While browsing Mythlore’s Spring/Summer 2024 issue, I came across an article discussing The Princess Bride and the state of scholarly research on William Goldman’s work. As G. Connor Salter confirms in his article “Whatever Happened to The Princess Bride?: Thoughts for Further William Goldman Research,” there are very few scholarly sources on both Goldman and the novel, so when I found the article, I knew I had to take a closer look. The article itself is only a few pages long, but it was filled with information on both existing research on Goldman and ideas for more exploration.
While the article didn’t provide any deep analysis on The Princess Bride, it did shed some light on both Goldman’s history and some popular themes in his works. One of the themes Salter mentions in connection with The Princess Bride, however, is escapism. This stood out to me because I discussed escapism in my previous blog post while analyzing a December 1973 New York Times issue. When the novel came out in 1973, the US was in the midst of the Cold War and the Vietnam War, so it makes sense that people wanted an escape from reality. Salter references Richard Anderson’s 1979 book William Goldman, connecting this idea of escapism, which Anderson claims is apparent in all of Goldman’s work, to mythopoeia and the grandson’s interactions with the text in the film adaptation (185-186).
Salter’s introduction to mythopoeia also stood out to me while reading the article, initially because of its unfamiliarity. The OED defines “mythopoeia” as “the creation of a myth or myths” (“Mythopoeia, N.”). I think connecting The Princess Bride to mythopoeia is interesting given that Goldman spends so much time trying to convince his audience that the entire story is true, along with the existence of S. Morgenstern. Furthermore, myths tend to explain something or feature some sort of lesson. If The Princess Bride is supposed to be read as a myth, what is the lesson it’s teaching and how does Goldman communicate it? As I continue my research on The Princess Bride, I hope to explore its potential connection between mythopoeia and paratext.
“Mythopoeia, N.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, June 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2378832276.
Salter, G. Connor. “Whatever Happened to The Princess Bride?: Thoughts for Further William Goldman Research.” Mythlore, vol. 42, no. 2 (144), 2024, pp. 181–87. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/48771997. Accessed 27 Oct. 2024.
I love this idea of The Princess Bride being a form of escapism. I feel like that is something that is shown in the film very well too, though on a much smaller level. The whole reason the story is being told to the grandson was because he was sick and so his grandfather read the story to him so he could forget that he was sick. I think it is really interesting though that escapism was in the form of a novel set in a mythical past. What do you think of the middle ages influences that are within the book and movie?
I wonder whether this sense of escapism was primarily intended for the author or the reader to experience? I think this question relates back to your most recent blog post, in which you question the relationship between the author’s use of paratext and the book’s sense of escapism. Based off the book excerpts you provided for class, I think the humorous tone that the author uses in the paratext enhances this sense of escapism that’s based upon the story’s fairytale-like setting.