# I've only just discovered The Princess Bride **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 1, 2007, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-only-just-discovered-the-princess-bride/402303 "2007-05-01T13:54:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-only-just-discovered-the-princess-bride/402303/41 "2007-05-02T16:28:55Z")
So you’re saying you’ve only \*mostly \*discovered The Princess Bride! Seriously, get a DVD player or watch it at a friend’s house. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-only-just-discovered-the-princess-bride/402303/42 "2007-05-02T16:29:34Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] You really can’t say that you’ve “discovered” the Princess Bride without having seen the movie, though. Really. You can’t. Are you sure your computer won’t play DVDs? Do you not have any friends who you can watch it at their house? Seriously… I love books but in this case the movie was as good or better than the book. [/QUOTE] Them’s fightin’ words! 😉 The movie is certainly as good as the book; I think they are both wonderful, and it just depends on which message you feel more drawn to. The movie is a happy-ending love story. The book is about how we need to learn to accept the endings we get, happy or not. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-only-just-discovered-the-princess-bride/402303/43 "2007-05-02T16:47:43Z")
But as far as pop culture goes… if you have read the book but not seen the movie, you are going to miss a lot of the quotes/references. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-only-just-discovered-the-princess-bride/402303/44 "2007-05-02T16:52:27Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] But as far as pop culture goes… if you have read the book but not seen the movie, you are going to miss a lot of the quotes/references. [/QUOTE] Quite true. Inigo, Fezzik, Vezzini, Westley, Rugen, Humperdink . . . all pretty iconic. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-only-just-discovered-the-princess-bride/402303/45 "2007-05-02T16:59:48Z")
[QUOTE=teemingONE] Honestly, in Morgenstern’s version, the story of Buttercup can really be seen as nothing more than a footnote. I feel Goldman did a superb job of weeding out all the boring and unimportant stuff and showing us a real love/adventure story that was hidden under all the clutter of Morgenstern’s endless details and adjectives. But don’t get me wrong, Morgenstern did create a wonderful story, he just wasn’t able to tell it. [/QUOTE] “Boring and unimportant stuff”. Really? You take a satire about Florinese politics and the European interwar situation, and throw it all out for a fairly vapid love story, and that improves the book for you? Isn’t that a little bit like saying, “Huck Finn would be a good book if not for all that stuff about slavery and racism in there.”? ---
**Author:** ![Nature\_s\_Call](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nature_s_call/32/19006_2.png) [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-only-just-discovered-the-princess-bride/402303/46 "2007-05-02T17:12:19Z")
The book has satire about Florinese politics? Why didn’t you list that amongst our assest? ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-only-just-discovered-the-princess-bride/402303/47 "2007-05-02T17:15:46Z")
Fair enough, but surely you agree that it was prudent to cut all the “day to day life on the farm” stuff. I mean how many times do we need to see Westley feeding the chickens or milking the cows before we say “OK WE GET IT! FARM BOY! YEAH!!!” ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-only-just-discovered-the-princess-bride/402303/48 "2007-05-02T17:28:35Z")
Fair enough, but surely you agree that it was prudent to cut all the “day to day life on the farm” stuff. I mean how many times do we need to see Westley feeding the chickens or milking the cows before we say “OK WE GET IT! FARM BOY! YEAH!!!” ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-only-just-discovered-the-princess-bride/402303/49 "2007-05-02T17:51:55Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] Fair enough, but surely you agree that it was prudent to cut all the “day to day life on the farm” stuff. I mean how many times do we need to see Westley feeding the chickens or milking the cows before we say “OK WE GET IT! FARM BOY! YEAH!!!” [/QUOTE] apparently, atleast twice. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-only-just-discovered-the-princess-bride/402303/50 "2007-05-02T18:03:36Z")
[QUOTE=Nature’s Call] The book has satire about Florinese politics? Why didn’t you list that amongst our assest? [/QUOTE] Come on. He’s got his country’s 500th birthday to plan, his wedding to arrange, his wife to murder and Guilder to frame for it. He’s swamped! ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-only-just-discovered-the-princess-bride/402303/51 "2007-05-02T22:39:44Z")
[QUOTE=Frostillicus] “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” [/QUOTE] It’s spawned a host of paraphrases, too. My very, very favourite is: [QUOTE=Oedipus] Hello, my name is Oedipus. You **are** my father! Prepare to die! [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-only-just-discovered-the-princess-bride/402303/52 "2007-05-02T23:06:52Z")
Go away or I’ll call the Brute Squad. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-only-just-discovered-the-princess-bride/402303/53 "2007-05-02T23:10:35Z")
[QUOTE=Autolycus] Go away or I’ll call the Brute Squad. [/QUOTE] Huh, we are the brute squad. 😛 Si ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-only-just-discovered-the-princess-bride/402303/54 "2007-05-03T07:06:06Z")
[QUOTE=Morgyn] [Quote=Frostillicus] “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” [/QUOTE] It’s spawned a host of paraphrases, too. My very, very favourite is: [Quote=Oedipus] Hello, my name is Oedipus. You are my father! Prepare to die! [/QUOTE] [/QUOTE] Aha - a chance to link to the thread that got me hooked on the Straight Dope: [Return of The Princess Bride Jedi??](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=54123) Including the classic - “Hello. My name is Luke Skywalker. You are my father. Prepare to die.” ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-only-just-discovered-the-princess-bride/402303/55 "2007-05-04T20:09:40Z")
[QUOTE=Eonwe] Quite true. Inigo, Fezzik, Vezzini, Westley, Rugen, Humperdink . . . all pretty iconic. [/QUOTE] Hmm, anyone else notice that of all the major characters in the book to have made icon status, the one the title refers to isn’t in this list? Why was she such a non-character anyway? Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![hawksgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ed655f/32.png) [@hawksgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawksgirl)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-only-just-discovered-the-princess-bride/402303/56 "2007-05-04T20:41:28Z")
[QUOTE=Mtgman] Hmm, anyone else notice that of all the major characters in the book to have made icon status, the one the title refers to isn’t in this list? Why was she such a non-character anyway? Enjoy, Steven [/QUOTE] It seems to me that she was really passive throughout. Everything happened **to** her as a result of someone else’s actions. Was there anything she really did of her own free will? ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-only-just-discovered-the-princess-bride/402303/57 "2007-05-04T20:47:39Z")
Well, she did shove the Dread Pirate Roberts down that wicked hill, she flummoxed the posturing menfolk with her offer of a deal outside the Fire Swamp (though it was naive), and she seemed to be truly going through with the suicide until she was stopped. But though that absolves her of absolute passivity, she still doesn’t have a striking personality. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-only-just-discovered-the-princess-bride/402303/58 "2007-05-04T21:07:43Z")
[QUOTE=Unauthorized Cinnamon] Well, she did shove the Dread Pirate Roberts down that wicked hill, she flummoxed the posturing menfolk with her offer of a deal outside the Fire Swamp (though it was naive), and she seemed to be truly going through with the suicide until she was stopped. But though that absolves her of absolute passivity, she still doesn’t have a striking personality. [/QUOTE] She also seemed to me to be pretty stupid, “Oh, you’ll send your four fastest ships. Well then I’m satisfied for now.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-only-just-discovered-the-princess-bride/402303.md?page=2)