dual personalities

Winter has deposited a few inches of snow as if to say “get ready, I’m here now”. But it is pretty.

After a wonderful Christmas, my sweet, shaggy sons have returned to their homes and jobs.

The DH has returned to work with a will because his classes start on Monday, while I’ve been puttering, reading, listening to Christ Stapleton on repeat (thank you my darling DP!), and looking for something good to watch. Last night my search paid off and I found a good movie on Netflix. The Professor and the Madman stars Mel Gibson as James Murray, the founding editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, and Sean Penn as William Chester Minor, the American inmate at Broadmoor Insane Asylum who helped Murray and became his friend.

It’s quite a story. Having graduated from Yale Medical School, Minor served as a Union doctor during the Civil War, after which he developed paranoid delusions that someone was out to kill him. He traveled to England to escape, but once there his mental state deteriorated further until he mistook an innocent man for his imaginary assailant and killed him. Minor was committed to Broadmoor Asylum where he remained for over thirty years. When Murray asked the public to contribute words and quotes to the OED project, Minor devoted himself to the task, sending thousands of notes. The two became fast friends, and eventually Murray helped Minor return to the United States.

James Murray was also an interesting character. The son of a Scottish draper, Murray left school at 14 but continued his studies by himself, eventually concentrating on languages. According to Wikipedia (which apparently stole it nearly word for word from the film), “he claimed an ‘intimate acquaintance’ with Italian, French, Catalan, Spanish and Latin, and ‘to a lesser degree’ Portuguese, Vaudois, Provencal, & various dialects’. In addition, he was ‘tolerably familiar’ with Dutch, German and Danish. His studies of Anglo-Saxon and Mœso-Gothic had been ‘much closer’, he knew ‘a little of the Celtic’ and was at the time ‘engaged with the Slavonic, having obtained a useful knowledge of the Russian’. He had ‘sufficient knowledge of Hebrew and Syriac to read and cite the Old Testament and Peshito’ and to a lesser degree he knew Aramaic, Arabic, Coptic and Phoenician.” You can see how Murray would have gotten along with Minor — both were on the obssessive side.

The film was well shot, had an excellent script and was well-acted, although given a choice I would not have cast Mel Gibson as Murray. His fake Scottish accent brought back memories of Braveheart (shudder) and it was impossible to forget that one was watching Mel. To be fair, Mel, the impetus behind the film, is one of the only people in Hollywood who would take on such an offbeat project, and so his presence may be forgiven. Though I am not a fan, I thought Sean Penn did very well as Minor. That he was unrecognizable probably helped. The supporting cast, which included Ioan Gruffudd, Anthony Andrews, Jennifer Ehle and Eddie Marsan, did a wonderful job. If you are in the mood for an intelligent movie about the importance of words and the possibility of redemption, watch it. It has a good message and refers to everyone from Milton to Emily Dickenson. The movie introduced me to her poem:

“The Brain – is wider than the Sky –
For – put them side by side –
The one the other will contain
With ease – and You – beside –

The Brain is deeper than the sea –
For- hold them – Blue to Blue –
The one the other will absorb –
As Sponges – Buckets – do –

The Brain is just the weight of God –
For – Heft them – Pound for Pound –
And they will differ – if they do –
As Syllable from Sound.”

Enjoy your weekend and fare forward into 2021 with a happy heart!

*Milton, Paradise Lost