangs in the balance.
He loved it. Dibbs was the best.
I must ask; did Father Dibble read the book?
Yes. He enjoyed it. He hadn’t seen the movie but saw it after.
I also loved his Marathon Man and No Way to Treat a Lady. Great movies too.
This is my friend who died today: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/150622-andrew-tallon-notre-dame-cathedral-laser-scan-art-history-medieval-gothic/
May he rest in peace.
Wow, you knew that guy? I think I’ve heard of him. He was young to die.
Yes he was. In the prime of life, with four young sons, the oldest of whom is only 12 or 13.
I got into a similar situation in my public school once. The teacher ambled over and asked me what was so funny. So I read her the passage.
What a remarkable person he was. I am sorry he is gone.
Yes, I think Mr. Goldman’s book was much better than the movie. But today every time I read a predictive column that has speculated on what will happen next, what is the strategy, how will he respond to the strategy?, is he right for using this ploy? — whether about Brexit negotiations, responses to critical headlines or smear campaigns, or denuclearizing North Korea — I invariably think of Vizzini’s deductive process for finding the iocaine (“Now, a clever man would…”)
I was at the airport once, at my gate reading a novel, and I ran into my old high school English teacher, and he asked, “Oh, what are you reading?” Was it Jude the Obscure? Was it the works of Shakespeare? NO. I was reading a pulp novel called Officers’ Wives with pictures of women in their underwear or evening gowns on the cover.
Prayers for both gentlemen dear to you, MT: “As you wish!…”. :-)
In fairness, even English teachers read trash at the airport.
wrt The Princess Bride movie vs book debate which could split a literate community such as ours in lower-case twain, I believe that the movie was designed to be viewed by the young, while the book requires a certain amount of life experience. So the two aren’t really similar enough to compare even if we ignore their respective media.
The film is also for the young-at-heart – useful for keeping one that way – in my experience. :-)
Too right – I should have said, ‘designed to be also viewed by the young’.
If you are a Princess Bride fan, do yourself the treat of reading Cary Elwes’ book, As You Wish. The care and training that went into prep and the obstacles encountered make it a great behind the scenes story.
I was doing temp work at a winery. The power went off and many of us on the line had nothing to do. So I read aloud the opening of (about the ranking of Butercup’s beauty) and everyone laughed and greaty enjoyed it (until a supervisor found something else for us to do.)
I love Goldman’s writing about the entertainment industry. Adventures in the Screen Trade is my single favorite book about film (though he wrote other fun movie memoirs) and The Season about Broadway is also very good.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was the first “grown up” film (originaly rated “M”) that I saw (parents took us to the drive-in) and I loved it. Still do.
Love Harper, The Stepford Wives, The Great Waldo Pepper…. even All the President’s Men (though it may be partly responsible for guys like Jim Acosta).
The Princess Bride. Such a great book; I think I’ll have to go reread it now.
This has to be a complete coincidence, but last night, completely out of the blue, scrolling through endless crap looking for something, anything, that might be watchable, there I saw Butch Cassidy, on HBO I think. I went “Yes”. And spent a lovely few hours with that material that I know so well.
I know almost every line, because way back when, it was released as a book. And the book was not a novel, but a reprinting of the screen play. I still see it in my head, and repeat it along with the movie:
Butch: What happened to the old bank? It was beautiful.
Guard: People kept robbing it.
Butch: Small price to pay for beauty.
I remember that the directions stipulated that the song used during the bicycle scene shall NOT be “A Bicycle Built for Two”. Still makes me smile.
I read The Princess Bride back when it was published in two different ink colors. The tale is told in black, but the author keeps interrupting himself, chiming in about the book (he claims that it is actually a true story, told by a 15th century Count, or something – Morgenstern?), and what it meant to him as a child, and how he now wants to share this experience this his son, and all the trouble he is having getting the rights, etc. These interruptions were printed in red. It was quite hilarious.
Isn’t Goldman the one who coined the legendary phrase about success in Hollywood – “Nobody knows nothing”?
There are no coincidences.
I found Lord of the Flies a little too dark for me.
Not Golding my dear Mr. Fawlty, as you know quite well.
My own dear husband asked me if Goldman had written Necromancer.
That’s Gibson, even less like Goldman than Golding.
Sheesh, you guys…
That’s Neuromancer. My all-time favorite book.
And speaking about Golding, my poor dear husband had to read that abomination three times in school. Really. Three different years for three different teachers, all within the same school district.
Educational malpractice.
Yeah, that one. Oops, I knew that.
@stevec, is the book available?
It’s on Audible; I read it a while ago. Pretty good.